6 
The Colorado Experiment Station 
While beans may be successfully grown practically anywhere ora 
the plains at altitudes below 6,000 feet, they are most abundantly- 
grown in Weld, Logan, Morgan, Las Animas, Washington, Otero, 
Bent, Prowers, El Paso, Adams and Arapahoe Counties. They may be 
successfully grown in other places, but development in other regions 
has not yet been carried to the extent which these counties have made- 
The realization of the value of beans as a cash crop, and the ease with 
which they fit into a rotation by throwing in an annual cultivated 
crop, will very likely tend to increase their general production. 
VARIETIES 
The chief market variety is the pinto. The pinto bean was for¬ 
merly called the Mexican. This name, however, is inappropriate, as 
there are numerous other Mexican varieties. The name Mexican 
as a consequence did not mean any definite bean. “Pinto applies to 21 
specific bean. 
The pinto bean is about the same size and shape as the kidney- 
bean, so well known as a garden variety. The pinto is buff-colored^ 
is speckled with tan to brown spots and splashes. It is further charac¬ 
terized by a characteristic yellow rim or border about the germ. In 
many places in the southwest the pinto is called the Mexican tick bean- 
In other places in the southwest it is known as the Colorado bean. In 
a few places it has acquired the name army bean. The name “pinto”,, 
however, has become so well established that it should be universally 
used. 
While the pinto is the chief market bean, other beans are grown 
and frequently do well. The navies are grown and produced to a small 
extent—both the pea bean and the little navy. For garden purposes con¬ 
siderable quantities of kidney beans and “snaps” are grown. In most 
of our territory the season is too short for the proper development of 
limas; consequently, they do not figure in our bean problem to any ex¬ 
tent. In parts of Colorado the Red Mexican or Pink Mexican, or 
Red Miner, is grown. This bean, however, is more extensively grown 
in New Mexico and Arizona and other points of the Southwest than in 
Colorado. 
PREPARATION OF THE SOIL 
Beans will grow on almost any kind of soil, from adobes to light 
sandy loams. They do best, however, on warm, sandy loams and 
sandy silts. Preparation of the soil for beans should commence prior 
to the season in which the beans are grown and should take into con¬ 
sideration proper rotation and manuring. The soil should be prepared 
by plowing. Wherever fall plowing may be done without danger of 
serious fall blowing, the soil should be plowed in the fall. In the spring 
