Beans In Colorado 
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YIELD 
The Colorado pinto is the great market bean for Colorado. As 
has already been said, it is grown on more acres than all other kinds 
of beans combined. The average yield of pintos per acre on the dry 
lands in 1914 and 1915 was close to 800 pounds. In 1916 the average 
varied from 300 to '600 pounds per acre, with total failures in some 
neighborhoods. The season of 1916 was one of the driest in the his¬ 
tory of the Colorado plains. The average yield of Colorado pintos 
on irrigated lands in 19*4 an d I 9 I 5 was C 4 °° pounds per acre. In 
1916 the average pinto yield under irrigation was close to 1,600 pounds 
per acre. Yields as high as 2,000 pounds per acre have been produced 
on the dry lands and as high as 3,200 pounds have been produced 
on irrigated lands. These higher yields are by no means average, but 
they show the possibilities of the crop when all conditions are made 
favorable. 1917 was a very unfavorable bean season. The spring was 
late, cold and wet which delayed planting. On the dry lands many 
sections received no rain for a three months period thereafter. Irri¬ 
gated beans produced average yields better than ordinary but dry¬ 
land beans did not average over 200 pounds of beans per acre and 
A good set of pinto beans; after a ligiit frost 
very few yields higher than 600 pounds per acre were reported. Some 
fields returned yields of over 300 pounds per acre without receiving 
any rain during their period of growth. Where these yields were 
obtained, the land had been plowed previous to the rainy spring. Where 
plowing was done after the rainy spring, low yields were uniformly 
obtained. 
