20 
The Colorado Experiment Station 
for the production of beans varied from a minimum of about $2.25 
per acre to a maximum of about $8.00 per acre. Under the same 
conditions of operation these costs would have been more than doubled 
in 1917. Under present (1918) conditions it is impossible to make 
very accurate estimates as to cost of production because of the un¬ 
certainty of labor and machinery prices. 
USE OF BEAN STRAW 
The bean straw and hulls after the beans have been thrashed 
out will yield from one-half to three-quarters of a ton per acre on 
dry lands and somewhat heavier yields will be received from irrigated 
lands. This bean straw is capable of utilization- Especially on the 
dry lands every bit of bean straw should be saved and fed. Enough 
experience has already been obtained to indicate that on the dry lands 
if bean straw is fed with silage that it will return a food value nearly 
as great as alfalfa. If the bean straw is fed with other dry feeds, it 
is not as valuable as alfalfa. In fact, it appears to return about one- 
balf the feeding value if fed with dry feeds, and almost as much as 
alfalfa when fed with succulent feeds. The utilization of bean straw, 
therefore, constitutes a very material addition to the feed supply under 
dry land conditions. It will pay growers having any considerable 
acreage to purchase hand cleaners and clean their beans at home, thus 
saving the culls, splits, etc. for use as feed upon the farm. Good split 
beans have a market at about half the price of first grade, first qual¬ 
ity products. Splits may even be utilized for sale if properly handled 
where there is not sufficient stock to utilize them as feed. 
BEANS IN ROTATION 
Under irrigated conditions, beans furnish an opportunity for a 
cultivated cash crop, which is their chief value in irrigated rotations. 
Some types of weed pests can only be cleaned up where a cultivated 
crop can be introduced. Beans furnish such a crop, which may not 
only be cultivated, but hoed. On the dry lands, however, beans have 
a still greater value, because they furnish a cash cultivated crop weE 
adapted for dry lands and capable of returning very good money 
values, dry-land possibilities considered. It has been found by ex¬ 
perience that wheat, after a bean crop which has been well cultivated, 
will yield as well as after summer tillage or a summer fallow. Since 
they will usually pay well for growing, beans may be produced on 
lands which in many cases would be without a crop. 
On the dry lands beans have a tendency to build up the soil. If 
the bean straw is fed to livestock and the manure properly applied to 
the land, the beans will be a decided, positive asset. If bean growing 
is a part of the regular farming system, the beans themselves should 
be grown in rotation. There are many bean diseases which tend to 
