Show CROP FOR DRY FARMS lepary bean has big possibilities for and sections I 1 protestor clothier of arizona expert ment station says plant Is one of most wonderful ever pre 1 tented to public in a bulletin written by prof R W clothier of the university ot ardizoni and published by the arizona expert ment station entitled dry in the arid southwest prof CIoth lei will introduce to the world a new farming crop which has wonderful poa for the arid sec tlona of tb world having a short rain period th crop Is the lepary bean obtained froni the papago indians by director R II 11 forbes of the arizona experiment sta alon in the spring of 1909 and placed in the hands of prof clothier at thai time to be tested for its dry possibilities writing of this bean prof clothier says after three years of experimenting with it I 1 am prepared to say that it ii one of the most wonderful plants avei presented to the dry farming public it it has a growing season of 75 dayi it will make a fair crop and it i hai 90 days it will make a good crop II 11 it Is struck by a drouth it will the pods already set and when the drouth breaks it will bet and ripen new crop it it has five weeks in which to do it in 1911 beans planted jun 14 were struck with drouth july 20 after but 3 34 inches of water had pen the soil the drouth continued until august 25 and was accompanied by extremely hot weather the fahren belt thermometer frequently reaching a maximum of to degrees and averaging 99 degrees as a maximum or the entire period beans yield welt notwithstanding these adverse con dillons dit lons these beans ripened an aver age of pounds of seed per acre dur ing this drouth then when the balna recurred the beans again began set aln pods and matured an additional pounds of seed between septem ber 1 and october 15 on 4 97 inches more of penetrating rainfall making a total yield of pounds per acre for the season moisture determinations in the soil made before plant ing showed that there was not over five inches of water available tor plant production in the first tour feet of soil and none in the subsoil below that depth when the beans were planted when we consider the extremely dry character of the atmosphere in the arid southwest with its consequent great power to absorb wa ter from soils and plants these yields under such conditions are remark abla the pink bean which has a reputation itself as a drouth resister res lster made nothing whatever during the drouth and only pounds per acre for the entire season under exactly the same conditions average yield large during three years of experiments a alon 13 plots of one quarter acre each of lepary beans have been grown and tho average yield on all of them has been pounds per acre many of the plots have had extremely poor stands and on many of them the soil was so dry at planting time that tha beans remained in the ground six weeks before enough rain occurred to sprout them and bring them up eleven similar plots of pink beans grown during the same period aver ages only pounds per acre under tho tome conditions three plots of red indian beans averaged pounds two plots of leopard wax pounds and two plots of alansen beans pounds per acre in 1909 when only inches of water penetrated the soil during the growing season and only 89 inches had penetrated it since august of the preceding year lepary beans aver ages pounds per acre with a poor stand in 1910 the total water penetrating the soil during the growing season had received no water other than this since the preceding august lepary beans averaged pounds per acre with extremely poor stands in that year in 1911 a small amount of rait bad penetrated the soil since the preceding august but it had all dried out at planting time rby penetrating rain during the grow ing season was laches four plots of lepary beans averaged pounds per acre on this rainfall while two plots that bad three and one halt inches of irrigating water added to the soil two months before planting lime averaged pounds per acre pink beans averaged 97 and pounds per acre respectively under conditions these yields certainly give this new crop an enviable place among the dry farming chopa ot lie world |