| Show GOOD DRY FARM CROP ARIZONA EXPERT WRITES OF EX WITH BEAN supplies need for leguminous crop to maintain nitrogen and humus content of suro and profitable by F I 1 plant breeder arizona experiment station the development of dry farming in the semi arid southwest has created a need for a leguminous crop which used in rotation with grain or forage planting will maintain the nitrogen and humus content of the soli and at the same time provide a money return which Is sure and profitable no crop eo well fills this demand as the growing of dry shell beans deang a coun food staple they have a steady market which Is little influenced by local conditions other than transportation charges varieties of beans originating in the humid sections of the east are of but little value when grown in the arid southwest they do not withstand satisfactorily the extreme aridity and heat of the air during our summer months out of a large number of varieties tested at yuma arizona dur ing and previous to 1909 only those of southwestern origin were at all successful among these local varieties certain ones were noted which gave yields far in excess of all the others the results of investigations with these varieties by members of the arizona experiment station staff may be found in bulletin no 70 dry farming in the arid southwest by R W clothier and in bulletin no 68 southwestern beans and Te paries and timely hints for farmers no 92 the lepary bean a NOW southwest era legume by G F freeman the original stock of the lepary beans was collected from among the papago indians in the vicinity of santa rosa and indian oasis in order to study the different varieties in their native condition and to secure samples for testing their rela alve values the writer spent two weeks during july and early august 1910 among the papago indians in their villages situated in the valley between and mountains some fifty to one hundred miles southwest ot tucson here in a region with about nine inches of rain tall these beans were being grown successfully with no irrigation save that from flood waters which came down from the mountain washes the mass of material here obtained together with a number of samples se cured from other local sources when separated and planted produced strains of the most widely diverse types and economic values it was found that the indians were growing two classes of beans one class which they called mon was allm cited to a few varieties of the common kidney bean or mexican bijole the other class they called pave and of these they grew several varieties as state white pave soam yellow pave spate mook speckled pave etc the mexican farmers of south era arizona and northern sonora also grow these beans and called them te paries subsequent investigations developed the tact that the te paries comprised a group of varieties botanically distinct from the common fribole fri jole and that they were really a cultivated form of chase olus a wild bean which I 1 lives in the desert mountains from the alcos river west and south in northern sonora domesticated from the neighboring canyons and ed in small patches attended at best by a crude husbandry and dependent upon the precarious summer rains and uncertain floods from the mountain washes for irrigation the lepary haa lost none of its native hardiness like other cultivated plants how ever the lepary has responded to domestication in the production of a number of distinct varieties the writer has been able to segregate more than forty different types which come true to seed among all of these the varieties most commonly grown among the indians are the white and yellow seeded sorts usually designated white te paries and yellow te paries the cultivated form of the lepary Is so distinct from the wild type that the writer has described it as a distinct variety to be known botanically as var |
