| Show GOOD DRY FARM CROP ARIZONA EXPERT WRITES OF EX WITH BEAN supplies need for leguminous crop to maintain nitrogen and humus content of soil returns sure and profitable dy granoe 11 1 1 EEMAN rU FREM IAN plant breeder arizona experiment atwon Sti Uon the development of dry farming in the semiarid semi somi arid arld southwest has created a need for a leguminous crop which used in rotation with grain or forage planting will maintain tho the nitrogen and humus content of tho the soil boll and at the same banie time provide a money return which is sure and profitable no crop so well nils MIS this demand as the growing of dry shell beans beana being a coun food staple they havo have a steady market which Is ili little influenced by local conditions other than tran tation charges varieties of beans originating in tile tho humid sections of tile the east lire of but little value when grown in ili the arid southwest they do not withstand satisfactorily the extreme aridity and heat ot of tile the air during our summer months out of a largo large number of varieties tested at yuma arizona during and previous to 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 othera 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 it II W V clothier and in bulletin no 68 southwestern beans arid and Te and timely hints for farmers Fan ners no 92 the lepary bean anew a new sou southwestern legume by 0 F freeman the original stock of the lepary beans was collected from among the papago indians indiana in tho the vicinity of 0 santa rosa and indian oasis in order to study the different varieties in their native condition and to secure samples for testing their relative 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 of tucson here in EL a region with about nine inches of rainfall 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 secured from other local sources when separated and planted produced si strains rains pf af the most moat widely diverse types and economic values it was found that the indians indiana were growing two classes of beans one class which they called mon was lim allm cited to a few varieties of the common kidney bean or mexican fri tri jole the other class they called pave and of these they grew several varieties as state white pave aoam yellow pave spate mook speckled pave etc the mexican farmers of south ern arizona and northern also grow these beans and called them te paries subsequent investigations developed the fact that the te comprised a kroup of varieties botanically distinct from the common fri fribole jole and that they were really a cultivated form of T a wild bean which lives in the desert mountains from the alcos river west and south in nort northern bern sonora domesticated from the neighboring canyons and cultivated in small patches attended at best by a crude husbandry and dependent upon precarious the thel summer rains and uncertain floods from the moun mountain tala washes for irrigation the lepary has haa lost none of its native hardiness like other cultivated plants planta how bow 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 the cultivated form of the lepary Is so BO distinct from the wild type that the writer has described it as a distinct variety to be known botanically as aa var latif ollus |
