| Show GOOD DRY FARM CROP i ARIZONA EXPERT WRITES OF EX WITH BEAN supplies need for leguminous crop to maintain nitrogen and humus content of soil returns return sure sura and profitable by GEORGE F r FREEMAN plant breeder arizona experiment station the development of dry farming in the semiarid 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 soil and at the same time provide a money return which Is sure and profitable no crop so well fills this demand as the growing of dry shell beans being a countrywide food staple they have a steady market which la Is little influenced by local conditions other than transportation charges varieties ot of beans beana originating in the humid sections of 0 the east are of but little value when grown in the arid southwest they do not withstand satisfactorily the extreme aridity and heat beat of 0 the air during our summer months out ot of a large number of varieties tested at yuma arizona during 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 ins may y be found in bulletin no 70 dry farming in the arid southwest by K R W clothier and in bulletin no 68 southwestern beans and Te and timely hints tor for farmers no 92 the lepary dean bean a now new southwestern legume by G F freeman the original stock of the lepary beans was collected from among the papago indians indiana in the vicinity of santa rosa and indian oasis in order to study the different varieties in an their native condition and to secure beaure samples tor 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 quijotoa mountains some fifty to one hundred miles southwest of tucson here in 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 0 material here obtained together with a number of samples secured 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 limited to a few varieties of the common kidney bean or mexican fri fribole Jole the other class they called pave and of these they grew several varieties as state chite vh ite pave soam yellow pave spate mook speckled pave etc the mexican farmers of southern arizona and northern also grow these beans and called them te paries subsequent investigations developed the fact that the te paries comprised a group of varieties botanically distinct from the common fribole tri fri jole and that they were wera really a cultivated form of acuti folius a wild bean which lives in the desert mountains from the river west and ana south in northern sonora domesticated from the neighboring canyons and cultivated in small patches attended at best by a crude husbandry and dependent upon the precarious summer rains and uncertain floods from the mountain washes tor for irrigation the lepary has lost none done of sta its native hardiness like other cultivated plants however the lepary has responded to domestication mastication in the production of 0 a vi number limber of distinct varieties the writer has been able to segregate more than forty different types which como 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 BO distinct from the wild type that the writer has described it as a distinct variety to be known botanically as ac u var latif ollus |
