Rocky Ford enterprise., 1915-01-15

Tepary Bean, Plant that Almost
Hates Water, Grown as Food for
Many Generations by Aborigines
of the Arid Southwest, Says Staff
Correspondent of Kansas City Star

ripened Tcpary beans and brought
tfem back to Tucson. There COM
P;,iison of them with the varieties of
beans known TO our agriculture show
ed the Tcpary had never been men,
ilcnal in horticultural literature, and
it had never been grown outside the
desert fields of the Papago and Pima
~ ''ans. Professor Forbes at once
Sc. abou! having it tested.
I Some of the beans were given to
Pre lessor lothieI. in charge of the
experiment farm Others were plant
cd by Professor Forbes and Profess
or freeman, the three carrying on
theii experiments at the same time
but at different places.
Sircc then the Tcpary bean has
l;e'n growr extensively for food and
for rrofit in Arizona and New Mex
leo and has been sent by Professor
Iioih'er to many foreign countries.
II has been grown successfully in
South africa India, China and Cuba.
Already Sthe Teparv has become
1nc OF the staple crops of Arizona;
large areas OF il were planted last
summer in that state and New Mex
leo and in California, where one field
matured crop in sixty-fivc days and
yielded "l.200-fold." The Tepary bean
seems TO be destined to become one
OF the most profitable crops in. all
dry farming countries. Professor
Clothier says oil it:i
After three years of experimenting
with the Tepary bean ! am prepared
to say it is one of the most wonder
ful plants ever presented to the dry
farming public"
In a bulletin issued by the Univcr-
sity OF Arizona Professor Clothicr
says:
III the Tepary bean has growing
season OF seventy-five days it will
make fair crop and ii it has ninety
days it will make a good crop. If it
is struck by drought it will ripen the
pods already set, and when the
drought breaks it will set and ripen
a new crop if it has five weeks in
which to do it. In 1911 beans plant
ed June Ia were strVck with drought
July 20 after bat 3.34 inches OF water
had penetrated the soil. The drought
continued until August Is and was
cr. the Fahrenheit thermometer fire.
qucntly reaching maximum of los
and l0S degrees and averaging 90 de-
period
Notwithstanding. these adverse
these beans ripcned an
average of $40 pounds of seed an acre
during this drought. Then. when the
rains REQUIRED the beans again began
setting pod and matured an additional
$50 pounds OF seed between Scptem-
her ! and October Is on 4.97 inches
more of penetrating rainfall. making
a total OF II pounds an acre for the
season.
Moisture determinations in the
soil made before planting. showed
there was not over five inches OF
water available for plant production
in the first four 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 South
west with is consequent great power
to absorb water from soils and plants
these yields under such conditions
arc remarkable. The ordinary pink
bean, which has reputation itself
as adrought resistcr. made nothing
whatever during the drought and
only one hundred pounds an acre for
the entire season under cxactely the
same conditions.
During three years OF experiment
tation thirteen plots of one-quarter
acre each OF Tepary beans have been
grown and the average yield on all
OF them has been 473 pounds an acre.
On many of the plots the soil was so
dry at planting time that the beans
in the ground six weeks
before enough rain occurred TO sprout
them and bring them up. Eleven
similar plots of the ordinary pink
beans grown during the same period
averaged only l+0 pounds an acre
under the same conditions. Three
plots of red Indian beans averaged
1870 pounds: two plots OF Leopard
wax beans averaged 1l9 pounds, and
two plots of Hansen beans averaged
100 pounds an acre.
These yields certainly give this
new crop an enviablc place among
the dryfarming crops of the world