Imperial Valley press., 1918-05-04
CASTER BEANS, HOW TO
GROW AND MARKET THEN
FEDERAL PLANT INVESTIGATOR TELLS METH
DDS OF CULTURE AND YIELD OF PLANT.
Whether the Castor Bean Is Adapted to the Imperial Val
ley the First Years Crop Will Tell-Ar
zOna Yield Said to Be Heavy.

'sary, but practically all the cultiva
ton required can be done with
horse drawn weeder. Cultivation
! should not continue after the frs
bloom spike appears. If the plant
do not thrive, some fertilizer, con
sisting chiefly of ammoniates, may b'
supplied.
Some varieties, in which the bean:
pop out when the hull is fully ripe
are known locally as "poppers, ane
after the beans begin to ripen the
field must be gone over every few
days and the ripe beans collected tt
avoid loss. Other varieties tend tc
retain the beans IN the hull after they
are ripe and require less labor in har
vesting. The climate also affects the
popping" of the beans. A variety
which skaters badly in one region
may not shatter at all when grown in
another.
! 1t is claimed that man giving his
whole attention to the crop can man.
age from five to ten acres during har-
vest. and that two men together can
handle ten to fifteen acres and at
tend to other necessary work in con-
nection with drying and cleaning the
beans. In harvesting. the usual meth
Cd is to cut off the spikes with a knife
and throw them into wagon or box
sled. They are then hauled to a shell
ter of some kind and allowed to dry
until the pods will crush easily. Va
rious methods are used in threshing
castor beans. If the variety grown is
one which "pops' or drops its seeds
when they are ripe, the spikes are
sometimes piled on hard ground or
plank floor fully exposed to the sun
and furnished with sides of boards or
cloth six to eight feet high to catch
the beans as they pop out. The spikes
must be turned or forked over at
least once day and protected by tar
paulins or other suitable covering at
night, or by dav in case of rain. The
beans are sometimes popped out up
on poles. A scantling framework is
built a foot or more above the
ground, and upon this small poles
are laid an inch or so apart. The
spikes are scattered upon these poles
and the beans fall through as they
pop out. Sometimes use is made of
a kiln or dryinr house and moderate
artificial heat to hasten driving, or
the spikes may be placed in low
building with a metal roof, in which
case the heat of the sun on the roof
is said to be sufficient to cause the
pods to open. When so dried, the
spikes are piled on a special drying
floor place about six feet above the
ground floor. This drying flood is
made of Stats spaced just far enough
apart to let the beans fall through
when the spikes are stirred or turned.
The weld will depend much upon
cultural conditions, upon the season,
and the care exercised in harvesting
and threshing the seeds. Yields of 80
or 40 bushels per acre have been re-
ported from Florida. South Carolina,
GEORGIA. Texas and California In
the Middle West Yields of Is to 25
bushels per acre have been reported
under favorable conditions. Much
smaller Yields will of course result
if conditions are unfavorable.
Castor beans contain very poison
Gus principle and in handling them
care should be taken to keep them
from children and most animals. This
precaution is important. since two of
the beans may be sufficient to pro-
duce serious. if not fatal, effects with
children. MANY cases have been re-
ported in which the death of horses
has been due to eating these beans.