The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1918-06-13
NJ. A. c. Experiment Station Re-
ports on Results of Five
Years Work.
RENOVATION is BIG HELP
Michigan Beans, Shipped West, Grown
and Brought Back, One Demon
strated Solution.
BY J. n. MUNCIE,
Plant Pathologist, Michigan Agrieul-
tural College.

acreages of beans are being put In, or
have already been seeded in the le-
gume-growing centers of the state,
among which may be mentioned Tus-
cola county, Saginaw, Huron, Gratiot,
Isabella and a number of other dis
tricts. 1t is a fact, however, that de-
spite Michigan's pre-eminence as pro-
ducer of dry edible beans, the raising
of this crop has been gravely nterfered
with by the spread of bean diseases
within the state. More than anything
else (unless ii be satisfactory adjust
ment Of the price question: Michigan
growers are feeling the need for meas
ures by which these annually recur-
ring epidemics of blight and anthrac-
nose can he controlled. When we re-
member that the average yield of beans
per acre within the state in 1905 was
ID bushels, and that in 1914 II was
only 11.3, and that in 1917 it was still
less, the imperative need of remedial
measures of some kind can readily be
cOmprehended. The one consolation
which Michigan men who have tackled
this bean disease problem have been
able TO see in the situation has been
the fact that other states where navy
beans are grown are in almost as bad
a way. But undoubtedly, Michigan Is
feeling the damage most, for in the ten
years from 1905 to, 1915, we produced
40 per cent of the nations bean crop.
During the last five years the expert
cta af hA hoa
investigating and studying these dis
eases incessantly-with the result thus
far that the control of bean diseases
does not seem much nearer than it was
when the work was begun.
Still the idea should not be enter
tanned that the work was fruitless, for
while il was found that chemicals do
not seem TO do much good when ap-
piled to the seed, a number of methods
Of control which may be successfully
made use of in the future were devel-
oped. For one thing. progress in the
breeding Of a disease-resistant VARIETY
is being made by Prof. f. II. Spragg of
the farm crops experiment station for
another thing II has been demonstrated
that such practices as selecting of dis
ease-free pods in the field from Wig
orous plants, and the planting of only
strictly clean seed help materially to
reduce losses.
But more promising than any Of
these was the proving that If Michigan
beans are shipped to California or
Idaho and grown and the seed brought
back here, a practically disease-free
crop can be raised.
What the experiment station did was
send several consignments Of beans to
California and Idaho, where they were
grown under contract by a number Of
selected western farmers. The seed
from this crop was then brought back.
These beans terminated WELL and the
seedlings came up strongly and even
ly, producing an excellent stand OF
beans. The CalifOrnia-grown seed RI
pened about two weeks earlier than
the cyops from the Michigan and Idaho
seed. The yield was about fourteen
bushels 10 the acre.
Altogether, the growing of Michigan
| beans for one, or even two seasons in
some western state where the climatic
conditions are extremely unfavorable
| TO the diseases present the best means
of combating bean diseases in this
| state, at least until dlsease-resistant
variety of beans can be obtained.
The growing of beans in Idaho Is
! rendered more or less uncertain by the
early frosts; in California bean blight
! is much more serious than In Idaho
Yet, with careful selection of seed for
sending West and the proper location,
planting and cultivation of the crop,
excellent results should be obtained
from growing beans in lower Califor-
mia.
This method of obtaining seed on
large scale should recommend itself to
both growers and jobbers. With a
comparatively small expenditure the
growers and jobbers' associations
could establish warehouses in a desir-
able locality in either Idaho or Cali
fornia and grow under contract each
| year enough beans to insure fair
crop in Michigan. OF course this meth
cd would be impractical Tor small
growers. though local growers associ-
ations could proftably take up the
growing of seed for their own mem
bcrs.
The results of the experiments as
a whole, were as follows:
Both bean anthracnose and blight
sre carried TO the field in or on the
seed. and affect all the parts of the
plant above ground.
The organism which causes these dis
eases is carried from one part of the
plant to another in drops of water.
CultivHting when the plants are wet
with dew or rain VIII spread these
Diseases
Seed treatments with chemical solu-
tions have failed 10 control these dis
nses.
| Spraying should, to a great extent,