HORTICULTURAL DIVISION, 



THE FORCING OF BEANS. 



Bush beans are easily forced, and tliey constitute one of the 

 best secondary winter crops. We oldinarily grow them upon cu- 

 cumber, melon, or other benches while waiting for the cucumbers 

 or melons to attain sufficient size in the pots for transplanting. 

 Beans will be ready for picking in six or eight weeks after sowing, 

 in midwinter. Their demands are simple, yet exacting. They 

 must have a rich moist soil, strong bottom heat, and the more 

 light the better. We cover our benches with eight or ten inches 

 of soil, the lower third of which is a layer of old sods. The top 

 soil we make by adding about one part of well rotted manure to 

 two parts of rich garden loam. The soil must never be allowed 

 to become dry, and especial care must be taken to apply enough 

 water to keep the bottom of the soil moist, and yet not enough to 

 make the surface muddy. With the strong bottom heat which we 

 use for beans, the soil is apt to become dry beneath. 



Our benches are built over the pipes and are closed at the sides 

 beneath with 4-inch slats set an inch apart. In this way nearly 

 all the heat is applied directly to the soil, only enough escaping 

 through the spaces between the slats to aid somewhat in warming 

 the house, in connection with one run of pipe overhead. We 

 have a good illustration in our houses at the present writing, 

 (Dec. 27), of the accelerating influence of bottom heat. One 

 bench, to which no bottom heat was applied for the first three 

 weeks, is just giving beans fit for picking. On another bench in 

 the same house, to which heat was applied from the first and up- 

 on which the same variety was sown at the same date, the second 

 crop of beans lias been up for nearly two weeks. The lack of 

 bottom heat delayed the crop fully four weeks. A good bean and 

 cucumber bench is shown in the illustration. The house should 

 be light, and the benches should be near the glass. 



