The Strimg-Bean Mam and His Work. 299 



THE STRING-BEAN MAN AND HIS WORK. * 

 By Parker Thayer Barnes. 



They call him the "Striir^-Bean Man" — this tall, compact, 

 energetic horticultural pathfinder, of Leroy, New York — whose 

 name is C. N. Keeney, and who is known far and wide as the 

 man who supj^lies seed beans to the trade all over the land, but 

 whose fame rests on the fact that he has originated so many 

 varieties of beans which are the delight of the epicure, on ac- 

 count of their stringlessness. 



The stringless string-bean, as a commercial product, was 

 evolved only after most painstaking and laborious efforts. For 

 a long time the string was supposed to be a necessary part of the 

 bean; no one expected string-beans without them. Indeed, if 

 such an idea was discussed, the question immediately arose, 

 "would a string-bean be a string-bean if it had no string?" Mr. 

 Keeney, however, with the insight of the true plant-breeder, 

 made up his mind that a stringless string-bean was entirely 

 possible. 



Away back in the eighties, after having spent some years 

 in the careful selection of desirable types of standard sorts of 

 beans, and after having produced two or three good, new va- 

 rieties by hybridization, he continued his experimental work 

 by buying a peck of Refugee Wax beans, which had recently 

 been introduced by one of the most reliable seedsman in the 

 country, and planted them in a garden spot near the village in 

 which he lives, where he could give them his personal attention. 

 These Refugee Wax beans inherited the string which so per- 

 sistently and almost universally appears in every new variety 

 in which the Refugee enters as a component part. The pre- 

 potency of the Refugee is very strong, and, whenever this va- 

 riety is crossed with any other, the Refugee characteristics 

 generally predominate. Our enthusiastic searcher after better 

 things realized that this variety would be far more valuable 

 without a string and determined to make a thorough search for 

 a ])lant with stringless pods. 



When the pods on the plants from this peck of seed beans 

 became large enough for use, the search for the stringless pods 

 commenced. On his knees, Mr. Keeney spent hours creeping 



♦Reprinted from Suburban life. 



