134 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



the fogs, frosts, and heavy rains take the shine (with the fruit as a 

 make-weight) clean out of them. 



All the sorts that require stakes pay better for staking than 

 trailing, provided only that stakes can be obtained for moderate labour 

 or reasonable outlay. There are a few valuable varieties that rise 

 only three or four feet high, for which mere refuse brushwood will 

 suffice. But if it is out of the question to stake the running sorts, 

 they may be kept in a compact state of growth by constant pinching 

 away of the points of the shoots, which should be done simul- 

 taneously with the gathering of the pods as often as possible. It 

 is by this mode of procedure that the scarlet-runner is kept in a 

 dwarf state as a field crop, and not by the sowing of a dwarf sort, 

 which many people believe the market-gardeners to possess, and 

 keep to themselves. In the books we find it recommended to pinch 

 back all running sorts, even when they are well staked ; but this is 

 neither necessary nor desirable, for they bear more abundantly if 

 allowed to grow to their full height unchecked, and therefore the 

 cultivator may give them the tallest stakes he can afford, and con- 

 sider a ladder a needful agent in the gathering of the crop. When 

 string is used for training runner beans, it should be slack enough 

 to allow for contraction in wet weather. When runner beans are 

 grown on hot, dry soils, the seed should be sown in manured 

 trenches, to facilitate the operation of watering ; for if ever water is 

 given to this crop, it must be in considerable quantities, with an 

 interval of a week or so between the several supplies. The 

 dwarfest sorts, however, are far better adapted to starving soils 

 than any of the runners. The roots of all the sorts may be pre- 

 served during the winter in sand for planting out in May, precisely 

 as dahlias are treated ; but as seed is cheap, and produces a fruitful 

 plant as rapidly as roots, the saving of the roots is a sheer waste of 

 time, and should be practised only by those who want amusement. 



The gathering of the crop is really an important part of the 

 general management of kidney beans. If allowed to hang too long, 

 the pods become stringy, and tough, and tasteless, and the plants 

 cease to produce as they should do. It is really better to gather all 

 the produce on the instant of its becoming fit for use, and throw it 

 away, than allow any accumulation on the plants of mature pods, 

 because the maturing process puts a stop to bearing ; and at the 

 close of the season, when well-managed kidney beans are invaluable, 

 those that have been allowed to ripen seeds are absolutely worthless. 

 But the reader will ask, impatiently, perhaps, if he may not save a 

 few seeds, as his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather did ? 

 Tes, certainly ; save a few, by all means, if you wish, but do it 

 properly, both to ensure a maximum of green pods and a maximum 

 of ripe seeds ; in other words, to obtain all the plant can give you, 

 instead of half or two-thirds its proper produce. To solve this 

 problem is most easy. If you wish to save a little seed, leave a few 

 plants, or a row, according to requirements, altogether untouched. 

 Let them have plenty of room for the enjoyment of the sunshine, 

 but do not remove from them a single green pod — in other words, 

 let them ripen every pod they produce from the very first, and jou 



