BEANS UNDER GLASS. 227 
If the benches are unoccupied, the beans may be 
planted on them directly, but if another crop is on 
them, the beans should be started in pots. We like to 
plant two or three beans in a 3-inch rose pot, and 
transplant to the benches just as soon as the roots fill 
the pot. 
The night temperature of a bean house ought not to 
fall below 60°. After the blossoms appear, give a lib- 
eral application of liquid manure every five or six days. 
The growth of beans should be continuous and rapid 
from the first, in order to secure a large crop of tender 
pods. The bean is self-fertile, and therefore no pains 
is necessary to ensure pollination, as in the case of to- 
matoes, and some other indoor crops. The house may 
be kept moist by sprinkling the walks on bright days. 
The essentials of a forcing bean are compact and 
rapid growth, earliness, productiveness, and long, straight 
and symmetrical pods. The Sion House answers these 
requirements the best of any variety which we have yet 
tried. It has green pods and party-colored beans. The 
cut (Fig. 80, page 226) shows with exactness an aver- 
age bench of Sion House. English growers recommend 
the Green Flageolet, and we have had good success with 
it; but it is about a week later than Sion House, and 
it possesses no points of superiority. German Wax (Dwarf 
German Black Wasa) forces well, but the pods are too 
short and too crooked. It is also particularly liable to 
the attacks of the pod fungus. Newtown (Pride of New- 
town) is too large and straggling in growth. 
For market, the beans are sorted and tied in bunches 
of 50 pods, as shown in Fig. 81 (page 228). These 
bunches bring varying prices, but from 25 to 50 cents 
may be considered an average. At these figures, with 
a good demand, forced beans pay well. Only two or 
three pickings of beans can be made profitable from one 
crop; and in some cases all the marketable crop is gath- 
ered at one time. Much of the success of bean forcing, 
16 FORC. 
