520 NEW JERSEY STATE AGRICULTURAL 



In the first column are the weights of the vines at harvest 

 time, and they range from over seven pounds for "Kenney's 

 Golden" (126) to i 1-16 pound for "Grennell's Golden" (127), 

 that stood next to the first named. In other respects these two 

 sorts were not so' widely different, as is shown by the weights of 

 the pods, namely, 3J/S and 2 1-16 pounds, respectively; in fact, 

 the lighter weight of vines is followed by a larger number of 

 pods and seeds, while the number of seeds to pod is the same 

 for both. The two varieties with greatest number of pods are 

 "German Black Seeded" (124) and "Crystal Wax" (145), the 

 former a black and the later a white-seeded variety, and quite 

 the opposite in general appearance. These two sorts lead also 

 in the number of seeds, the smaller white ones being in excess 

 of the larger black ones, and bringing the average for the former 

 up to 4.3 per pod. The "Yosemite" (146) stood high in weight 

 of vines (5 3-8 pounds), but had only 192 pods, with 206 seeds, 

 or an average of but little more than one tO' the pod. Next to 

 this in seedlessness is "New Profusion" (137), with an average 

 of 2.6, which is equalled by one of the "Wardwells" (143). 

 The most seedy of all the forty-eight numbers is "Dwarf Black 

 Butter" (105), which has nearly five (4.8) seeds, and the next 

 is "Dwarf Pencil Pod" (136), with an average of 4.4 per pod. 

 The former is a long, straight, flat member of the biack-seeded 

 type, while the latter has a long curved pod- with seed also black. 



The palatableness of a dish of wax beans is dependent upon 

 many things, some of which are outside of the variety of the bean. 

 Tenderness seems to count for more than anything else, and 

 this requires that the pods be properly cooked soon after they 

 are picked. As a general thing, the pods are picked after they 

 have passed the point most acceptable for food. In other words, 

 the pods need to be picked as soon as the seeds begin to- change 

 the outline of the surface of the pod. This may be while the 

 pods are too small to yield the desired profit to the market gar- 

 dener. The expert housewife decides that a string (or string- 

 less) bean pod is good when it will snap off like a pipe-stem. 

 Wilted pods fail in this test, as also do' those that remained upon 

 the vines until the pod toughens, becomes stringy and the seeds 

 are evident from the outside. Such pods are still more objec- 

 tionable when the variety is black-seeded, and then the large 

 beans discolor the whole in- the process of cooking. Plate X. 

 shows a set of the pods of the forty-eight numhers of wax beans, 

 each nearine maturitv. 



