B E A 



83 



B E A 



This practice is well Known to all bakers and dealers in 

 flour ; and as there are means of discovering the quantity 

 of hean-meal in the flour, the ignorant and unsuspecting 

 only are deceived, and the price of the Hour to the skilful 

 purchaser varies according to the quality. 



The proportion of nutritive matter in heans, compared 

 with other grain, is, according to Einhof, as follows: 



By weight. Or in a bushel. 



74 per cent. about 47 Ib. 



Wheat 

 Rye . 

 Barley 

 Oats . 

 Beans 

 Peas . 

 French heans 



70 

 65 

 58 

 68 

 75 

 84 



39 

 33 

 23 

 45 

 49 

 54 



The French bean, kidney bean, or haricot bean (Phateo- 

 lus vulgar is), is chiefly cultivated for its tender and succu- 

 lent pod, being one of the most esteemed vegetables for the 

 table. The varieties are innumerable, differing slightly in 

 their qualities : they may be divided into two distinct kinds, 

 the dwarf and climbing ; the former are the earlier, the latter 

 the more productive. French beans are much less hardy 

 than the common beans : a very slight degree of frost will 

 destroy them entirely. The early sorts are therefore sown 

 in sheltered situations, and occasionally protected by glass 

 frames or mats. The climbing beans require the support 

 of sticks or wires, round which they twine as they grow, 

 with this peculiarity, that the coils turn round the support 

 from the right to the left, contrary to the growth of some 

 indigenous twisting plants, which turn from the left to the 

 right, following the apparent diurnal motion of the sun. 



The French bean, as an esculent vegetable, is wholesome 

 and nutritious in a fresh state, and may be readily pre- 

 served for winter store or sea voyages by salting in casks. 

 For this purpose the large, flat-podded, Dutch white runner 

 is preferred. In Holland and Germany, where large quan- 

 tities are salted in almost even- family, a machine is used 



[Bean Cutter.] 



for cutting them expeditiously, which greatly resembles a 

 turnip slicer, and may, with a slight alteration, be used also 

 for slicing cabbages when making the national German 

 preparation of Hour krout (sauer-kraut). It consists of a 

 wheel or disk, A, in which two or four knives are set at 

 a small angle with the plane of it, so as to shave off a thin 

 lice obliquely from the beans, which are held in a box, C, 

 with several partitions in which they are kept upright, BO as 



to slide down in proportion as they are cut : thus six or eight 

 beans are sliced at once, and very rapidly, merely by turning 

 the handle B, and supplying the box with beans in succes- 

 sion. The sliced beans fall on the table below, and are im 

 mediately put in a cask with alternate layers of salt. When 

 the cask is full and well pressed down, a round board is put 

 over the beans and a heavy weight upon it. As the beans 

 are compressed, and begin slightly to ferment, the liquor is 

 poured off, some fresh salt is strewed over the surface, and a 

 linen cloth is pressed close upon it to keep out the air ; the 

 round board and weight are put over the cloth, and so the 

 beans remain till wanted for use. When any are taken out 

 they are washed in soft water to take out the salt, and gently 

 stewed with a little gravy, or with milk and a piece of butter. 

 They form a very wholesome vegetable dish at a time when 

 fresh vegetables are scarce. The dried seeds are also boiled 

 after being soaked in water for some time, and are usually 

 mixed with the preserved green beans in the same dish. This 

 use of the French bean is not common in England, but when 

 we take into consideration that they are extremely wholesome 

 and nutritive, much more so than pease, and that they are 

 an admirable corrective of the oily qualities of animal fat by 

 their farinaceous qualities, we shall regret that both the 

 culture and the use of them in the dry state are not extended 

 for the benefit of the labouring part of the community. The 

 cultivation of the French bean for the seed is confined in 

 this country to the gardens and nurseries, and to a few 

 spots in the Isle of Thanet in Kent, where they are raised 

 for the London seedsmen. This is the only place, as far as 

 our observation goes, where they are sow,n in the field. The 

 produce in seed is said not to exceed twenty bushels per 

 acre, but it must be observed that it is chiefly the dwarf 

 sorts which are sown. There is no doubt that the produce 

 of the runners would greatly exceed this quantity, and al- 

 though it might be expensive to support them with sticks, 

 the example of the hop grounds proves that, where the re- 

 turn is large, no expense or trouble is spared. 



The best soil for French beans is a rich mellow loam, 

 rather light than otherwise ; but, provided the ground be 

 well stirred, they will grow in any soil. They may be 

 planted in rows, the dwarf sorts at two and a half or three 

 feet distance ; the runners at four feet. As soon as the 

 stems begin to rise above the seed leaves, the intervals should 

 bo well hoed with the horse-hoe, and the rows by hand. The 

 scarifier or grubber may be used to loosen the soil, and 

 when they are somewhat advanced in growth the runners 

 may have sticks to climb upon. A row of turnips may be 

 sow'n between every two rows of beans ; or cabbages may be 

 planted for cattle. The crop may be harvested as soon as 

 the lower pods are quite dry and the seeds hard, and threshed 

 like other beans. The seeds when raw have a bitter taste, 

 and are rather tough under the teeth, which makes animals 

 refuse to eat them in that state, but when boiled they become 

 soft and pleasant. Oxen and pigs eat them readily. They 

 contain, according to Einhof, 84 per cent, of nutritive matter, 

 of which 50 is pure farina, the rest gluten and mucilage : 

 they are, consequently, superior to every other grain or 

 pulse cultivated, in point of nourishment ; and when it is 

 taken into the account that they remain in the ground only 

 from May to September, and that a crop of cabbages or 

 turnips is growing in the intervals at the same time, it will 

 appear that the cultivation of this pulse on a large scale 

 might add greatly to the resources of agriculture. 



BEAN GOOSE (Zoology), Anser ferus of Ray and 

 Fleming, Anas segetum of Gmelin, one of the wild geese, 

 which we must be careful not to confound with the Grey 

 Lagg, or true wild-goose, the Anser palustris noster of 

 Lister and Ray, and the species from which, as is generally 

 admitted, our domestic geese are derived. From that spe- 

 cies the beangnose is to be distinguished by its comparatively 

 small and short bill, which is more compressed towards the 

 end, and also differs in colour : for, in the bean goose the 

 base of the under mandible, and also of the upper one, as 

 far as the nostrils, together with the nails of both, are black, 

 the rest of the organ being of a reddish flesh-colour, in- 

 clining to orange ; whereas the bill of the grey lagg is of 

 an orange-red, with the nail generally of a greyish white. 

 The wings, moreover, in the bean goose reach, when closed, 

 beyond the end of the tail. 



Selby gives the following interesting account of its habits, 

 from personal observation : 



' In Britain it is well known as a regular winter visitant, 

 arriving in largo bodies from its northern summer haunts, 



