AMERICAN GARDEN-BEAN. 453 



white ; the pods are about four inches long, half an inch 

 wide, nearly straight, green when young, paler as they ap- 

 proach the season of ripening, yellowish when fully ripe, and 

 contain five beans. 



It is comparatively a late variety. When planted early in 

 spring, it blossomed in fifty days, afforded green pods in 

 fifty-eight days, and ripdned in about fifteen weeks. In fa- 

 vorable autumns, it will ripen if planted as late as the 20th 

 of June ; but it is not so early as the Blue Pod or White 

 Marrow, and, when practicable, should have the advantage 

 of the entire season. 



The ripe seeds of the pure variety are quite small, round- 

 ish-ovoid, five sixteenths of an inch long, a fourth of an inch 

 in width and thickness, and of a pure, yet not glossy, white 

 color. About forty-four hundred seeds are contained in a 

 quart. 



As a garden variety, it is of little value, though the young 

 pods are crisp and tender. It is cultivated almost exclu- 

 sively as a field-bean. If planted in rows or drills two feet 

 apart, three pecks of seeds will be required for an acre ; or 

 eighteen quarts will seed this quantity of land, if the rows 

 are two feet and a half apart. When planted in hills, eight 

 seeds are allowed to a hill ; and, if the hills are made three 

 feet apart, eight quarts will plant an acre. The yield varies 

 from fourteen to twenty bushels, according to soil, season, 

 and cultivation. 



The Pea-bean, the White Marrow, and the Blue Pod are 

 the principal, if not the only, kinds of much commercial 

 importance ; the names of other varieties being rarely, if 

 ever, mentioned in the regular reports of the current prices 

 of the markets. If equally well ripened, and, in their re- 

 spective varieties, equally pure, the Pea-bean and the White 

 Marrow command about the same prices ; the former, how- 

 ever, being more abundant in the market than the latter. 



