THE KIDNEY-BEAN. 621 



will continue bearing, from the middle of June, till the plants are 

 destroyed by the frosts. The rows, as in every similar case, should 

 be in the direction of north and south, for reasons already given ; 

 they should be at least four feet apart, and the beans should be 

 placed in shallow drills, three inches asunder, and covered about two 

 inches with soil. When the plants come above ground they may be 

 slightly earthed up ; and in another week, when they begin to form 

 runners, they should be sticked with branches or rods, the former being 

 preferable, of six or eight feet in length, a row being placed along each 

 side of the plants, as in sticking peas ; but instead of the stakes for 

 runners being placed wider apart at their upper extremity, they may 

 be made to meet there, as, contrary to the vegetation of the pea, the 

 twining stems of the runner produce more leaves below than at their 

 summits. In many cases, the scarlet runner may be planted where it 

 will not only produce excellent crops, but afford shelter or shade to a 

 walk, a seat, a grass-plot, a cucumber-bed, or a temporary arbour. 

 Where sticks or rods are scarce, wires or even twine may be substi- 

 tuted, and in this way the scarlet runner may be trained against wooden 

 walls, pales, or other fences, or made to cover the walls of a cottage. 

 The following mode of arranging pack-thread, or hempen lines, for 

 the support of scarlet runners, is practised in the neighbourhood 



Fig. 373. Fig. 374. 



Prop for climbing plants. Section of the prop for climbing plants. 



of St. Petersburg. Take half-inch and two-inch-wide rods or laths, 

 join them at top as in fig. 373, a, so as to leave the ends a few inches 

 beyond the junction ; stick the lower ends into the ground, just within 

 the lines of the plants. Connect these triangles by similar rods at the 

 bottom, as at 6, about three inches above the soil. Take a cord, fix 

 it firmly to the lower bar ; carry it over the upper bar, which is placed 

 in the cross formed by the long ends left, as shown in the figure. 

 Make a loop a yard long, carry the cord again over the plank (that is, 

 round it), and fix the other end to the lower rod on the other side. 

 In like manner go on through the whole length, taking care to make 

 the loops all of the same length. Through these loops suspend a long 



