162 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[November, 



eaten. It was formerly consecrated to the 

 dead, and the Egyptian priests held it a crime 

 to look at beans, judging the very siglit un- 

 clean. Tiie Flaniiin'S, or the priests of.lupiter, 

 were forbidden to touch a beau, even to pro- 

 nounce its name, for tlie fatal plant contains 

 a little bhiclv spot, wliicli is no otlier than a 

 noxious cliaracter — a tyiie of death. Hippo- 

 crates, from this superstitious fear, is said to 

 have trenil)led for his patients when beans 

 were in lilossom. 



Pytliagoras expressly forbade his disciples to 

 eat beans, professing to believe that at the 

 creation man was formed of them. The Ro- 

 mans, at one time, l)elieved that the souls of 

 such as were departed resided in this plant, 

 and Lucien introduces a philosoplier in hell, 

 saying that to eat li(>ans and to eat our father's 

 head were eipial crimes. Ovid informs us tliat 

 this vegetable was used in tlie funeral ban- 

 quets of the Parentalia, oj.- sacritiees offered to 

 the manes or tlie spirits of deceased relations. 

 Clemens Alexandiinus attributes the absti- 

 nence from beans to tlie opinion that they oc- 

 casioned sterility, which is conlirmed hy Tlie- 

 ophrastus, who extends the effects even to 

 plants. Cicero suggests another reason for 

 this abstinence, viz., that beans are great ene- 

 mies to tranquility of mind, for wliich reason 

 Aniphiaraiis is said to have abstained from 

 them, even before Pytliagoras, that he might 

 enjoy a clearer divination of liis dreams. How- 

 ever, in spite of such ridiculous prejudices. 

 this vegetable had numerous and enlightened 

 defenders liotli amongst the Greeks and the 

 iiouiaiis. It is stated th.at one of the festivals 

 to Apollo — the Pyanepsia — owed its origin and 

 pomp to the bean. It was then, as Soyer re- 

 marks, that this vegetalile olitained pre-emi- 

 nence over all that were boiled in the sauce- 

 pan. The Romans presented beans as an 

 oblation in their solemn sacrifices called Fa- 

 bariu, a festival held in honor of Cania, wife 

 of Janus. Pliny informs us that they offered 

 cakes made of bean-meal unto certain gods 

 and goddesses in these ancient rites and cere- 

 monies. Lempriere states that bacon was added 

 to the beans in the ollerings to Carna, not so 

 much to gratify the palate of tlie goddess as to 

 represent the simplicity of their ancestors. If 

 this was the case our dish of beans and bacon 

 is certainly of very ancient origin. Pliny fur- 

 ther informs us that when green it was served 

 on tables reno^vned for delicacies, and when 

 fully ripe it frequently replaced Isotli wheat 

 and other corn. 



In ancient times lieans were used instead of 

 Ijalls or iielibles in voting Iw ballot. A white 

 bean signified absolution, and a black one con- 

 demnation. From this practice, perhaps, was 

 dei-ived the plan of black-ljalling obnoxious 

 persons ; and from this cause it has been sug- 

 gested tjiat Pythagoras, in recommending liis 

 disciples to abstain from beans, meant to ad- 

 vise them to have nothing to do with politics. 

 The Roman biisbandmen had a religious cus- 

 tom connected with this pulse. When they 

 sowed corn of any kind they took care to bring 

 home some beans, which were offered up to a 

 god to insure good luck, from which circum- 

 stance these beans were called Refrina\ In 

 .sales by public auction, too, it was thought 

 lucky to include a bean in the lot for sale. 

 Pliny tells tliat bean-meal is known as "lomen- 

 tuin," and, as is the case with the meal of all 

 leguminous ])Iants, it .adds consider.ably, when 

 mixed with flour, to the weight of the bread. 

 This lonienlum was a celebrated cosmetic with 

 Roman ladies, as it was thought to po.ssessthe 

 virtue of .smoothing the skin and taking away 

 wrinkles. Columella notices beans in his time 

 as food for peasants only : 



".\ik1 herbs they mix with beans for vulgar fare." 



Pliny states that in tlie vicinity of Macedo- 

 nia and Thessaly the custom was to phiugli 

 them into the ground as manure just as they 

 began to bloom, and ttiat the land was exceed- 

 ingly enriched by the process. This autlior 

 says that ihe beau is the fir.st leguminous plant 

 that is .sown, being »tlone before the .setting of 

 the Yergiliie, in order that it may pass the 

 winter in liie ground. He also states that beans 

 grew spontaneously in moist jjlaces, particu- 



larly in certain islands lying within the Xorth- 

 eni Ocean, from whence tliey have derived the 

 name of Faliaria-. They grew wild also through- 

 out Mauritania, (Now Morocco,) but these 

 Pliny characterizes as s<.i bard and tough that 

 they could not be IjoIUmI tender. One of the 

 most noble and powerful families of Rome de- 

 rived the name of Fabii from some of their 

 ancestors liaving cultivated the bean. 



Although many alhisions are made in Scrip- 

 ture to wlieat and barley, we do not read of 

 the bean being cultivated, and it is only twice 

 mentioned. The earliest notice is of those 

 brought with other provisions by the tliree 

 loyal Israelites to King David when lie lied 

 from his rebellious son, jVbsaloni, to Maha- 

 naini.* The ])rophet Ezekiel was coniinanded 

 to make use of this pulse as one of the ingre- 

 dients of the bread he was to eat for three 

 hundred and ninety days.t According to Rab- 

 binical authority, it is stated that tlie much 

 esteemed Egyptian bean was cultivated in Pal- 

 estine, and the same source of information de- 

 clares that the eating of this vegetalde was 

 interdicted to tiie high-priest on the day of 

 the atonement, from its decided tendency to 

 bring on sleep. The Moors, it is believed, 

 when they conquered Spain, introduced the 

 bean into that country, and from there or 

 Portugal, the seed, some authors suppose, soon 

 afterwards was imported into the Brilisli Is- 

 lands. Gerard states that the garden bean is 

 the same in all respects as the field bean, the 

 one having been improved only by the fertility 

 of the soil. Since that period, like all other 

 vegetables, it hasramihed into many varieties. 

 Those cultivated for agriculture are known as 

 Fuha ru1g(tris nrrensis, or, as Loudon calls 

 them, Faha riihjnvis equina, because the}- were 

 grown chiefly for the use of horses. There is 

 a strong and well-marked ditlerence lietween 

 these and tliose cultivated for the garden, but 

 botli are botanically included under one spe- 

 cies. Of the field bean there are at least twelve 

 varieties, and of the garden, about twenty. 

 The earliest garden bean is a small seeded 

 kind, called the Maragan, which was introduced 

 into England from a place of that name on the 

 coast of Morocco. The large variety called 

 the " Windsor bean" is said to have been first 

 cultivated in that neighborhood by some Dutch 

 gardeners who came over at the Revolution. 



There is a field near Eton still ciilled the 

 Dutchman's Garden. This species of pulse is 

 extremely prolific when planted in a suitable 

 soil. Phillips tells us of a single Heligoland 

 horse-bean, planted in the garden of Beanlien 

 poor-house in the year 1821, that jirodueed 12(j 

 pods, whicli contained 399 good lieans fit for 

 seed ; and had the plant not been blown down 

 by the wind in the midst of its bloom, there is 

 reason to suppose it would have produced 

 nearly double that quantity. Beans were used 

 medicinally by the ancients; when bruised with 

 garlic, they were said to cure a cough that was 

 thought past a remedy. Ever sinc(^ the middle 

 ages the liean has played a very important part 

 in the famous Twelftli-night cake almost over 

 all Europe. In "Brand's Popular Antiqui- 

 ties," we read that tlie clioosing a person as 

 khig or queen by a bean found in a piece of a 

 divided cake, was formerly u common Christ- 

 mas gambol in lioth the English universities. 

 Thomas Randolph, in a curious letter to Dud- 

 ley Lord Leicester, dated Edinburg, -laimary 

 15tli, 1.563, mentions Lady Fleinj'ug being 

 " tjueen of the Bene on Twelfth-day." Ful- 

 ler, in his "Worthies," mentions that Leices- 

 tershire in his time was famous for beans, and 

 under the proverb. Bean Belly Leicestershire, 

 he writes, " those in the neigjiboring counties 

 used to say, merrily, ' .shake a Leicestershire 

 yeoman liy the collar and you shall liear the 

 lieans rattle in his belly.' "But those yeomen 

 only smile at wliat is said to rattle in their 

 bellies, wliilst they know good silver ringeth 

 in their pockets." The poet Soutbey men- 

 tions that in days gone liy, the jSIayors of 

 Leicester used to be chosen by a sow. The 

 candidates sat in a semi-circle, each with his 

 hat full of beans in his lap. and he was elected 



'2 Samuel IT-2S. t Ezek. 4-9. 



Mayor from whose hat the .sow eats first. (See 

 common-place book. ) 



Beans are cultivated over many countries, 

 as for to the eastward as China and Japan : 

 they are very generally used as an esculent in 

 many parts of Africa, particularly in Barbary. 

 where it is usually full jiodded at the end of 

 Feliriiai'y, and continues in bearing during the 

 whole spring. AVlien stewed with oil and gar- 

 lic, beans form, according to Shaw, the prin- 

 cipal food of persons of all classes in that 

 country. It wolild appear from " Dickson's 

 Husbandry of the Ancients," that Faha was 

 derived from Haha, a town of Etruria, where 

 the liean was cultivated, and it is the same as 

 the small liean of our fields. — H. G. Glass- 

 pooLK. in Science (r'o.s.si'p, London, 1875. 



When the bean was introduced into Amer- 

 ica is perhaps not precisely on record, but, if 

 not previously, it was no donlit brought over 

 in the Mayflower, and was diffused from Ply- 

 mouth Rock. Tlie Puritans, having been first 

 driven to Holland, before their migration to 

 America, very probably brought seed-beans 

 from that countiy. Speculation upon that 

 question just now, however, is of very little 

 account. We know it is here, and that as an 

 esculent it is universally regarded as a good 

 "snap." Its eastern origin may be inferred 

 from its liaving been a popular "Yankee in- 

 stitution" from a very early period in our 

 domestic history. 



Two prominent varieties, or rather species, 

 are cultivated, and these are now multiplied 

 into numerous suli-varieties or species. The 

 dwarf, bush, or snap-short varieties, included 

 under Phasecjhi.'i cuhjarif:, are mainly the fol- 

 lowing : 1, Early Brown; 2, Cliina Red Eye; 

 3, Early Yellow; 4, Newington Wonder; 5, 

 Powtawatainie; 0, Red Speckled ^'alentine; 

 7, Brown Speckled Yalentine; 8, White Cran- 

 berry; 9, Royal Dwarf; lu. Red French; 11, 

 Dwarf Wax, and 12, White Wax, and are con- 

 sidered worthy of special cultivation. 



The pole-beans, or running varieties, in- 

 cluded under Phn»eolus ?nic)isi,«and muUifloriis. 

 are the following, in part: 13, Long Lima; 14, 

 Carolina; 15. Scarlet Runner; 10. Cranberry; 

 17, White Dutch; 18, Wren's Egg; 19, Giant 

 Wax; 20, Tall German Wax, and 21, Southern 

 Prolific. There are also numerous synonyms 

 and suli-varieties — among the former. Early 

 Mohawk, Early China, Red Marrow, Refugee, 

 M'hite Kidney and Horticultural Dwarf; and 

 among the latter. Butter Bean, Horticultural 

 Pole and Small Lima, Salaa or Sewee. 



The English horse bean varieties, included 

 under Faha, ruk/nris equina, are 22, Long Pod, 

 and 23, Broad Wind.sor. For all [iractical pur- 

 poses, Iiowever, the foregoing may be reduced 

 to one-half. 



The cultivation of the bean is so common, 

 and so generally understood, that it would be 

 superfluous if it were not presumptuous in us 

 to offer any suggestions upon such a subject. 

 In order to secure an uninterrupted supiily, it 

 is simply necessary to make repeated plantings. 

 An experienced authority, and one that is 

 widely known, recommends that "little at a 

 time and often, shouUI be the rule." As an 

 esculent, the bean is wholesome and nutri- 

 tious, and well meriting the high fiivor in which 

 it is held throughout the civilized world. In 

 proportion to its weight, it yields more nutri- 

 ment and better supjilies the place of animal 

 food than any of the vegetaliles ordinarily cul- 

 tivated; and many of our readers may be able 

 to recall the case of the poor woman and her 

 three children, who were amply sustained by 

 tlie ov.a-iiroduct of three hens, which she bar- 

 tered for the white field bean, at a time when 

 eggs were higli in price and beans were low. 

 There is no other vegetable that is easier kept 

 for winter use. They are subject, however, 

 to the attack of a destructive insect, when 

 stored away, iianicly, the " Bean- weevil " — 

 Bvuchnsi fabcv. — which has only been developed 

 in Lancaster county within the last five years, 

 and of which we shall speak specially on a 

 future occasion. 



y 



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