BEANS IN THE MARKET GARDEN 201 



the fact that they are greatly benefited by liberal applications of nitrogenous 

 fertilizers, and if well manured they can be kept on the same land profitably 

 year after year. 



For the production of the bush lima beans we have found that a liberal 

 application of a complete fertilizer mixture is best, and the same mixture will 

 be found equally well adapted to the large lima where it is grown. The great 

 advantage to the market gardener in the little bush lima is its earliness, which 

 enables gardeners in the far North to get lima beans where the large lima 

 may be too late. It is very common to read that the large lima is of superior 

 quality to the Sewee. Possibly it may be in the North, but here we greatly 

 prefer the small lima, and we have had them cooked side by side. In the 

 South the small lima is certainly the better bean, as well as far more pro- 

 ductive. Of the larger class, the Potato lima, now known as Dreer's lima, 

 is far more productive in the South than the Large White lima, but not as 

 good quality as the Sewee. Five hundred pounds per acre of the following 

 mixture will be sufficient for the lima beans on a fairly fertile loam: Acid 

 phosphate, 1,000 pounds; cotton seed meal, 700 pounds; nitrate of soda, 100 

 pounds; muriate of potash, 200 pounds, to make a ton of 2,000 pounds. 



FORCING SNAP BEANS. 



The snap beans make a useful plant for growing on the side benches of 

 the tomato house, and repeated crops can be produced during the winter. For 

 this purpose we always plant the beans in six inch pots and fruit them in the 

 same pots. We use our ordinary potting compost made rather light with sand. 

 Two plants are allowed to stand in each pot, and the first planting is done 

 about the time the tomato plants are taken in from outside. For this forcing 

 crop we do not use the varieties commonly grown by market gardeners in the 

 open ground, but varieties which have been used for forcing for generations. 

 The earliest forcing bean is the one with pea green seeds, known as the Pride 

 of the Frames, an English variety used there for frame culture in spring, and 

 which could be grown here in the same way in early spring, whenever there is 

 a vacancy in the frames, before it is safe to put the seeds in the open ground. 

 This variety is an exceedingly dwarf and early sort. Planted at the same 

 time with the old Yellow Six Weeks bean, we had in the same house beans 

 fit to gather from this sort when the Yellow Six Weeks was fairly in bloom. 

 Forced beans are tied in bunches, like asparagus, and sold by the bunch. They 

 need only careful attention to the heat of the house, which should never go 

 bolow 60 degrees at night, and a moderate supply of water. As fast as the 

 crop is gathered refill the pots with fresh soil and replant, so as to keep up a 



