CHAPTER XII 



GARDEN BEANS 



A book of this character would hardly be complete 

 without a reference to beans for the garden. This 

 brief chapter is designed to include the most im- 

 portant features presented by this crop and give in 

 a concise yet helpful way the latest there is to offer 

 from the scientific as well as practical side of garden 

 bean culture. Generally speaking, garden bean cul- 

 ture does not differ radically from that already 

 given in detail for field beans, though it is generally 

 agreed that a richer soil should be given garden 

 beans than to the field crop. Garden beans are usu- 

 ally fed higher than field beans, one reason for which 

 is that the former crop has to be forced for not only 

 productiveness but for earliness as well. Garden 

 beans are very tender; they succeed best in a rich, 

 light, well drained, and somewhat sandy soil. If a 

 southern exposure can be provided, so much the 

 better. 



Garden beans classified. — ^There are various ways 

 of dividing the different varieties of garden beans. 

 Professor Waugh* says common beans are of two 

 general types, bush and pole. Professor Irish** of 

 Missouri classifies them according to their use, as 

 string or snap in reference to the young or green 

 pods ; shell beans when the seed is used in the green 

 state, but large enough to shell; and the ripe seed. 



•The Home Gaxd«n, p 28. "Garden Beans, p 83. 



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