OTHER VARIETIES 169 



as Lima beans. As Lima beans are more delicate in flavor and 

 nearly always available in California markets there is less chance for 

 broad beans than elsewhere, and yet the fact that they are more 

 easily grown gives them claim to attention. The plants are pro- 

 ductive and will flourish in almost any locality. The seed should be 

 planted about three inches deep in double rows, eight inches between 

 the rows forming the double line, four inches between the plants in 

 the rows, and three feet between the double rows. The early forma- 

 tion of seed can be hastened by removing the terminal bud of the 

 plants when they have reached the height of between four and five 

 feet, and have produced enough flowers to insure a good crop of 

 pods. The Green Windsor is the best known broad bean. 



Climbing Beans. Pole beans are usually more susceptible to 

 heat and drought than the better bush varieties, and they are dis- 

 appointing in other ways. Near the coast, however, they may be 

 grown and trained in any way the grower pleases, from a six-foot 

 staff to a whole wigwam of poles and strings. In the catalogues of 

 California seedsmen many good varieties for amateur trial are de- 

 scribed. The best climbing bean for most California situations is 

 the Kentucky Wonder, or Old Homestead, which bears a mass of 

 pods when grown to a six-foot stake. It is quite hardy and can 

 be safely planted a week or more before many other varieties. It 

 is a medium early bean and takes very readily to the poles ; wonder- 

 fully prolific, the vines being actually loaded from top to bottom 

 with pods from six to nine inches in length ; as string beans, the 

 pods are nearly round, tender and very solid. The Case Knife and 

 the Asparagus or Yard Long are also excellent climbing beans ; the 

 latter especially as a string bean. 



Perennial Beans. It is not unusual for the California gardener 

 to find when he is digging over his bean ground in the spring that 

 the old roots of the preceding crop are not dead but are making 

 new sprouts. One grower in Alameda who had this experience 

 was adventurous enough to save these roots and got a second year's 

 crop from them. Afterwards he transplanted such roots, mulched 

 them in the winter and finally had bean plants two, three and four 

 years old, bearing profusely and making from two to four vines 

 from each root, growing twelve feet high, and yielding heavily. 

 The crowns of such roots are often about two inches in diameter. 

 These beans are usually of the scarlet runner class, though some of 

 the white climbing forms have perennial roots. Twenty years ago 



