144 CALIFORNIA VEGETABLES 



were more Castor beans grown in California before 1875 than there 

 have ever been since. The price has always been limited by what 

 oil-makers had to pay for beans laid down here from Calcutta, and 

 that was too low to meet high labor cost in California. There is a 

 long ripening and drying season in California, but the crop re- 

 quires much hand labor cutting the clusters as they reach condi- 

 tion all through the fall, and in drying the clusters so the beans will 

 pop out. Oil makers will not pay enough to cover this cost. The 

 large ornamental Castor bean plants which are abundant in this 

 state are not the oil-making variety. 



GARDEN CULTURE OF BEANS. 



Much that has been said about the field growth of beans ap- 

 plies to the garden culture. Condition of soil and time for planting 

 are practically the same, and so are the characters of the growing 

 season, except that the gardener cares little for the maturing of his 

 crop, but prefers a green succession. A condition of late summer 

 moisture, then, that would be a serious trouble in the field, is an 

 advantage in the garden. For a product of beans as a green vege- 

 table, the drying out which promotes maturity is to be prevented, 

 and if this is successfully done, either upon naturally moist or irri- 

 gated land, the bean plants will continue their yield of green pods 

 until frost cuts them down. As California has, as a rule, a very 

 long frostless season, the bearing season of green pluckings may 

 cover several months. 



In frostless places, or in places of light frosts, where the grower 

 affords slight protective 'covering, the bean continues its growth and 

 bearing into the winter and vines of some varieties assert their 

 perennial character. Even where the frosts cut down the top, some 

 of the phaseolus varieties maintain their life and start again freely 

 from the old roots when the spring warmth invites activity. 



The continued growth of the bean late in the fall, in the ab- 

 sence of frost, sometimes affords a better late than early crop, 

 because certain insets which destroy the early blossoms cease from 

 their labors, or because too high heat no longer blights the bloom. 

 It is often the reward of the amateur gardener, who promotes late 

 growth of his bean plants by continued irrigation, to gather ample 

 supplies of tender pods when less diligent growers have none. Mid- 

 summer bean planting on moist interior lands is also a good practice, 

 as it gives the plant a growing season in the fall when the hot and 

 dry summer conditions are relaxed. 



The planting of beans in frostless situations in the fall for a 

 winter crop is, of course, a limited enterprise, and attended by con- 

 siderable risk, because never having a frost, means hardly ever, and 

 yet good returns are often made in a few places already designated 

 in the chapters on climates and the planting season. 



The winter preparation for field planting on the light soils that 

 are mainly used for that purpose will do for the same soils and situa- 



