160 QUALITIES OF THE BEAN. 



should not be minced as is customary, but a small part of the sides 

 being peeled off, they are cut into 4 pieces and boiled. Some dress 

 them with onions, oil, vinegar, pepper, &c. 



For working horses beans are an excellent food, and also for fatten- 

 ing swine. We have shown that beans are more nutritive than oats, 

 though less easy of digestion, a bushel yielding 14 pounds more flour 

 than one of oats, and a bushel of peas 18 pounds more. A 1000 

 parts of bean flour yield 570 pounds of nutritive matter, of which 426 

 are mucilage, or starch. 103 gluten, and 41 insoluble extract. A va- 

 riety or two grow in meadows and are considered a valuable herbage 

 plant, yielding a great bulk of very nutritive fodder. The summer 

 and winter tare or vetch, is also a valuable agricultural plant for its 

 herbage, especially for milch cows and working stock. 



The species of the bean recognized in botany are 16, the common 

 names of which are, the pea vetch, the great wood vetch, common 

 wood vetch, cassubian vetch, tufted vetch, sanfoin^ vetch, biennial 

 vetch, officinal vetch, two-flowered vetch, common vetch or tare, 

 broad podded vetch, common bush vetch, broad-leaved vetch, nar- 

 bonne vetch, saw-leafed vetch, and common garden bean. 



The latter, like the pea, is now known to be extensively cultivated 

 in most parts of the world. It is said to be found growing wild in 

 Persia. Stewed with oil and sarlic, beans constitute a chief food with 

 the people of Barbary. In Ireland, they are much eaten by laborers, 

 bruised and mixed with mashed potatoes. They are exported from 

 G. B. in large quantities to the W. Indies for the food of the negroes. 

 In 1840, 514,864 bushels were imported beside the vast quantity pro- 

 duced there. 



Although a coarser plant than the pea, it is even more liable to 

 disease and insects. Small fungi also infest the plant, especially the 

 sphceria nidula, upon the roots and the blight, uredo fabce, upon the 

 stems and leaves ; of which we have spoken under that head. The 

 black aphis also preys upon the young leaves, and should be timely 

 removed, or its ravages will be great. 



Like the pea, the bean is divided into the field and garden varieties, 

 though both are often indiscriminately cultivated. The kidney bean 

 (Phaseolus vnlgaris,) is the general name by which the common dwarf 

 bean is called on account of its resemblance in shape to the kidneys. 

 It is also called the French bean, it being a native there, as is supposed, 

 and having been introduced from thence into other European coun- 

 tries. 



The other species is called the runner (Phaseolus multiflorus) and 

 is a native of S. America. This has been greatly esteemed for its or- 

 namental flowers ; and, in England, it is said to have been thus es- 

 teemed solely on that account for more than 100 years before the value 

 of its legumes, as an edible substance, was known. The general 



