BEANS UNDER GLASS. 227 



If the benches are unoccupied, the beans may be 

 planted on them directly, but if another crop is on 

 them, the beans should be started in pots. We like to 

 plant two or three beans in a 3-inch rose pot, and 

 transplant to the benches just as soon as the roots fill 

 the pot. 



The night temperature of a bean house ought not to 

 fall below 60. After the blossoms appear, give a lib- 

 eral application of liquid manure every five or six days. 

 The growth of beans should be continuous and rapid 

 from the first, in order to secure a large crop of tender 

 pods. The bean is self-fertile, and therefore no pains 

 is necessary to ensure pollination, as in the case of to- 

 matoes, and some other indoor crops. The house may 

 be kept moist by sprinkling the walks on bright days. 



The essentials of a forcing bean are compact and 

 rapid growth, earliness, productiveness, and long, straight 

 and symmetrical pods. The Sion House answers these 

 requirements the best of any variety which we have yet 

 tried. It has green pods and party-colored beans. The 

 cut (Fig 80, page 226) shows with exactness an aver- 

 age bench of Sion House. English growers recommend 

 the Green Flageolet, and we have had good success with 

 it ; but it is about a week later than Sion House, and 

 it possesses no points of superiority. German Wax (Dwarf 

 German Black IVa.v) forces well, but the pods are too 

 short and too crooked. It is also particularly liable to 

 the attacks of the pod fungus. Newtown (Pride of New- 

 town] is too large and straggling in growth. 



For market, the beans are sorted and tied in bunches 

 of 50 pods, as shown in Fig. 81 (page 228). These 

 bunches bring varying prices, but from 25 to 50 cents 

 may be considered an average. At these figures, with 

 a good demand, forced beans pay well. Only two or 

 three pickings of beans can be made profitable from one 

 crop ; and in some cases all the marketable crop is gath- 

 ered at one time. Much of the success of bean forcing, 

 16 FORC. 



