BEAN, KIDNEY. 



sown in drills, these must be well watered im- 

 mediately before the insertion. When advanced 

 to a height of two inches, hoeing between, and 

 drawing earth about the stems of the plants 

 may commence. This must be often repeated, 

 and even sooner begun to the early and late 

 crops, as it affords considerable protection from 

 frost and wind. As soon as the various crops 

 come into blossom, two or three inches length 

 of each stem is broken off; this, by preventing 

 its increase in height, causes more sap to be af- 

 forded to the blossom, consequently causing it to 

 advance with more rapidity, and set more abun- 

 dantly. Some gardeners recommend 'the tops 

 to be taken off when the plants are young, not 

 more than six inches high, declaring it makes 

 them branch, and be more productive. This 

 may be ultimately the effect, but it is certainly 

 incorrect to state that it brings them into pro- 

 duction sooner: the effect in this respect is 

 much the contrary. The winter-standing crops 

 require, in the early stages of their growth, the 

 shelter of dry litter, prevented touching the 

 plants by small branches, &c. This is only 

 requisite during very severe weather ; it must 

 be constantly removed in mild open days, 

 otherwise the plants will be spiiul! 

 weakened. For the production of .seed, plan- 

 tations of the several varieties should be made 

 about the end of February, in a soil lighter 

 than that their produce is afterwards t. In- 

 grown upon. No two varieties should be grown 

 near each other; and in order to presi-i 

 early ones as uncontaminated as possible, 

 those plants only which blossom and produce 

 their pods the first should be preserved. Water 

 ousjit to be given two or three times a week, 

 from the time of their blossoming until their 

 pods have done swelling. None of the pods 

 ought to be gathered for the table from them ; 

 the after-production of seed is never so tine, 

 and the plants raised from it are always defi- 

 cient in vigour. They are fit for harvesting 

 when the leaves have become blackish, which 

 occurs at the end of August or early 

 tember. They must be thoroughly dried, being 

 reared against a hedge until they are s> . 

 the seed is thrashed out and stored ; aiui those 

 only should be preserved that are fine and per- 

 fect. Some gardeners even recommend the 

 pods from the lower part of the stem alone to 

 be selected. Seed beans will sometimes vege- 

 tate after being kept for eight or ten years, but 

 are seldom good for any thing when more than 

 two. The plants arising from seed of this age 

 are not so apt to be superluxuriant as from 

 that produced in the preceding year. 



BEAN, KIDNEY (Phaseolus vulgar is, from 

 its pods resembling a species of ship, supposed 

 first to have been invented at Phaselis, a town 

 of Pamphylia). Of this vegetable there are two 

 species, the one being a dwarf bushy plant, the 

 other a lofty climbing one. 



Of the Dwarfs there are twelve varieties : 



Early liver-coloured. 

 Early red-speckled. 

 Early white. 

 Early negro, or black. 

 Canterbury white. 

 Battersea white. 



Black speckled. 

 Brown speckled. 

 Streaked or striped. 

 Large white. 

 Dun-coloured. 

 Tawny. 



BEAN, KIDNEY. 



Of the Runners there are six varieties : 



Scarlet runner. Canterbury small white. 



Large white. Small white. 



Large white Dutch. Variable runner. 



The soil for them may be any thing rather 

 than wet or tenacious, for in such the greater 

 part of the seed, in general, decays without 

 germinating; whilst those plants which are 

 produced are contracted in their produce and 

 continuance. A very light mellow loam, even 

 inclining ' a sand, is the best for the earliest 

 sowings, and one scarcely less silicious, 

 though moister, is preferable for the late sum- 

 mer crops ; but for the later ones a recurrence 

 must be made to a soil as dry as for the early 

 insertions. In all cases the subsoil must be 

 open, as stagnant moisture is inevitably fatal 

 to the plants or seed. For the early and late 

 crops a sheltered border must always be allot- 

 ted, or in a single row about a foot from a 

 south fence, otherwise the situation cannot be 

 pen. 



Dwarfs. The sowing commences with the 

 year. They may be sown towards the end of 

 January in pots, and placed upon the flues of 

 the hot-house, or in rows in the mould of a hot- 

 bed, for production in March; to be repeated 

 once every three weeks in similar situations 

 during February and March, for supplying the 

 rum April. May, and June. At the end 

 of March and April a small sowing may be 

 performed, if fine open weather, under a frame 

 without heat, for removal into a sheltered bor- 

 der early in May. During May, and thence 

 until the first week in August, sowings may 

 be made once every three weeks. In Septem- 

 ber, forcing recommences : at first merely un- 

 der frames without bottom heat, but in Octo- 

 ber, and thence to the close of the year, in hot- 

 beds, &c., as in January. Sowings, when a re- 

 moval is intended, should always be performed 

 . the plants being less retarded, as the 

 root> are less injured, than when the seed is 

 i in patches or rows in the earth of the 

 bed. It is a good practice likewise to repeat 

 each sowing in the frames without heat after 

 the lapse of a week, as the first will often fail, 

 when a second, although after so short a lapse 

 of time, will perfectly succeed. In every in- 

 stance the seed is buried one and a half or two 

 inches deep. The rows of the main crops, if 

 of the smaller varieties, may be one and a 

 half, if of the larger, two feet apart, the seed 

 being inserted either in drills or by the dibble 

 four inches apart ; the plants, however, to be 

 thinned to twice that distance. 



If any considerable vacancy occurs, it may 

 always be filled by plants which have been 

 carefully removed by the trowel from where 

 they stood too thick. A general remark, how- 

 ever, may be made, that the transplanted beans 

 are never so productive or continue so long in 

 bearing (although sometimes they are earlier) 

 as those left where raised. The rows of the 

 earlier crops are best ranged north and south. 

 The seed inserted during the hottest period of 

 summer, should be either soaked in water for 

 five or six hours, laid in damp mould for a day 

 or two, or the drills be well watered previous 

 to sowing. The only after-cultivation required 



155 



