BEANS. 



eeveral lots at difTeicnt t inies, be kept 

 in cutting order tor tlirre months. 

 The Heligoland, horse, and English 

 tick bean are the favourites for lield 

 culture. 



Value of Bca7is. — This crop is not 

 so extensively cultivated as it de- 

 serves. In couHiion with other legu- 

 minous crops, it is of advantage in 

 opening the soil by its long roots, in 

 absorbing much oi' its food from the 

 atmosphere, and leaving the soil in ad- 

 mirable tilth, jireparatory to a grain or 

 tobacco crop ; but tlicse good points 

 are insignificant in comparison with 

 the great value of beans and pease as 

 food for horses, sheep, and, indeed, 

 all animals. 



The proportion of nutritive matter 

 in beans, compared wilh other grain, 

 is, according to Einhof, 



Not only is there so great a propor- 

 tion of nutritive matter, but that pres- 

 ent is remarkably rich in the azotized 

 or flesh-making ingredients, often as 

 much as twenty to thirty per cent, of 

 casein being present in seeds grown 

 on a rich soil. Von Thaer, as the 

 result of his comparative estimate, 

 obtained by feeding cattle, gives to 

 field beans a value equal to one third 

 of rich wheat and two thirds of In- 

 dian corn or barley. In feeding, it is 

 best to crush or grind the beans and 

 pease. 



Kidney beans, or French beans 

 (Phascolus vulgaris). Of the dwarf 

 kidney, the varieties are 



Early China. 

 Early Cluster. 

 Early Dun-coloured. 

 Early Half Moon. 

 Early Mohawk. 

 Early Rachel. 

 Early St. Valentine. 

 Early Yellow 

 Weeks. 



Red Cranberry. 



Warrington,or Marrow. 



Refugee, or Thousand 

 to One — good for pick- 

 ling or laying down in 

 salt. 



I Rob Roy. 

 Six Large White Kidney, 

 or Royal Dwarf. 



Saba, or Carolina. 

 Duti h Case Knife. 

 I.argo White Lima. 

 Speckled Prolific Lima. 

 Asparagus, or Yard 

 Long. 



Rod Cranberry. 



White Cranlierry. 

 White Dutch ' Run- 

 ners. 

 Scarlet Runners. 

 Loudon IIorliculturaL 



The pole, or runners, are varieties 

 of the Fh. hmcns2s and muUifiorus. 

 They are 

 78 



A choice new variety, under the 

 name of turtle-soup bean, has been 

 recently cultivated with great suc- 

 cess. 



Nearly all of these are confined to 

 the garden except the refugee and 

 China, the cultivation of which last 

 is similar to that already detailed for 

 beans. I therefore only introduce 

 si:ch observations as belong to garden 

 culture. 



The soil for them may be anything 

 rather than wet or tenacious ; for in 

 such the greater part of the seed de- 

 cays without germinating, while those 

 plants which are produced are con- 

 tracted in their produce. A very 

 light mellow loam, even inclining to 

 a sand, is the best for the earliest 

 sowings, and one scarcely less sili- 

 cious, though moister, is preferalde 

 for the late summer crops ; but, for 

 the later ones, a recurrence must be 

 made to a soil as dry as for the early 

 insertions. For the early and late 

 crops, a sheltered border must al- 

 ways be allotted, or in a single row 

 about a foot from a south fence, other- 

 wise the situation cannot be too open. 



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 Februa- 

 ry and March, for supplying the table 

 during April, May, and June. At the 

 end of March and April a small sow- 

 ing may be performed, if fine open 

 weather, under a frame without heat, 

 for removal into a sheltered border 

 early in May. During May, and thence 

 until the first week in August, sow- 

 ings may be made once every three 

 weeks. In September, forcing re- 

 commences : at first, merely under 

 frames without bottom heat, but in 

 October, and thence to the close of 

 the year, in hot-beds, &c., as in Jaa- 



