18 THE SEED-GROWER. 



By preserving seeds in their dry pods instead of 

 shelling, vitality is retained longer, and by growing a 

 sufficiency at the time, it will be unnecessary to save 

 seeds of the same variety every year. 



Market. Seed beans form an important item in all 

 seedsmen's transactions; this has reference only to gar- 

 den varieties. Made up in numerous small sales, many 

 of the larger seed-houses will handle car-loads of seed- 

 beans in course of a single season. Some idea of the 

 consumption in the country may be formed when it is 

 stated that one locality in Michigan alone produces from 

 50,000 to 75,000 bushels of seed garden-beans annually, 

 mostly bush varieties. 



Western New York and Central Michigan constitute at 

 present the principal garden bean-growing sections of 

 the United States, for bush varieties; California for pole 

 or climbing sorts. But seed-beans are also grown to a 

 more or less extent in other States, and may be grown 

 to advantage in almost every part of the country. 



Owing to cheapness of production in California, due 

 to running varieties doing well in that dry climate 

 without the necessity of poles, as is required for grow- 

 ing them successfully in the east, almost all seed of 

 Lima varieties now handled by the trade, is grown in 

 that State; this may also be said of most other climbing 

 sorts. In fact, before California took up production, 

 growers' prices for Lima Beans ranged usually from six 

 to eight dollars per bushel. Then most of the crop was 

 grown in New Jersey. Now, California Lima bean 

 seed, equal to the New Jersey grown, is laid down in 

 New York at prices averaging from $2.50 to $3.00 per 

 bushel. 



The yield of seed beans for all varieties ranges, ac- 

 cording to the season, from 15 to 30 bushels per acre; 



