162 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



Intermediate Horticultural is one of the best of the intermedi- 

 ates for family use. Grown on poor soil they almost lose their 

 half-running habit, but when grown side by side on rich land 

 with the common bush, their distinctive peculiarities are always 

 developed. 



The great improvement in beans for use in a green state as 

 " snap " beans has been made by the introduction of the wax 

 varieties. A wax bean may be defined as a variety in which 

 the inner membrane is absent. It is this inner membrane that 

 makes the pod stringy and so worthless to the housewife as a 

 snap bean as it advances towards maturity, and when mature 

 it is this same membrane that gives the dry pod a definite shape. 

 Of the pole varieties of the wax bean, the Indian Chief, some- 

 times erroneously called Butter Bean, is the oldest and best 

 known — the beau is black ; the Giant wax has a longer and 

 broader pod and the bean is of a bright red color ; the Black 

 Algerian has the longest and broadest pod of all, which is of a 

 somewhat purple color ; the bean is black. The pods of both 

 the Indian Chief and Giant wax are of the usual green color 

 when they first develope, but turn of a very light waxy color 

 and become translucent as they grow older, these and the Black 

 Algerian remaining good snap beans until the pods begin to dry. 

 There are three varieties of dwarf wax beans, only one of which 

 is as yet to any extent known ; this is the Black Dwarf. The 

 bean of a new sort that has recently been brought to my notice, 

 resembles very much the Early China in color, and has the good 

 characteristic of being thus far very pure. The Black Dwarf 

 is much mixed up with the common bean, and I find that all 

 of the wax family require to be cultivated with exceeding care, 

 with special reference to isolation, to keep them pure. There is 

 a white dwarf wax that promises to be quite an acquisition, the 

 pods being equally tender with the pole varieties, the other bush 

 sorts being somewhat inferior in this respect. 



Of the common bush beans I have found none equal either 

 in earliness or hardiness to the Fcgee, which I would recom- 

 mend as a string bean, the pods not filling out as well as most 

 kinds. For a bean that combines earliness with good qualities, 

 both as a snap and shell bean, I know none superior to the Dun 

 Cranberry. The Early Valentine is a very round podded, pulpy 



