194 — How to Make the Garden Pay. 



Lazy Wives. — Pods are wonderfully broad, thick, fleshy, 

 and above all entirely stringless, retaining their stringless and 

 tender qualities until they are almost ripe. The vines cling 

 remarkably well to the poles. Pods are rather flattish, oval 

 shape, and when fully grown are from four to six inches long. 



Horticultural, Speckled Cranberry or Quail Track, much 

 esteemed for the home garden. Seeds oval, speckled. 



Improved Dutch Runner has many of the characteristics 

 of the Lima in growth, and is very- productive. Beans clear 

 white and of largest size. Next to the Lima, the best for market. 



Scarlet Runner. — A strong grower; flowers of beautiful 

 scarlet, and produced in great abundance. Probably more 

 ornamental, than useful for the table. 



BEETS. 



Beta Vulgaris. German, Rothe R'iibe ; French, Betterave. 

 Beets for early bunching are a leading crop of the market 

 garden, and generally quite a profitable one. I have already in 

 a former chapter alluded to their cultivation under glass, in cold 

 frames, and cold houses. In open air they are grown in a 

 similar way, only more space is usually given, 

 and no radishes are grown between them as 

 a secondary crop. Rich warm soil (sandy 

 loam) is the chief requisite. It is well- 

 manured with rotted compost, and prepared 

 as for other small vegetables, that is to say, 

 plowed well, harrowed well, and made thor- 

 oughly smooth, if necessary with steel rake. 

 In early spring when soil conditions and 

 weather will permit, the seed is sown in drills 

 from 12 to 1 8 inches apart, and clean and 

 thorough cultivation given from the start. 

 The crop is especially grateful for one or more 

 applications of nitrate of soda, and can be 

 largely increased or made earlier by this 

 means. The market gardener's aim is to get 

 a uniform lot of roots, bunch them for market 

 while small (two to three inches in diameter), 

 clear the land at the earliest possible date, and 

 replant to some other crop. From this stand- 

 point he must thin to a uniform distance of 

 three or four inches soon after the plants 

 have made a few leaves ; and since he does not intend to let the 

 plants grow to large size in the bed, he can make the rows as 

 close as he may desire, I2 inches distance between them being 

 ample. In the kitchen garden we usually have the rows 1 5 or 



