VEGETABLE GROWING 



363 



a good blind or break in a garden is formed for some three months of the year, or they 

 may be so planted and trained as to make an admirable creeper-covered arbour. 



Culture. Because tender, essentially summer croppers, and long-enduring, it is need- ' 

 ful to give them good, deep holding, retentive soil. In all cases where possible the 

 ground should be deeply trenched and heavily manured in the preceding winter. Where 

 that is not practicable, there should be opened for each row a trench 20 inches wide and 

 deep, the bottom then broken up with a fork, layers of soil and manure being added until 

 the trench is filled. After settling down for a few days, the Beans should be sown in 

 drills drawn with a hoe, 3 inches deep and 6 inches apart, down the centre of the trench, 

 the seeds being placed in these drills at not less than 6 inches apart so as to give the 

 plants ample room. The drills should then be carefully filled with fine soil. So far the 

 culture is simple, so much depending on the preparation of the ground, thin sowing, 

 and good seed. That can always be had good by careful saving from the previous 

 season's stock, or purchasing from a good seedsman. 



Manuring. There is great need for liberal manuring of the ground for these pod- bear- 

 ing crops. Abundant produce can only be had when growth is strong, indeed, almost 

 luxuriant. To create that, plenty of good nitrogenous manure, such as animals give, 

 is needful. Further, all these plants like occasional good soakings of liquid manure in 



A A A A A A A A 



WAY TO ARRANGE RUNNER BEAN ROW 



the form of house sewage, or slops, or the drainage of stables, cow-sheds, pig-styes, &c., 

 in dry weather. Also they benefit by being syringed in the evenings with clear water 

 in hot weather, such dampings especially helping flowers to set seeds rather than to fall 

 prematurely from the plants. Artificial manures are best given in liquid form, after being 

 soaked in a tub. Four pounds of any good artificial manure will make 40 gallons of liquid 

 manure. 



The time of sowing should not be too early, except where it is possible to give the plants 

 good shelter. Thus a sowing may be made as early as the middle of April at the bottom 

 of a warm sunny wall or wood-fence. This sowing should be made, however, only to 

 secure a few early pickings, as it is too hot later on. Generally the first sowing may be 

 made quite early in May, as then the plants are usually through the ground in two weeks. 

 A second sowing, to give a good succession, may be made a month later. 



Supports should be furnished before the plants begin to throw up tendril or climbing 

 stems. In whatever form, they should be fixed about 3 inches from the plants along each 

 side of the rows, and range from 5 to 7 feet in height. We have seen, where soil was 

 deep and good and stakes tall, Runner Beans reach a height of 9 feet, cropping abundantly 

 all the way up. Preference should be given to long rods, and each plant should have its 

 own stake. These the climbing tops soon attach themselves to, or, if need be, can be helped 

 to find their own proper supports. 



Gathering the pods should not be neglected, as allowing many to remain on the 



