THE BEAN CROP. 



WE now pass on to another order of plants, differing 

 widely in its agricultural character from that which con- 

 tains our ordinary bread-corn, and certainly ranking next 

 to it in its important bearing upon the human economy. 

 This order is the LEGUMINOS^;, and the members which we 

 have now to take into consideration, as " crops cultivated 

 for their seeds," are beans and peas. Later in the series 

 we shall have several other members before us as "forage 

 crops/' which will then be fully described. 



Beans have been known and used as an article of food 

 well-nigh as long as our records of the past serve us. In 

 the Scriptures 1 we find mention made of them as having 

 been offered, with other grains, to David, when fleeing 

 to the wilderness to escape from his son Absalom. And, 

 again, in one of the early sieges of Jerusalem, described 

 in Ezekiel,- we find them included amongst other articles 

 of food then in common use. No reference, however, is 

 made anywhere to the harvesting of beans, though fre- 

 quent allusions are made to the other grain crops; which 

 fact, combined with the unsuitability of Palestine generally 

 to the requirements of the plant, has led to the opinion 

 that, in all probability, its cultivation was limited to the 

 strong alluvial soils of the valley of the Nile, whence it 

 was carried as corn to Canaan, in exchange for the flocks 

 and fruits of that pastoral country. 



All our evidence tends to confirm the belief in its 

 eastern origin, though our information respecting it is 



1 2 Sam. xvii. 28, 1023 B.C. 2 Ezek. iv. 9, 595 B.C. 



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