BEA 



[107] 



BEA 



table. Many sub-varieties in seedsmen's 

 catalogues. 



Long-Pod. Sandwich, or Lisbon, has 

 various names attached to these. Seeds 

 whitish, about an inch long, and half 

 that in width, flat. Very productive ; good 

 for main summer-crops. Sown in spring, 

 about twelve weeks elapse before the 

 beans are fit for table. Three to five feet. 



Johnsons Wonderful. This is a long- 

 pod, but even more productive ; and we 

 consider it the best of all the varieties. 

 Pods very namerous ; many with six or 

 even eight beans in them, and bearing a 

 succession of pods; seeds rather more 

 broad in proportion to length. 



Dutch Long-Pod has seeds still broader 

 in proportion to length. 



Green Long-Pod. Nonpareil, or Genoa, 

 differs chiefly from other long-pods by 

 its seeds being green. 



Taker has white, broad, oval seeds. 

 Height, five feet. Sown in spring, its 

 beans are ready in twelve weeks; rather 

 coarse-flavoured. 



Windsor. Seeds whitish, flat, circular, 

 an inch in diameter; only two or three 

 in a pod. Produces a succession of pods ; 

 four feet. Many other names prefixed. 



Green Windsor differs chiefly from the 

 preceding in the colour of its seed. 



The Eed-Seeded, White-Blossomed, Red- 

 Blossomed, and some others, have no me- 

 rits equal to the preceding. The Fan, 

 not being more than one foot high, is 

 useful, in small gardens, to grow among 

 other crops ; but it is not productive, 

 and its beans come all at once. 



Soil and situation. The soil should 

 vary with the season. For the winter- 

 standing and early crops, a moderately 

 rich and dry soil is best adapted to them, 

 since, if too moist, the seed is apt to de- 

 cay ; whilst a cool-bottomed, more tena- 

 cious soil is best for the spring and sum- 

 mer sowings. The situation cannot be 

 too unshaded ; but a protection from 

 violent winds is very beneficial. 



Times and modes of sowing. For the 

 first production, in the following year, a 

 large sowing of Long-pods may be made 

 during the middle of November; and 

 plantations may be continued to be made, 

 from the beginning of January to the end 

 of June, once evory three weeks. Not 

 later than the 1st of July a last sowing 

 may be made. The early Mazagon is 

 best for the earliest and latest plantings, 

 to produce the same year. 



Sowing for transplantation. If the sea- 

 son has been lost for sowing at proper 

 time, in the natural soil, for the early 

 ci-ops, or ground could not be spared or 

 made ready, then sow for transplanting, 

 either in small pots, turf-sods, or gentle 

 hotbed, and of such extent as can be 

 covered with a frame. If frames and 

 hand-glasses are deficient, matting or 

 litter, kept from injuring the plants by 

 means of hooping, &c., is sometimes em- 

 ployed. Care must be taken that the 

 beans are not weakened by a deficiency 

 of air and light ; to guard against it the 

 lights should be taken entirely off every- 

 day that excessive wet or cold does not 

 forbid their removal. The usual time for 

 removing them into the open ground, '"a 

 a south border, is February, in mild and 

 open weather. 



Sowing to remain. Y/hen sown to 

 remain, the seed may be inserted in 

 double rows, in drills, drawn by the hoe, 

 from two and a half to three feet apart,, 

 from double row to double row, the dou- 

 ble rows four inches apart, and two deep. 

 Previous to sowing, in summer, if diy 

 weather, the seed should be soaked for 

 two or three hours in water; or, if sown 

 in drills, these should be well watered 

 immediately before the insertion. 



When advanced to a height of two 

 inches, hoeing between the stems of the 

 plants may commence. This should be 

 often repeated. As soon as the various- 

 crops come into full blossom, two or three 

 inches length of each, stem is broken ofL 

 This, by preventing its increase in height,, 

 causes more sap to be afforded to the- 

 blossom, consequently causing it to ad- 

 vance with more rapidity, and to set 

 more abundantly. 



For seed. No two varieties should be 

 grown near to each other ; and, in order 

 to preserve the early ones as uncontami- 

 nated as possible, those plants only which 

 blossom and produce their pods the first 

 should be preserved. None oi the pods 

 ought to be gathered for the table from 

 them; the after - production of seed is 

 never so fine, and the plants raised from 

 it are always deficient in vigour. They 

 are fit for harvesting when the leaves 

 have become blackish, which occurs at 

 the end of August, or early in September. 

 The pods may be gathered from the 

 stems when ripe enough, and spread out 

 thin, upon a dry, airy, boarded floor, to 

 dry. Those only should be preserved 



