36 GARDENING FOR YOUNG AXD OLD. 



raised without poles, but this is a slovenly method which 

 ought not to be tolerated in the garden. Another excel- 

 lent pole bean is the Scarlet Runner. It is a rampant 

 grower and is frequently used as a screen; the flowers are 

 beautiful and the pods, gathered when young, are de- 

 licious. 



BUSH BEANS. 



For string beans the best variety I have yet grown, is 

 the Black Wax or Butter-bean. The Golden Wax is a 

 larger bean and more productive, but I do not think the 

 pods are any better. The Early Valentine is a little 

 earlier than the Wax or Butter-bean, and on this account 

 deserves a place in every garden. The White Kidney is 

 a very valuable bean. It affords very fair string beans, and 

 the pods, which are not wanted for this purpose, can be 

 left on the vines to ripen, when they will prove very ac- 

 ceptable for boiling and baking. 



The cultivation of bush beans is a simple matter. In 

 the field where they are to be cultivated with a horse-hoe, 

 they are planted in rows about thirty inches apart, and 

 five or six beans are dropped in a hill, or place, every 

 twelve or fifteen inches in the row. A larger yield proba- 

 bly could be obtained by drilling the beans continuously 

 in the row, say one bean to each inch ; but it is a little 

 more work to pull the beans when ripe, and some of our 

 farmers think it is more work to hoe them. In the garden 

 it is not necessary to plant the beans so far apart. In my 

 own garden, I make the rows fifteen inches apart, and 

 drop the beans about an inch apart in the row. The chil- 

 dren are very apt to sow them a good deal thicker than 

 this, and I have noticed that the first dish of beans always 

 comes from the children's garden. As a rule, thick seeding 

 favors early maturity ; at any rate this is so with peas, 

 beans, and the grain crops, such as wheat, barley, and 



