AMERICAN GARDEN-BEAN. 267 



The variety is not only hardy and remarkably productive, 

 but the young pods are tender and excellent, and the seeds, 

 green or ripe, are surpassed by few, if any, of the Dwarf 

 sorts, in mildness and delicacy of flavor. 



Plant vigorous, much branched, and, like the Pea-bean. 

 Blue Pod and "White Marrow, inclined .to send 

 up running shoots ; foliage small, deep green ; flowers white ; 

 the pods are four inches long, half an inch wide, nearly 

 straight, and contain five beans. 



Planted early in spring, it blossomed in fifty days, 

 afforded green pods in fifty-eight days, and ripened in fifteen 

 weeks. In favorable autumns, it will ripen if planted as 

 late as the 20th of June ; but it is not so early as the Blue 

 Pod or White Marrow, and, when practicable, should have 

 the advantage of the entire season. 



The ripe seeds of the pure variety are quite small, round- 

 ish-ovoid, five-sixteenths of an inch long, a fourth of an 

 inch in width and thickness, and of a pure, yet not glossy, 

 white color. Forty-four hundred seeds are contained in a 

 quart. 



As a garden variety, it is of little value, though the 

 young pods are crisp and tender. It is cultivated almost 

 exclusively as a field-bean. If planted in rows or drills 

 two feet apart, three pecks of seeds will be required for an 

 acre ; or eighteen quarts will seed this quantity of land if 

 the rows are two feet and a half apart. When planted in 

 hills, eight seeds are allowed to a hill ; and, if the hills are 

 made three feet apart, eight quarts will plant an acre. The 

 yield varies from fourteen to twenty bushels, according to 

 soil, season, and cultivation. 



The Pea-bean, the White Marrow, and the Blue Pod, are 

 the principal, if not the only, kinds of much commercial im- 

 portance ; the names of other varieties being rarely, if ever, 

 mentioned in the regular reports of the current prices of the 

 markets. If equally well ripened, and, in their respective 



