620 PRACTICE OF GARDENING. Part III. 



while the peas are yet green and tender. Leave some on to grow old ; the young pods will then fill in 

 greater perfection, and the plants will continue longer in bearing." 



3610. To save seed. " Either sow approved sorts in the spring, for plants, to stand 

 wholly for seed, to have the pods ripen in full perfection ; or occasionally leave some 

 rows of any main crop ; let all the early podded ripen, and gather the late formed only 

 for the table, as the last gleanings of a crop seldom afford good full seed. For public 

 supply extensive crops are commonly raided in fields. Let the seed attain full maturity, 

 indicated by the pods changing brown, and the peas hardening : then to be hooked up 

 and prepared for threshing out in due time, cleaned, and housed." 



3611. For the method of 'forcing -peas, see Chap. VII. Sect. XII. 



Subsect. 2. Garden-Bean. Vicia Faba, L. Triad. Dec. L. and Leguminosce, J. 

 Feve de marais, Fr. ; Bohn, Ger. ; and Fava, Ital. 



3612. The garden-bean is an annual plant, rising from two to four feet high, with a 

 thick angular stem, the leaves divided, and without tendrils ; the flowers white, with a 

 black spot in the middle of the wing ; seed-pods thick, long, woolly within, and enclosing 

 the large ovate flatted seeds, for the sake of which the plant is cultivated in gardens. It 

 is a native of the east, and particularly of Egypt, but has been known in this country 

 from time immemorial, having, in all probability, been introduced by the Romans. 

 " Crops of beans," Neill observes, " are very ornamental to the kitchen-garden, and 

 render it a pleasant walk, the flowers having a fragrance not unlike those of the orange." 



3613. Use. The seeds are the only part used in cookery; and are either put in 

 soups, or sent up in dishes apart. 



3614. Varieties. The following are the principal sorts planted in British gardens : 



Early small Mazagan 

 Early long-pod 

 Early small Lisbon 

 Large long -pod 

 Larger sword long-pod 



Broad Spanish I Toker; middling large 

 Windsor broad White-blossomed ; smallish middling 



Large Kentish Windsor Green nonpareil ; smallish 



Largest Taylor's Windsor Mumford ; smallish middling 



Sandwich ; largish ) Dwarf cluster, or fan : smallest. 



3615. Estimate of sorts. " The Mazagan is one of the hardiest and best flavored of the small and early- 

 sorts. Mazagan is a Portuguese settlement on the coast of Africa, near the Straits of Gibraltar ; and it is 

 said that seeds brought from thence afford plants that are more early and more fruitful than those which 

 spring from home-saved seed. The Lisbon is next, in point of earliness and fruitfulness ; some, indeed, 

 consider it as merely the Mazagan ripened in Portugal. The dwarf-fan or cluster-bean is likewise an 

 early variety, but it is planted chiefly for curiosity ; it rises only six or eight inches high ; the branches 

 spread out like a fan, and the pods are produced in small clusters. The Sandwich bean has been long 

 noted for its fruitfulness ; the Toker and the broad Spanish are likewise great bearers. Of all the large 

 kinds, the Windsor bean is preferred for the table. When gathered young, the seeds are sweet and very 

 agreeable ; when the plants are allowed room and time, they produce very large seeds, and in tolerable 

 plenty, though they are not accounted liberal bearers. There are several subvarieties, such as the broad 

 Windsor, Taylor's Windsor, and the Kentish Windsor. The long-podded bean rises about three feet high, 

 and is a great bearer, the pods being long and narrow, and closely filled with oblong middle-sized seeds. 

 This sort is now very much cultivated, and there are several subordinate varieties of it, as the early, the 

 large, and the sword long-pod. The white-blossomed bean is so called, because the black mark on the 

 wing of the blossom is wanting. The seed is semi-transparent ; when young it has little of the peculiar 

 bean flavor, and is on this account much esteemed ; it is at the same time a copious bearer, and proper for 

 a late crop. It may be mentioned, that Delaunay, in Le bon Jardinier, describes as excellent a new 

 variety cultivated at Paris, which he calls the green bean from China ; it is late, but very productive ; and 

 the fruit remains green even when ripe and dried." 



3616. Times of sowing for early and successional crops. " For the earliest crop, plant some Mazagans 

 in October, November, or December, in a warm border, under an exposure to the full sun. Set them in 

 rows two feet or two and a half asunder, about an inch and a half or two inches deep, and two or three 

 inches apart in the rows ; or some may also be sown in a single drill, under a south wall." The most 

 successful plan for nurturing a crop over the winter, is to sow the beans thickly together in a bed of light 

 earth, under a warm aspect, for the intermediate object of protecting the infant plants the better from 

 rigorous weather ; and with the view of transplanting them at the approach of spring, or when the size of 

 the plants (two or three inches in height) require it, into warm borders, at the distances at which the 

 plants are to fruit. For this object, the width of a garden-frame is a convenient width for the bed, which 

 should slope a little to the south. Sow two inches deep, either in drills, or by drawing off that depth of 

 the earth with a hoe or spade, scattering in the beans at the distance of about a square inch. At the ap- 

 proach of frost, protect the rising plants with a frame, hand-glasses, or the half-shelter of an awning of 

 matting. In February or March, as soon as mild weather offers, transplant them into a warm south bor- 

 der, placing one row close under a protecting-fence as far as that advantage can be given. Ease them out 

 of the seed-bed with their full roots, and with as much mould as will adhere : pull off the old beans at 

 bottom, and prune the end of the tap-root. Then plant them at the proper final distances, closing the 

 earth rather high about the stems. Besides the benefit of previous protection, the fruiting of the beans is 

 accelerated about a week by transplanting. Further, if severe frosts kill the early advanced plants, or if 

 it was omitted to sow an early crop at the general season, a quantity may be sown thick in a moderate 

 hot-bed, in January or February, or in large pots placed therein, or in a stove, to raise some plants quickly, 

 for transplanting as above ; previously hardening them by degrees to the full air. In all cases, as the 

 young plants come up, give occasional protection in the severity of winter ; and hoe up a little earth to 

 the stems. Plants which can have no other shelter should be covered lightly with dry haulm or straw ; 

 but such a covering must be carefully removed as often as the weather turns mild. To succeed the above, 

 plant more of the same sort, or some of the early long-pod or small Lisbon, in December or January, 

 when mild weather, for larger supplies, in more open exposures. And in order to obtain either a more 

 full succession, or a first general crop, plant some early and large long-pods, and broad Spanish, at the end of 

 January, if open weather, in some warmest compartment of good mellow ground. Some of the larger sword 

 long-pod, Sandwich, and Toker beans, may also be planted in fuller crops in February, if the weather 

 permit, both for succession and principal supplies. You may likewise plant any of the preceding kinds, as 

 well as Windsors and other sorts, in full and succession crops in February, March, and April." 



3617. For the main summer crops, " adopt principally the Windsor, Sandwich, and Toker, large long-pod, 

 and broad Spanish ; all to be assigned under a free exposure, in the main compartments. The Windsor ranks 

 first in regard to flavor ; but proves, on common soils, not so plentiful a bearer as the other late sorts. 

 Plant also full succession crops, in March and April, and smaller portions in May and June, for late pro- 



