KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. CHAP. 



kidney-beans, which must be by no means neglected ; 

 and that is, to take care that no pods be left upon the 

 plant, to contain beans approaching to a state of maturity j 

 for, the moment there be such pods, they draw away all 

 the strength of the plant to themselves, and it would 

 produce no more pods fit for use. It is the same with 

 the cucumber, suffer one cucumber to become large and 

 yellow, and to begin to ripen its seed, and not another 

 young cucumber will come upon the same plant. As to 

 the sorts or varieties of dwarf beans, the yellow dwarf, 

 that I have imported from America, I have found to be 

 the earliest, by several days, and also the greatest bearer. 

 There is the black dwarf, which is deemed early also. 

 The speckled dwarf is a great bearer, but not so early. 

 The best way, probably, is to sow one row of each on 

 the same day $ and, though the difference in the time of 

 coming in may not be much, it may be something, and 

 nothing ought to be neglected in the case of a vegetable 

 so universally and so justly esteemed. It is curious, that 

 the Americans should follow the example of the French 

 with regard to the use of the produce of the kidney- 

 bean. They eat them as we do, in the pod ; or, rather, 

 they eat the pod, as we do ; but they eat them more 

 frequently in the bean itself, and that at two different 

 stages, first, when it has got its full size in the pod, and 

 when, to me, it appears a very nasty thing j and second, 

 they eat them as a winter vegetable : they soak them 

 and boil them. The French do the same, and I can by no 

 means discover that this was ever the practice in Eng- 

 land. The seed of the kidney bean may always be saved 

 in England with great facility, if we would but take the 

 proper means ; that is to say, forbear from eating the 



