BEANS AND PEAS 145 



soil richer in nitrogen after the crop is gathered than before it 

 was planted. It is for this reason that wheat, which requires 

 an abundant supply of nitrogen, does best as a rule when it follows 

 a clover crop. During the past few years numerous experiments 

 have been made in seeding with Bacterium radicicola soils which 

 were poor in nitrogen and poor in this particular micro-organism. 

 Various preparations of soil containing the bacteria in abundance 

 have been put on the market under the name of Nitragin, Nitro- 

 bacterine, etc. In a number of cases in this country and in 

 America it is stated that increased crops have resulted from the 

 dressing. The careful experiments on Peas carried out by Chitten- 

 den at the Royal Horticultural Society's Experimental Gardens 

 at Wisley seem to show, however, that the inoculation of legum- 

 inous crops with Nitrobacterine in ordinary garden soil is not 

 likely to prove beneficial. 1 



Beans and Peas, regarded from the point of view of food, are 

 remarkable for their high nitrogenous contents. They contain 

 14 per cent, only of water, 50 per cent, of carbohydrates (starch 

 and sugar), and over 20 per cent, of proteid. They also contain 

 considerable quantities of salts of potassium and calcium. Peas 

 and Beans thus contain a bigger proportion of food material than 

 any other vegetable, and for persons of robust digestive powers 

 approach meat in their value as suppliers of nitrogen. 



THE DWARF FRENCH OR KIDNEY BEAN (Phaseolus vulgaris) 



This, like the Scarlet Runner, is much less hardy than the 

 Broad Bean or Pea, and it is therefore not safe to sow the seeds 

 earlier than the last week in April. Even at that date the bed 

 should be in a sheltered and sunny position. The soil, which 

 must be good, should have been manured in the preceding autumn, 

 as this plant does not thrive in soil containing undecomposed 

 farmyard manure. For sowing the seeds, make a shallow drill 

 with the draw hoe one and a half inch deep, drop two or three 

 seeds at intervals of six inches, and leave one and a half foot 

 between the rows. If, when the young plants show above ground, 



1 See " Contributions from the Wisley Laboratory, No. IV. The Inoculation of 

 Leguminous Crops," Journ. of the Roy. Hort. Soc. 1908. 

 VOL. v. 10 



