VEGETABLES DESCRIPTION AXD CULTURE. 



283 



turpentine odor will destroy the bugs, if the vessel is 

 tightly corked, without injuring the vitality of the bean. 



Use. — The tender, fleshy pods of snap-beans are a favor- 

 ite summer vegetable, very delicate, wholesome, and mod- 

 erately nutritive. They are boiled while green, and may 

 be preserved for winter use, by cutting them into pieces 

 and laying them down in salt. They will make their 

 own briue, and must be kept covered by it, or they w T ill 

 spoil. Cook in two waters to extract the salt. The Lima 

 beans, and the suaps also, when full grown, are shelled, 

 and may be preserved for winter use, and afford in pro- 

 portion to their weight, more nutrition than most other 

 vegetables. Wheat contains but 74 per cent, of nutritive 

 matter, while kidney beans contain 84 per cent. They 

 abound in the constituents that produce muscle and fat, 

 and will supply better than most vegetables the place of 

 animal food. Gather them in their green state when full 

 grown, and dry them carefully in the sun. They are bet- 

 ter gathered thus than if delayed until ripe, and are also 

 free from bugs. Soak them over night before being 

 boiled. They can also be laid down with layers of salt 

 like snap-beans. They are very good gathered when ripe, 

 and dried carefully in an oven in order to keep them free 

 from insects, which, at the South, are quite destructive. 

 Snap-beans are also pickled, while young, in the same 

 way as cucumbers. 



Marketing. — The beans must be picked when the dew 

 is dried off the pods, so that there will be as small amount 

 of moisture present in the packages as possible. And in- 

 asmuch as there will be more or less shrinking, the beans 

 are exposed to the air in the packing house an hour or 

 more, so that the packages will be full when they reach 

 their destination. An ordinary vegetable crate is used 

 in which the beans are regularly laid and well shaken 

 clown in order that the packing will be firm. 



