LEADING VEGETABLE CROPS 121 



Other varieties frequently planted are Conover's 

 Colossal, Barr's Mammoth, Columbian Mammoth 

 White and Argenteuil. 



BEANS 



The term bean is applied to no less than eigbt 

 distinct species of plants, native to widely separated 

 countries of the world. For purposes of conven- 

 ience in this discussion, beans may be divided into 

 two general groups, viz., field and garden beans. 

 The field beans are widely grown in various sec- 

 tions of the country, but are more properly con- 

 sidered as field and farm crops. Garden beans, as 

 commonly grown and understood, naturally fall into 

 two distinct groups, bush and pole beans. Under 

 each of these divisions we have the well-known sub- 

 divisions of kidney and lima beans. Various habits 

 of growth, form of pods, time of maturity, etc., 

 constitute the characteristics upon which the 

 above classifications are based. The type as 

 well as variety of garden beans to be grown in any 

 given locality is determined very largely by the uses 

 to be made of them. Certain varieties are especially 

 well adapted to use in the snap or string form, but 

 if intended for canning entirely different varieties 

 would be selected. The bean is cultivated 

 wherever home or commercial gardening is followed, 

 and is usually planted in such a way as to secure a 

 succession of picking from early in the season until 

 frost destroys the plants in the fall. Beans adapt 

 themselves to a great variety of soils and will per- 

 haps give better results on poor soils than almost 

 any other crop. Nevertheless the bean responds to 

 good soils and good treatment fully as well as any 



