THE VEGETABLES OF NEW YORK 



by selection and care of individual plants and their 

 progeny would result in groups of plants of uncertain 

 stability. It is nearly impossible to determine now 

 just exactly what kind of plant was meant by the short 

 descriptions and poor illustrations of old horticultural 

 lists, and the likelihood of determining where in our 

 present scheme of classification these old varieties would 

 fall is almost nil — beyond the roughest sort of approxi- 

 mation. Consequently, no attempt is made here to 

 consider horticultural varieties before seedsmen began 

 to list them for sale. Before this the varieties had 

 been passed from hand to hand, exchanged in trade, 

 or otherwise bandied about. 



Landreth in 1784 seems to have been America's 

 oldest seedhouse, but many of their early records were 

 lost by fire. Thorburn is noted by several writers as 

 having listed a number of varieties in 1822. Many of 

 these are of fairly certain types and are given here. 



Both Large White and Small White limas are 

 listed and undoubtedly represent selections of wild 

 types or at least types cultivated by the Indians and 

 acquired by the early settlers. The bush types came 

 into the trade much later — probably not before 1870- 

 1875. The speckled lima was well known abroad and 

 had been cultivated in the south in colonial times. 



Several types of field beans are noted, among which 

 are White Marrow, Yellow Cranberry, China Red Eye, 

 and White Kidney. At that time or within the next 

 decade or two Yellow Eye and Turtle Soup were cat- 

 aloged. Without question some of these varieties as 

 known today are improved strains of those sold at that 

 time, but the types were apparently fairly true. 



Green pole beans were represented by Dutch Case- 

 knife and White Cranberry Pole (Lazy Wife), both of 

 which had undoubtedly been grown by farmers for many 

 years. Red Cranberry Pole evidently was in cultiva- 

 tion here in the early 1800's and London Horticultural 

 is said to have been imported from England in 1825. 



Of the green-podded bush types, Long Yellow Six 

 Weeks, Early Yellow Six Weeks, Refugee, and Mohawk 

 w : ere in cultivation among the first and were noted by 

 Thorburn in his early catalogs. Mohawk is said to 

 have been cultivated earlier than 1800 by the Indians. 

 Dwarf Red Cranberry of the same type as Low's 

 Champion was also well known. 



In the Magazine of Horticulture for 1837 Valen- 

 tine is noted as a novelty and is one of the first flat- 

 podded beans listed. It was said to have originated 

 near Philadelphia some time before this but apparently 

 was not generally distributed until somewhat later. 



About 1835 Cutshort (Corn or Cornhill) appeared 

 in the catalogs and within the next two years the first 

 cultivated wax pole is noted in England as Algiers 

 though it did not find its way into American trade 

 until about 1852 when this variety was introduced as 

 Indian Chief. 



The earliest Dwarf Horticultural is said to have 

 been in cultivation before 1845 though present varieties 

 are rather different types from those passing under this 

 name before the Civil War. 



The following list cataloged by Horey in 1859 shows 

 the status of bean varieties in the middle of the nine- 

 teenth century: Early Round and Early Long Yellow 

 Sue Weeks, White's Extra Early, Early Mohawk, 

 Early China, Early Valentine, Dwarf Horticultural, 

 Refugee, White Marrow, Large White Kidney, 

 Half Moon, Turtle Soup, Early White Caseknife, 

 Horticultural Pole, Red Cranberry, Sieva, Large 

 Lima, Scarlet Runner, White Dutch Runner, and 

 Painted Lady Runner. 



Within the next 20 years several new varieties 

 appeared, among which the most notable are German 

 Black Wax — probably the first wax-podded bush type 

 in the trade — Golden Wax, Concord, a horticultural 

 pole selection, Dreer's Improved Lima, and Henderson's 

 Bush Lima. The latter, though reported to have been 

 discovered along a roadside in Virginia about 1875, 

 apparently did not get in the trade until 1888. 



Selection of promising chance hybrids or sports was 

 apparently the chief source of new varieties in America 

 at this time and indeed for many years later. C. N. 

 Keeney of Leroy, N. Y., who possibly has to his credit 

 as many valuable varieties as any other single grower, 

 is quoted as saying "It is a curious fact that most new 

 varieties of beans are accidents rather than the result of 

 hand pollination. Nature by using bees seems to do a 

 better job of it than man." Keeney started his selec- 

 tions about 1885 and claims, among others, origination 

 of the following better known varieties: Pencil Pod 

 Black Wax, Brittle Wax, Fordhook Favorite, 

 Keeney's Rustless Golden Wax, Wardwell's Kidney 

 Wax, Giant Stringless Green Pod, Surecrop String- 

 less Wax, Burpee's Stringless White Wax, and 

 Burpee's Stringless Green Pod. 



A. N. Jones, also of LeRoy, N. Y., later of Newark, 

 N. Y., produced a larger number of hybrids beginning 

 in 1881 with Jones Ivory Pod Wax, a parent of many 

 later varieties. 



D. G. Burlingame of Genesee Co., N. Y., with 

 Bountiful, John Kramer of Doylestown, Pa., with 

 Golden Cluster Wax, and W. H. Grenell of Pierrepont 

 Manor, N. Y., with Grenells Rustless, have selected 

 or originated the varieties listed. Unfortunately, the 

 originators of many varieties are unknown. 



Until very lately definitely planned crosses based on 

 studies of the heredity of characters in beans have played 

 so small a part in the development of new varieties 

 that one can not wonder that the discoverer of chance 

 seedlings should have been so quickly forgotten. More- 

 over, the original discoverer was almost without excep- 

 tion not engaged in the seed business, and he lost both 

 control and interest in the variety as soon as he sold his 

 stock to a large seed company. The commercial con- 

 cern also lost interest in the introducer as soon as the 

 purchase was completed. The relation of the Burpee 

 Company and Keeney forms a noteworthy exception. 



In summarizing, it should be said that with few 

 exceptions all beans coming into the trade during the 

 nineteenth century were types already grown by the 

 Indians and the colonists and were picked up by the 



