30 



THE VEGETABLES OF NEW YORK 



Virginia Cornfield. Refs. 91. T. W. Wood 85 

 Sons in 1905 were the first to list this variety, but the 

 casualness of the introduction and the meager descrip- 

 tion indicate an old variety rather than an origination. 

 During the next 10 years it attained some popularity, 

 but about 1915 it began to lose its position since it was 

 too late for the North, too slender-podded, too tough, 

 and too stringy for snaps and too small-seeded for green- 

 shell beans. In the South it is grown among corn for a 

 dry-shell bean, the white seeds being more acceptable 

 for this purpose than the colored ones of many other pole 

 beans. It somewhat resembles Missouri Wonder and 

 Royal Corn in general character and usefulness, but 

 is later and has smaller pods. Like Georgia Pole and 

 Powell's Prolific, it is very late, but also, with these 

 varieties, it represents a group that makes the largest 

 growth of any other pole varieties. 



Plants large, good climbers, heavy-stemmed, much branched, 

 very productive. Pods nearly 7 inches long, curved, flat, tough, 

 stringy, fibrous, green occasionally marked purplish. Seeds 8 or 

 9, about ] _> inch long, half as wide, oblong or slightly kidney- 

 shaped, fairly plump, occasionally compressed on ends, white. 



Ward Prolific This variety was introduced by 

 the Grand Junction Seed Company in 1925. It is a 

 very late, very productive, small-podded variety, with 

 pods of beautiful appearance, that are edible within 

 80 to 85 days. The plants and pods resemble those of 

 Scotia in many ways but are distinct showing less red 

 throughout, the foliage is more dense, more compact, 

 the leaflets are larger, less crumpled, and pods are edible 

 nearly 10 days later. The seed is black, more like 

 Black Creaseback or Ideal Market. 



Plant tall, 4 1 2 feet and more with spread of 2} -j feet at base, 

 a good climber with rather dense compact growth: very vigorous, 

 productive; stout stemmed, many branches, showing some red on 

 stems but not as much as Scotia. Foliage very abundant, dark 

 green; surface smooth, slightly crumpled, glossy, pubescent, thin; 

 leaflets large. Flowers rose purple. 



Pods medium green in the snap stage but later becoming 

 speckled with pinkish to purplish markings. Quality poor; stringy, 

 quite fleshy, tough, fibrous and coarse in texture. Size medium 



long, rather narrow and quite plump, 1 4 J _>-5 ' ■ 



x :: « inches), 



containing 8-9 seeds per pod. Shape round, nearly circular to 

 broad cordate in cross-section, slightly but quite uniformly curved, 

 straight backed to slightly crease backed, regular, very crowded, 

 smooth, filled to the tip and edge and abruptly rounded to truncate 

 at the end. Spur short, thick and straight. Suture, placental is 

 flat to slightly indented and carpellary, rounded to obtuse. 



Seeds small, 1.0 x .6 x .45 cm., (145-150 per oz.); inclined to 

 be somewhat rhomboidal, short, quite plump; ends distinctly trun- 

 cate. Hilum medium, flat to slightly indented. Color very dull, 

 cloudy black over the entire surface. 



White Asparagus. Refs. 47. This bean was 

 described at the Missouri Botanical Garden in 1901, 

 but does not appear to have been grown elsewhere in 

 this country. The variety is apparently of German 

 origin but has been grown in France and described by 

 both Vilmorin and Denaiffe as Quatre-a-quatre. The 

 plant may be described as a short-vined Lazy Wife, 

 with finer foliage, somewhat flatter pods, and larger 

 seeds. Denaiffe also describes separately an " Asperge " 

 bean, also from Germany, which differs from Quatre-a- 

 quatre, mainly in having somewhat taller vines and 



larger seeds. The two French varieties are probably 

 only strains from an old German stock. Seed, dingy 

 white. 



Vi hite Cranberry. Refs. 13, 28, 94, 98. White 

 Cranberry was known in America as early as 1828 and 

 was quite popular for a long time, for its white, green- 

 shell beans. Sophie, Lazy Wife, and White Cranberry 

 are names which have been represented in catalogs for 

 more than a century. Of the three, Lazy Wife alone 

 continues to be listed in current catalogs. There is 

 no clear demarkation between these varieties. Denaiffe 

 gives White Cranberry as a synonym of Coco Blanc 

 which, according to his description, is identical with 

 Lazy Wife. Vilmorin considers Sophie a strain of 

 Coco Blanc, while Wing described Sophie as either the 

 predecessor of Lazy Wife or its European form. By 

 some White Cranberry was known by a few characters 

 markedly different from other types, it being decidedly 

 more stocky, with broader pods, wider from stem to 

 tip, and with marked carmine or purplish shadings 

 typical of the horticultural varieties, and also with 

 seeds slightly longer in proportion than those of Sophie. 



White-Seeded Butter. Refs. 48, 52. Dallwig 

 introduced this variety from Europe prior to 1901. It 

 was quite similar to Burger Stringless, but with larger 

 pods which were less round, straighter, decidedly stringy, 

 and with seeds which were distinctly larger. 



White Sickle. Refs. 48, 91. Syns. White Wonder. 

 This is another of the so-called corn field varieties grown 

 in the South for many years before it was introduced 

 by Richard Frotscher Co. in 1882. White Sickle is 

 more like Royal Corn than any other variety, differing 

 from it in later season and lower productivity. It also 

 resembles Kentucky Wonder but has larger and later 

 vine with pods longer, straighter, more crease backed, 

 and a deeper green in color. The variety was listed in 

 1921 by only two seedsmen, from one of which we 

 obtained seed. The variety proved to be one of the 

 Cornfield Pole beans, so the description is not our 

 own but is shortened from those given by Tracy and 

 Jarvis. 



Plant very tall growing, and holding fairly well to supports, 

 very late, fairly to very productive in South. Pods most slender 

 of any of Burger Stringless group, 9 inches or more long, nearly or 

 quite straight near stem, but much curved toward tips, frequently 

 twisted, round, much creased on both dorsum and ventrum, much 

 swollen by beans and constricted in rather long separatory spaces 

 between them, along all outlines wavy, more or less zigzag, tips 

 longer than those of others in group, not very fleshy, but stringless, 

 fiberless and fine grained, rough-surfaced, dark green. Seeds 8 or 9, 

 nearly 5 s inches long, decidedly less than half as wide, elliptical 

 in outline, flattened, often distorted, somewhat wrinkled, creamy 

 white. 



White Soissons. Refs. 13, 47, 52, 56, 93, 94, 98. 



Soissons has been referred to under Caseknife, which 

 it resembles but from which it is separable by its larger, 

 broader seeds and the comparatively narrower, more 

 constricted, wrinkled pods. According to Bois, it was 

 first mentioned by De Combles in 1749, one of the very 

 early dates in the history of distinct varieties of beans. 

 It is said to have been grown near Soissons for 200 years. 



