82 



THE VEGETABLES OF NEW YORK 



leaf surface slightly rough, slightly crumpled, medium veined, thick; 

 leaflets large, 5 inches long by 3 '2 inches wide, widest two-fifths the 

 distance from base, rounded rather pear-shaped to base, sides long 

 straight taper to slender tip. Flowers blush pink. 



Pods borne both above and below foliage; waxy green in color. 

 Quality poor: tough, stringy and very fibrous. Size long, fairly 

 broad and slender (5-6 x J •_> x -^ inches) containing 4-5 seeds per 

 pod. Shape oval to flat, long oval in cross-section, straight, straight 

 backed, regular to slightly constricted, fairly crowded, smooth, 

 filled to the tip and edge and rounded to somewhat tapering at the 

 end. Spur long, medium slender, straight and occasionally slightly 

 curved. Suture, placental is flat and carpellary, acute. 



Seeds medium to large 1.8 x 1. x .65 cm. (40-60 per oz.), long, 

 broad, somewhat reniform, rather flattened, long oval in cross- 

 section; ends rounded. Hilum small, flat. Color ranges from pink- 

 ish crimson (jasper pink), and reddish brown (hay's russet) to a 

 deep mahogany (garnet brown) over the entire body. The varia- 

 tion may be within or between strains. 



Rod Marrow. Refs. 43. This variety seems not 

 to have been listed in catalogs nor was it described by 

 Irish, Tracy, or Jarvis; but price quotations have often 

 been noted in market reports and, according to Hickox- 

 Rumsey Company of Batavia, N. Y., it has been grown 

 near there and northward to Lake Ontario for the last 

 35 or 40 years. It was grown to produce a colored bean 

 to ship to Porto Rico and Cuba. 



Plant 1 to 1 J g feet tall, spreading, somewhat trailing; foliage 

 medium green; leaflets rather larger than those of Large White 

 Marrow, smaller than those of Perry Marrow. Flowers lilac. Pods 

 of Nova Scotia Marrow type 4'i to 4 3 4 inches long, more than 

 1 _> inch wide, straight or slightly curved, ovate in cross-section, 

 doubly rounded to blunt at the ends, with rather heavy rigid tips. 

 Seeds 5, occasionally 6, about size of Nova Scotia Marrows, not as 

 plump, longer, long ovate or oblong with ends unequal in size, often 

 truncate; same color as light strains of Red Kidney, but darker and 

 less flat than the variety Pink. 



Red Mexican. Refs. 43, 44, 91. Syns. California 

 Red, Mexican, Mexican Red, Red, Red Spanish, Rojo, 

 Salinas Red. As Red Mexican came from the Indians 

 of northern Mexico and is unknown in Chile, it is pos- 

 sibly a southern strain of the bean from which Hidatsa 

 Red was developed by the Indians of the northern 

 Plains. In California it has been known and prized as 

 a dry-land crop since 1855. It is said to be indistinguish- 

 able from Pink in the field until the seeds begin to color. 

 The seed is similar to Hidatsa Red; the flowers white. 



Robust. Refs. 43, 77, 82. Syns. Improved Robust, 

 Michigan Improved. Beginning with its cultivation by 

 the Indians in New York State, the small white pea bean 

 has been the most widely grown of the field beans. 

 Selection for high yields and hardier plants was commonly 

 practiced by bean growers everywhere that dry shell 

 beans were produced. In 1908, Prof. F. A. Spragg of 

 Michigan Agricultural College made several selections 

 from a large collection of commercial samples of white 

 navy beans. These original selections were made from 

 plants that stood out as being more resistant to mosaic 

 than the majority in the field. Seed of one of these 

 selections was increased and introduced to Michigan 

 farmers in 1913 and named Robust that same year by 

 Professor Spragg. Reselections from the original strain 

 were made and one of these was introduced to growers 

 in 1918 and another in 1921. The later introduction 

 was known as Improved Robust, which however has not 



proved superior in production to the original strain. 

 This selection did serve the purpose of establishing again 

 a pure supply of seed. 



The Robust bean is now, in the principal pea-bean 

 producing sections of the country, especially in Michigan 

 and New York, the leading field variety and is fast 

 displacing all other strains. It is later than some other 

 strains of Navy Pea (Crawford, Hunter, Wonder, or 

 Michigan Improved) and rather slow in developing its 

 very extensive root system, but when established is able 

 to set and mature more pods than any other. The 

 leaflets of Robust are usually more wrinkled than those 

 of Navy and are drawn in at the edge, so that Robust 

 holds its foliage under adverse conditions and continues 

 green and vigorous late in the season. 



Pods borne mostly below foliage; also to some extent in the 

 lower leaf axils of runners. Color light greenish white. Quality 

 poor; stringy, fibrous and tough. Size very short, narrow, and 

 slender (3-4 x 7 16 x 5/16 inches), containing 6-7 seeds per pod. 

 Shape oval, ovate in cross-section, slightly curved, straight backed, 

 regular, crowded, filled to the tip and edge, and somewhat bluntly 

 pointed on the end. Spur long, slender, and slightly recurved. 

 Suture, placental is flattened and carpellary, acute. 



Seeds small, .9 x .6 x .55 cm. (130 per oz.); short oval, slightly 

 more plump than the Navy pea; ends abruptly rounded to truncate. 

 Hilum small, slightly protuberant. Color dull white, showing more 

 numerous and darker gray vein-like markings than does Navy. 



Rouge D'Orleans. Refs. 47, 98. Syns. Scarlet 

 Orleans. Under the name Red Orleans, which is the 

 translation of the name here given, Burr describes a 

 pole bean; but the only Orleans bean we find in French 

 literature and the one grown at this Station and at the 

 Missouri Botanical Garden is a dwarf sort. At best 

 this variety was grown in America only experimentally, 

 unless it was a precursor to the variety Red Marrow, 

 grown in western New York, whose origin is unknown 

 but which dates back to the last recorded dates for 

 Orleans and which corresponds very closely to it. Red 

 Orleans plants, however, put out many runners and the 

 seeds had a black eye-ring. 



Snowflake. Refs. 48, 63, 84, 85, 91. Snowflake 

 was introduced in 1888 by Gregory who claimed it to 

 be the earliest and most productive pea bean, but Tracy 

 and Jarvis found it less productive than Navy with 

 narrower pods and smaller seeds. From Gregory's figure 

 of plant and pods, data from a Kansas test in 1890, and 

 our own recent tests, the seeds seem to be fully as large 

 as those of Navy. At present it is little grown outside 

 of Maine and Massachusetts. 



Soldier. Syns. Johnson Bean. This is a bean 

 grown in Maine and New Hampshire which is very 

 similar to China Red-eye, but, as grown here, has taller 

 plants, rather finer foliage, much longer and slenderer 

 pods, containing 6 beans which are long, kidney -shaped 

 rather than oval. The seed markings are similar to the 

 markings on Brittle Wax and Old Fashioned Yellow Eye, 

 but are a brownish red in color. It is a good bean for 

 baking. 



Sulphur. Refs. 43, 48. Syns. California Cream, 

 China Yellow, Eureka, Golden Cranberry, Golden Drop, 

 Robin's Egg, Self-seasoning. Older names should take 



