76 PIGTOniAL PBAGTIGAL VEGETABLE GROWING. 



Chapter 10 — B^ans, 



By one of those singular cliances wliicli set us speculating at times, 

 there has grown up a species of social distinction between the Broad 

 Bean (Faba vulgaris or Vicia Faba) and the Kidney Bean in its two 

 popular forms, the Dwarf French (Phaseolus vulgaris) and the Scarlet 

 Eunner (Phaseolus multiflorus). The Broad Bean, so please you, 

 is of the masses, the Kidney Bean of the classes. The first is a 

 plebeian, the second an aristocrat. Eefined people profess rather a 

 horror of the Broad Bean, as a vulgar and commonplace vegetable, 

 too gross for a delicate palate. 



All this is rather stupid. Of course, it sprang from the scornful 

 line of Wordsworth : — 



And clowns eat Beans and bacon till they burst. 



Had the poet never written that, the thousands of people who, 

 fondly imagining themselves to be marked by a sturdy independence 

 of character, nevertheless dare not for their lives acknowledge a liking 

 for the Beans and bacon combination beloved of Hodge, w^ould be 

 devouring the tasty dish with a hearty gusto. • 



The Broad Windsor is the typical Broad Bean. The Longpod is 

 an interloper. Of course, the latter is now quite eclipsing the old 

 form in public favour. The Windsor has two or at most three Beans 

 in a pod, the Longpod has six or eight at least. In all probability 

 the Longpod will continue to grow in popularity at the expense of 

 its rival, but it does not beat it in flavour, if it does in productiveness. 



The remarks that have been made in previous papers on soil pre- 

 paration, manuring, seed, sowing, and insect extermination render it 

 unnecessary to say much about Bean culture. The man who knows 

 how to till his land, manure it, and keep dowm enemies has learnt 

 how to grow Beans. With a little information about varieties he is 

 quite safe. 



When autumn sowing was more practised than it is now the Early 

 Maz:igan was a popular Broad Bean, and it may still be used for 

 November sowing. It is very hardj^, and the sower often has the 

 satisfaction of surveying a sturdy row^ of plants 3 or 4 inches high in 

 March. 



Beck's Dwarf Green Gem is another old Bean. It is dwarf, 

 bushy, and small podded. Although it does not give the weight of 

 crop yielded by a good Longpod, its compactness of growth and 

 delicacy of flavour render it desirable for a sowing early in the year, 

 say in February, if soil and weather be favourable. 



Both Longpods and Windsors might be divided into two sections 

 if necessary — white seeded and green seeded. The first section givers 



