18 



AMERICAN VARIETIES OF GARDEN BEANS. 



desirable to always give the season of the snap pod stage so as to have 

 at least one period at which all varieties are compared, while the 

 season of the other periods need be given only in varieties where 

 green shell and dry beans are more important than snap pods. Some 

 field sorts which produce snap pods much later than some garden 

 varieties would, if judged upon a snap-pod basis alone, be classed as 

 late, when in reality they ripen their crops of seeds much earlier than 

 some so-called early garden varieties. The reason for some garden 

 varieties being early as snaps but late as dry beans is explained by the 

 large amount of flesh or pulp in many round-podded garden sorts, 

 which requires for such pods a long time to dry, whereas the pods of field 

 varieties, consisting, as they do, of thin, tough walls, ripen very quickly 

 when once the pods start to dry. The season of green shell beans is 

 not stated in the descriptions, but can be easily ascertained by adding 

 8 to 10 days to the snap-pod stage, and for field varieties and flat- 

 podded garden- sorts, such as Lightning and Tennessee Green Pod, 

 from 6 to 8 days to the same period. 



Length of hearing period (very short, short, moderate, long to 

 moderate, long, very long) . — This quality is closely related to season, 

 the early varieties generally being shorter lived than the late sorts and 

 without continuous-growing fruit-bearing runners and branches. 

 The harvesting of an entire crop at a few pickings is sometimes 

 desired by market gardeners, but for home and general use a longer 

 period of available snap and green-shell pods is more desirable. 



Productiveness (very light, light, light to moderate, moderate, 

 heavy to moderate, heavy, very heavy). — This character is closely 

 correlated with season, size, and vigor, the earlier, smaller, and less 

 vigorous varieties of the extremely early garden class generally being 

 less productive than the late, large, coarse-growing kinds. An aver- 

 age yield of dry seed for very light croppers, such as Valentine Wax, is 

 8 bushels, and for very heavy croppers, such as Late Refugee, 14 

 bushels to the acre. The former has been known, however, to pro- 

 duce as high as 18, and the latter as high as 40 bushels to the acre. 

 The yield of field varieties is considerably more than that of the 

 garden sorts, claims of 60 bushels being sometimes made, though the 

 average for the whole country is only about 12 bushels to the acre. 



Size of leaves (very large, large, medium, small, very small) . — As 

 the size of the leaves in the bean plants depends so largely upon the 

 position of the leaves on the plant, and as there is but little difference 

 between varieties in the average size of leaves, this quality is generally 

 of little aid in identification. There are, however, a few thick-stemmed 

 sorts, like Giant Forcer, which have very uniformly large leaves, and 

 a few slender-stemmed running sorts, like Crystal Wax, which have 

 very uniformly small leaves. 



109 



