SCARLET RUNNER BEANS 



91 



I The Scarlet Runner is the most 

 ,i valuable, and frequently the most 

 i| beautiful, plant in English cottage 

 1 gardens. It is grown in thousands 

 i of gardens, even in London and 

 our large cities and towns, hiding 

 with its quick-running and vigorous 

 I shoots many ugly surfaces in summer, 

 i and affording a quantity of whole- 

 some food. The pods are often, 

 like many other vegetables, allowed 

 to get too old and hard before being 

 gathered. 



Scarlet Runners are generally 

 raised from seed, but the roots may, 

 if desired, be taken up in autumn 

 and preserved through the winter in 

 I dry sand or in soil in any shed or 

 cellar from which frost is excluded. 

 If roots thus wintered be brought 

 out and planted about the latter end 

 of May, they come into bearing a 

 fortnight or three weeks earlier than 

 those raised from seed sown at the 

 same time. They are also sometimes 

 left in the ground all the winter, and 

 protected from frost by a good thick 

 layer of coal ashes placed over the 

 rows. Thus treated, they start early 

 in May, if the weather be favour- 

 able ; and when they have attained 

 the height of 3 or 4 ft., if stopped, 

 will produce beans much earlier than 

 by any other method ; but if a pro- 

 fitable crop be desired, this plan is 

 not to be recommended, as the plants 

 do not continue in bearing so long 

 as those that are raised from seed. 

 Among positions chosen for Scarlet 

 Runners may be named small patches 

 of ground at the corners of walks, 

 planting five or six seeds in a patch, 

 5 or 6 in. apart. Three stout poles 

 or sticks, as used for Peas, are then 

 placed round them in the form of a 

 triangle, bent so as to meet at the top, 

 where they are tied. In small gardens 

 they are often trained over wire or 

 woodwork, so as to form summer- 

 houses or coverings for walks. 



Culture. — In large gardens the 

 general practice is to sow in open 

 quarters, and where beans are re- 

 quired as long in the season as they 

 can be obtained, and in large quan- 

 tities, this is undoubtedly the best 

 plan. They should be allowed a 

 distance of at least 6 ft. between the 

 rows, and if more can be afforded 

 them, all the better. For early 

 crops, a few rows may be made close 

 under a south wall or fence, keeping 

 the points regularly pinched out, in 

 order to keep them dwarf and en- 

 courage the earlier development of 

 the pods. In this case they will, 

 of course, need no support, but be 

 allowed to lie in a thick row along 

 the ground. Beans may be produced 

 in this way several weeks earlier 

 than in open quarters, but they do 

 not continue so long in bearing, nor 

 do they produce such abundant crops. 

 Where, however, earliness is an ob- 

 ject, this plan may be followed with 

 advantage. Seeds for this purpose 

 may either be sown in heat and 

 transplanted, or sown in the open 

 ground where the plants are to re- 

 main. The former way is the more 

 troublesome, but it is the best where 

 covering is at hand to protect them 

 from cold winds and frosts after they 

 have been planted. If sown in heat, 

 the seeds should be put in about the 

 second week in May, either in boxes 

 or pots, boxes being the best ; they 

 should be shallow — say, not more 

 than 4 or 5 in. deep — their size in 

 other respects being of no great im- 

 portance ; they should have holes at 

 the bottom for drainage, and should 

 be half filled with half-rotted leaf- 

 mould pressed down rather firmly 

 with the hand; slightly cover with 

 fine soil, and upon this sow in rows 

 2 in. apart, and cover with about 

 I in. of finely sifted leaf-mould, 

 giving the whole a good watering. 

 If placed in a Cucumber or Melon 



