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CHAPTER IV 

 Beans 



The person who "doesn't know beans" is 

 counted a stupid one. You and I know the little 

 white dry beans that began to be grown as a field 

 crop to supply our army during the Civil War. 

 This is the bean that supplies our navy, too, and 

 one name of it is, "Navy beany Boston bakes 

 this bean, and it is a staple food for man and 

 beast. 



We know the garden beans whose pods we eat 

 — snap and butter beans — beans that grow in bush 

 form and others that climb poles. All these 

 kinds are sprung from one species, probably 

 native to South America, and spread to India, 

 Egypt, Asia Minor, and Europe, following the 

 Spanish invasion of Peru. The general name, 

 kidney bean, is applied to this group, varieties of 

 which are the food that substitutes for meat in 

 warm countries, swarming with a great population. 



We know Lima beans, the broad-podded, flat 

 kind, bigger than the kidney. It is a separate 



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