634 



LEGUMINACEOUS ESCULENTS. 



allowed to remain, so long as to begin to ripen, the production of young 

 pods will, in a great measure, cease ; whereas if they are gathered as fast as 

 the peas are produced of an eatable size, the plants will continue to grow 

 and to produce pods much longer than they otherwise would do. The same 

 doctrine applies to cucumbers, (p. 614) kidney-bean*, and all cases where 

 fruit is gathered before it is ripe. 



1391. Diseases^ vermin^ 8^c. The mildew may in general be prevented 

 by abundant waterings, which indeed is a preventive to both diseases and 

 insects. Birds attack peas when they appear above ground early in spring, 

 eating out the growing point ; and again when the pods are beginning to 

 ripen, and may be scared by some of the usual means (370.) Mice are very 

 apt to eat the peas when newly sown, to prevent which some sow chopped 

 furze along with them ; others rub the peas with powdered resin, and some 

 cover the drills with a layer of clean sharp sand, which it is alleged drops 

 into the ears of the mice, wliile they are burrowing underneath it ; but in 

 our opinion the best mode is to attempt the destruction of the mice , which 

 is easily effected by a covered pit, or a covered vessel of water (372.) With 

 respect to birds, they are so useful in gardens in keeping down insects 

 and eating snails, worms, &c., as well as so agreeable by their song, that we 

 would allow them a small share of such seeds and fruits as are of easy 

 growth. The reader is recommended to peruse on this subject the articles 

 on birds in Waterton's Essays on Natural History. 



To save seed, allow a row or two, according to the quantity wanted, to 

 ripen all their pods, previously pulling out any plants that appear to be of a 

 different variety, or to have degenerated. Peas will grow the second year, 

 but not often the third or fourth. 



In a rotation of garden crops, the pea alternates well with the cabbage 

 tribe, with root crops, or with perennial crops. 



Forcing the pea. See 1105. 



SuBSECT. II. — The Bean. 

 1892. The garden bean, Vicia Faba L. (Feve de marais, Fr.) is an 

 erect annual, supposed to be a native of Egypt, and, like the pea, in cultiva- 

 tion from the remotest antiquity, for its seeds. These are used in soups, or 

 dressed by themselves, and are considered very nourishing, though not of so 

 delicate a flavour as the pea. The best varieties are, Marshall's early dwarf 

 prolific., by far the best early variety ; the early masagan, so named from a 

 place in Portugal, a later growing early variety, which comes in about a 

 fortnight after Marshall's ; the early longpod, a very prolific variety ; the 

 broad Windsor, with the largest seeds, and best-flavoured of all the beans^, 

 but not a good bearer, excepting in rich soils ; and the Dutch longpod., the 

 best variety for a late crop. The seed is ordered by the pint, and for the 

 small beans a pint is required for every eighty feet of row, and for the larger 

 kinds two quarts for every 240 feet of row. The bean comes up in a week, 

 ten days, or a fortnight, according to the season. Not less than a quart of 

 seed will be required to produce a single gathering occasionally. The times 

 of sowing, and the situation in the garden, for the earliest crops, are the 

 same as for the pea ; but the plants do not requu'e sticking, nor, as the seeds 

 are longer of coming to maturity, is it usual to sow later for an autumnal 

 crop than the beginning of June. Marshall's dwarf prolific bean maybe 

 planted inrowstwo feet apart, and at six inches distant in the row, and the other 



