60 
THE AMATEUR’S KITCHEN GARDEN. 
Paris recommended above should be spread on the surface and 
hoed in among the young plants. In one thousand pounds 
weight of beans, which we may reckon as the produce of half 
an acre of ground, there will be of mineral matters ; phos- 
phoric acid, lQlbs. ; lime, 3lbs. ; magnesia, 2lbs. ; potash, 
14lbs. ; common salt, -|lb. It follows, therefore, that a heavy 
loam or clay land, rich in alkalies and phosphates, is the 
proper soil for beans when a large and fine production is 
required ; but almost any soil may be rendered suitable by 
judicious manuring, and, as a rule, the best special manure 
available is phospho-guano. 
In Selecting Sorts it is well to remember that there are 
some very bad ones in the market. The Red Seeded and the 
Pied Ploivered are about the worst that we are acquainted 
with, and we caution the amateur against the latter in 
particular, because it is occasionally advertised as an orna- 
mental plant, producing an abundance of the most delicious 
beans. The truth is, it is one of the ugliest, least productive, 
and obnoxious-flavoured vegetables that ever found its way 
into an honest man’s garden. The Mazagan is a poor thing, 
though dwarf and early. For early production, Early Long-pod 
is the best for mere production ; the Long-pod class are the 
most profitable, and answer admirably where beans are grown 
for sale, the true Johnsons Wonderful Long-pod being of 
excellent quality and tremendously productive. Having tried 
all the sorts many times, we have adopted two, and never 
grow any others. These are, Early Long-pod, to sow in 
November, January, and June, for early crops of delicate 
beans, and Green Windsor, to sow in January, February, and 
March, for supplies of the handsomest and best-flavoured beans 
obtainable. We give the last-named plenty of room, and put 
the rows four feet asunder, and never fail to have a long- 
continued and abundant supply of the finest beans in the 
\rorld. 
The Kidney Bean, Phaseolus vulgaris, is universally 
appreciated, and peer and peasant are almost equally inter- 
ested in the cultivation. In English cookery the ripe seeds 
are much less used than on the continent, "where, for haricot 
dishes, the small white-seeded sorts, in a dried state, are in 
constant request. It is a question if the ripe seeds of any 
kidney beans ( Phaseolus ) are altogether wholesome ; we incline 
to the belief that they possess properties which render them 
