64 
tiie amateur’s kitchen garden. 
sorts may be preserved during the winter in sand for planting 
out in May, precisely as dahlias are treated ; but as seed is 
cheap, and produces a fruitful plant as rapidly as roots, the 
saving of the roots is a sliere waste of time, and should be 
practised only by those who want amusement. 
The gathering of the crop is really an important part of the 
general management of kidney beans. If allowed to hang too 
long, the pods become stringy, and tough, and tasteless, and 
the plants cease to produce as they should do. It is really 
better to gather all the produce on the instant of its becom- 
ing fit for use, and throw it away, than allow any accumu- 
lation on the plants of mature pods, because the maturing 
process puts a stop to bearing ; and at the close of the season, 
when well-managed kidney beans are invaluable, those that 
have been allowed to ripen seeds are absolutely worthless. 
But the reader will ask, impatiently, perhaps, if he may not 
save a few seeds, as his father, grandfather, and great-grand- 
father did? Yes, certainly; save a few, by all means, if you 
wish, but do it properly, both to ensure a maximum of green 
pods and a maximum of ripe seeds ; in other words, to obtain 
all the plant can give you, instead of half or two-thirds its 
proper produce. To solve this problem is most easy. If you 
wish to save a little seed, leave a few plants, or a row, accord- 
ing to requirements, altogether untouched. Let them have 
plenty of room for the enjoyment of the sunshine, but do not 
remove from them a single green pod — in other words, let 
them ripen every pod they produce from the very first, and 
you will have seed of the finest quality. From those you 
gather green pods, gather all, and you will have an enormous 
production, lasting until the cruel autumnal frosts make a 
miserable havoc of the plantation. 
About fifty sorts of kidney beans have been grown in the 
experimental garden at Stoke Newington. It is equally agree- 
able and surprising to be able to say that a considerable pro- 
portion of them are good, but, as a matter of course, very few 
are needed in any private garden. We have made a selection 
of varieties for several classes of cultivators, and hope they 
will be useful, though unaccompanied with descriptions, which 
in this case appear to be unnecessary. 
Dwarf Kidney Beans. — The best for forcing, and to sow on 
warm slopes for earty crops, are Sion House and Sir Joseph 
Paxton. The best for main crops, a handsome plant, and 
