1871.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
221 
Field Culture of Lima Beans. 
The cultivation of the Lima, the most de- 
licious of all beans, is principally confined to the 
home and market garden. The price always 
ranges high, from eight to fifteen dollars a 
VARIEGATED CROWN IMPERIAL. 
bushel wholesale, according to the character of 
the season. It is a little uncertain of ripening 
its seed, north of 42°, though it will mature fine 
pods for succotash much further north. The 
green beans, dried at any time before the frost 
strikes them, are even better for table use than 
those fully matured. The demand for Limas 
from the market-gardener is so brisk, that he 
usually sells his whole crop green in the pod, 
not always reserving enough for his own seed. 
The good housekeeper welcomes the first show 
of Limas upon her poles, and the pods are 
plucked as fast as they are old enough for suc- 
cotash, and she is greatly astonished that there 
is not a brown pod for seed when the frost 
closes the season. Between the improvidence of 
cultivators in the region where the crop will 
fully ripen, and the inability of others in the 
narrow belt where nothing but green Limas 
can be grown, there is always a lively demand 
for good sound seed in the spring. In cool 
seasons the seed is scarce, and rules very high. 
In hot, dry seasons, like the last, more of it is 
matured, and the price is lower, but still about 
three times that of the best kidney beans. This 
peculiarity of the crop that we have noticed 
makes it a desirable one for farmers remote 
from market towns. If they are within the 
belt where the seed will ripen from one- 
half to the whole crop, they are perfectly safe 
in devoting a large breadth to Limas. The ma- 
ture part of the beans will bring a large price 
for seed ; and the immature, if properly dried, 
will bring nearly as much for table use in win- 
ter. The family grocers in our large cities al- 
ways find it difficult to meet the demand for 
this vegetable. We 
devoted a quarter 
of an acre to this 
crop last season 
by way of experi- 
ment. The land 
selected was a 
gravelly loam, in 
nothing more than 
fair condition ; 
probably capable 
of growing thirtj' 
five bushels of 
shelled corn to the 
acre. It was ma- 
nured with about 
two cords of barn- 
yard manure and 
compost, planted 
the last of May, 
and treated very 
much as the corn 
crop through the 
season. The beans 
grew well, and 
gave four bushels 
and six quarts of 
seed, besides some 
sent green to mar- 
ket. The market 
■wholesale price for 
the article this 
spring was eight 
dollars a bushel, 
or §134.00 per acre 
for the crop. This 
is about three 
times what the 
corn crop would 
have been worth 
npon the same 
land with the same 
manure. The cost 
of poling the beans, and of harvesting them, was 
judged to be an expense of ten dollars an acre 
above that of a corn crop. Connecticut. 
have been much pleased this spring with the 
variegated Crown Imperials — the Golden and 
Silver-striped, as they are called. The variega- 
tion is well marked, and appears very lively in 
contrast with the dark-greeu foliage of the or- 
dinary form. The plants with variegated foli- 
Variegated Crown Imperials. \ 
The Crown Imperial is the monarch of spring 
bulbs. It lifts its stately head far above the 
Tulips, Narcissuses, and other humbler plants, 
and wears its floral crown with a royal ail 1 . 
Kings are but mortals, and Crown Imperials 
are not all perfect. The large bulb which we 
plant in autumn is about as repulsive in odor as 
a Skunk-cabbage with the cabbage omitted. 
The bulbs of the Crown Imperial should not be 
left too long out of the ground, as they dry up 
and become weakened, aud probably this strong 
odor is a hint that they should be promptly 
earthed. In spring this bulb throws up a robust 
stem, clothed part of the way with luxuriant 
leaves; then a bare space of stem, above this a 
large whorl or crown of pendent tulip-like red 
or yellow flowers; and, above all, a tuft of 
smaller leaves. These flowers do not show all 
their beauty until we examine them closely. 
Turn one of them up, and there, at the base, 
are six pearls — at least they look like pearls; 
but they are only drops of honey-like liquid, in 
a round cavity at the base of each petal. We 
THE RHODORA. 
age do not flower so freely as the others, some- 
times failing to bloom altogether, and often 
producing flowers much reduced in size. Yet 
their foliage is so bright that they are worth 
growing, even if they do not flower at all. The 
engraving represents the markings as well as 
can be done upon such a reduced scale. 
The Rhodora. 
In the latter part of April, or early in May, 
the wet meadows of many parts of New Eng- 
land show fine patches of color, which are due 
to the flowers of a low shrub — the Wwdora Can- 
adensis. The plant grows from one to three 
feet high, has very erect branches, each of 
which produces a cluster of showy rose-purple 
flowers. The leaves at flowering time are just 
appearing from their scaly buds ; when fully 
developed they are narrow, oblong, pale-green 
above aud whitish and downy upon the under- 
side. The Rhodora usually occurs in clumps, 
with the stems growing at about the same 
hight, and thus in the mass makes a fine show. 
Viewed separately, the flowers remind one of 
the Azalea, to which the plant is nearly related. 
Though growing naturally in very swampy 
places, the Rhodora does well in the garden. 
The specimen from which the engraving is 
taken has been for some years in the poorest 
