The Garden Magazine, April, 1920 
103 
Quarter Century, or Wonder Bush are to-day, both Ford- 
hook and Burpee-Improved are bound to supersede as soon as 
seeds can be produced in sufficient quantity. The third 
of the really pedigreed Bush Limas is Extra Early Wilson or 
Extra Early Giant Bush, a comparatively new comer which 
is the product of persistent selection for earliness. Its pods do 
not average any larger than those of Fordhook, and contain 
flat beans which bulk less, but they are ready for picking from 
5 days to a week before any other bush variety with the excep- 
tion of the old Wood’s Prolific. This however is fairly obsolete. 
The Worth While Tall or Climbing Sorts 
A S IN the case of Bush Limas, the Pole varieties started 
L to make most rapid strides in popular favor after a new 
variety some twenty years ago almost revolutionized Lima 
Bean growing. Up to 1900, Large White Lima and its improved 
form, King of the Garden, were the recognized leaders among 
Pole Limas. They required such a long season, however, that 
in most sections growers had to be satisfied with gathering 
about half the pods set, for the frost would gather the other half. 
Then came Henderson’s Leviathan, marking the first forward 
step toward shorter seasons of development for Pole Limas. 
Its pods are not so large as those of the older kinds, nor are the 
beans, but within 100 days Leviathan perfects a good portion 
of the pods that set early, and, where frost stays away for four 
months, it is a most prodigious yielder of handsome pods, borne 
in large clusters. 
About eight years ago a specialist on the Pacific Coast started 
to experiment in selecting pods bearing a majority of green- 
tinted beans. And four years of constant effort in one direction 
produced highly gratifying results. In honor of its birthplace, 
which is the home of all that is good in Limas, the new variety 
was called Carpinteria; and in Carpinteria Lima we have un- 
questionably the very highest quality Pole Lima in cultivation 
to-day. In general character of pods or bearing qualities it 
does not differ greatly from Leviathan except that the shelled 
beans are more elongated and that all of them have the desirable 
green tint. In season of bearing it will prove slightly earlier 
than Leviathan, yielding the second picking when Leviathan 
is just perfecting its first pods. 
Truly the leader of them all for size, Burpee’s Giant Podded is 
actually what its name implies. Monstrous pods 6 to 8 inches 
long, containing from 5 to 7 beans an inch or more in diameter, 
are ready to please thosewholookforsize. And notwithstanding 
these extraordinary dimensions, the young green beans are 
quite thin-skinned and tender. Where long growing seasons 
prevail and size is wanted this Giant-Podded form will find a 
ready welcome. 
II. THE BEST CULTURE FOR LIMAS 
ARCHIBALD RUTLEDGE 
B jT^OR superlative quality 
1*4 the seed of Lima Beans 
should first be superla- 
vS tive. In my own exper- 
ience I have found this of vital 
importance and by carefully se- 
lecting Giant Pole Lima over a 
period of six or seven years, with 
a view to improving the strain I 
have accomplished gratifying re- 
sults. My method has been to 
select the largest and most perfect 
pods on the most vigorous vines 
and permit these to ripen. From 
the beans thus gathered, only the 
largest and the most perfectly 
shaped are used in planting; and 
the insignificant amount of care 
and patience required for this 
performance is out of all propor- 
tion to the abundant crops of 
luscious Limas which it insures. 
But the matter of seed is, of 
course, not all. 
The soil is important though 
Limas are tolerant in this respect 
and can be successfully grown on 
tough clays or light sands. There 
must be friability, however, and 
that texture which encourages 
fine growth, and there must be 
the proper amount of enrichment 
and humus. I have grown them 
in tough clay and mellow loam 
with about equal success, but it 
takes more work to grow them in 
the clay for a more thorough pre- 
paration is required. I spade each 
type of soil very deeply in the 
fall, letting it lie in the rough 
Unquestionably the largest in 
pod and bean — Giant-Podded 
Pole Lima 
over winter for the action of 
freezing and thawing to pulverize 
the surface. In the spring the 
loam is merely raked over and 
“fined” by surface working, but 
the clay is again turned under and 
carefully pulverized. 
After seed and soil, the next 
consideration is the kind and the 
amount of fertilizer to use. Good 
stable manure may be applied 
very heavily, either in the fall or 
spring, turned under, and mixed 
thoroughly with the soil. If it is 
old enough to be more like humus 
than active fertilizer, it would be 
hard to use too much. And dig 
it in as deeply as possible! This 
with leaf-mold, old compost and 
chicken manure supplies all they 
need. They thrive on somewhat 
liberal applications of the latter, 
scattered on the surface of the 
ground about the roots when the 
Beans are flowering and setting 
their first pods, and again when 
they begin their second general 
flowering. 
The question of supports for 
Limas is, of course, confined to 
the pole varieties. Unquestion- 
ably, the tall Limas are more 
productive; and, bearing their 
fruit as they do high off the 
ground, fewer pods are liable to 
mold and mildew. I like the 
Bush Limas in some ways, but I 
have confined mv experiments 
almost wholly to the Pole Limas, 
hence can speak from exper- 
