14 
Colorado Experiment Station 
way will produce larger yields than when planted in hills eighteen 
inches or more apart. Plant the seed not more than two inches 
deep, and one and one-half inches is better. 
Shallow cultivation should be given frequently during the 
growing period of the crop. 
Culture of Lima Beans .—Lima beans require a longer season 
for maturing than snap beans, and, since they are more tender, 
should be planted a few days later. Plant the seeds about four or 
hve inches apart in rows three to three and one-half feet apart, 
covering them with one to two inches of soil. Limas require about 
the same cultivation as snap beans. 
Beans should not be cultivated when the plants are wet from 
dew or rain, as this may cause them to become diseased. 
Varieties of Beans .—Snap beans: Stringless Greenpod, Boun¬ 
tiful, Red Valentine, Rust-proof Golden Wax, Refugee Wax. 
Lima beans: Fordhook Bush Lima, Henderson’s Bush Lima. 
BEETS 
There are four distinct types of beets: (1) The ordinary gar¬ 
den beet; (2) Swiss chard, the so-called leaf beet; (3) the sugar 
beet; (4) the mangel, or stock beet. Vegetable growers are con¬ 
cerned only with the first two. 
Because of the roughness and irregularity of beet seed, they 
are handled with difficulty by the various seed drills, but on a 
large scale they must be handled by machines. Some modifica¬ 
tions of the ordinary seed drill enable this to be done. In the ordi¬ 
nary garden, the best method is to plant by hand. The seed should 
be sown three-fourths to one inch deep, and where the crop can 
best be harvested all at one time, the plants should be thinned to 
stand from three to six inches apart in the rows, which are made 
eighteen to twenty-four inches apart. For the home or local mar¬ 
ket garden, it may not be necessary to thin the plants, but allow 
the largest ones to reach edible size, say one and one-half to two 
inches in diameter, when they are removed to make room for the 
others. 
Beets for winter storage should not be planted until the mid¬ 
dle of June or later as those planted earlier become tough and 
woody before time to harvest them in the fall. 
Varieties .—Crimson Globe, Crosby’s Egyptian, Detroit Dark 
Red, Eclipse, Columbia, Dark Stinson. 
Swiss Chard .—This type of beet does not produce a thickened 
root, as do the others, but is grown for the leaves and the thick¬ 
ened leaf stalks, which attain the size of rhubarb leaves. The 
young leaves are often boiled the same as spinach, while the leaf 
stalks may be cooked and served in the same manner as asparagus. 
