Quality Crops for the Home 
HOW TO CULTIVATE PRIME BEANS—DIRECTIONS 
FOR PLANTING — THE DESIRABLE VARIETIES 
13 Y D. R. Edson 
T 
HE main trouble with beans is 
that they grow too easily. If 
you get tired of them before the 
summer is half over it is not because 
you have them too often, but because 
a row of beans can get ahead of a 
good-sized family, and as soon as the pods begin to get too old 
they get tough and the quality falls off, and the family taste for 
beans goes after it. You know how delicious the first couple of 
pickings are; juicy and tender and finished up with a moderate 
amount of butter. Without a very great deal of trouble you can 
have them as good as that all season through. This doesn't mean, 
either, that you will have to take the thought and the trouble to 
make a succession planting every week to do it. It depends, first 
of all, upon a knowledge of types and varieties, and, secondly, on a 
proper use of the pole beans in connection with the dwarf sorts. 
The first rule to learn in connection with the sorts which it is 
wished to use only as snap or pod beans is: Plant only a fezv at a 
time. This is especially true of the small-seeded, early “string,” 
or green-pod, beans, which are not so good in quality as the later 
sorts, and of little use in the dry state. 
All beans prefer a well-drained, rather light, sandy soil, as the 
seeds rot quickly in cold, wet soil, and, being semi-tropical or beat- 
loving plants, they like a warm soil. This is especially true of the 
limas, both dwarf and pole. While beans prefer a soil that is not 
too rich, and will, in fact, produce a fair crop on soils upon which 
many other things would starve, nevertheless an adequate amount 
of plant food — as described further on—should be given. 
The first thing, however, is to decide carefully when and what 
varieties to plant, which, of course, you should do now, before 
ordering your seed. For the purposes of the home garden, beans 
may be considered in five quite distinct types, all of which, even in 
the garden of moderate size, have a place. With care in selecting 
varieties a supply of fresh, tender pods covering the entire season 
may be had with two or three plantings. These five types are: 
the extra-early “string,” or green-podded, beans; the “butter,” 
“wax,” or yellow-podded, beans; the dwarf limas; the pole beans, 
and pole limas. If I had space in my garden for only three of 
these, I would omit the string-beans and the bush limas. The 
most difficult sort to grow, however, as they require a longer and 
warmer season and a richer soil, are the pole limas, and in some 
localities the dwarf limas give more satisfactory results than the 
pole limas—although for the same yield they naturally require 
more room. 
The string or green-pod sorts are the hardiest, and are there¬ 
fore to be depended upon for the first two or three pickings, as 
they mature in a shorter season and can be planted earlier than the 
wax or pole varieties. Improvement in breeding has eliminated 
the undesirable “string,” and the quality of the pods has been 
improved, but they are still unequal to the best of the wax sorts, 
and therefore only enough of them should be planted to supply 
the table until the first of the wax sorts may be had, which should 
be within a week to ten days later. The best-known variety of 
the green-pod sorts is the Extra Early Red Valentine. It has 
strings, but they are readily removed; the quality is good, and it 
is still probably more widely used than any other for first early. 
There are. however, several newer sorts practically as early that 
are stringless and of better quality. 
Such are Stringless Green Pod and 
Bountiful. The former is extreme¬ 
ly early, and the latter retains the 
pods in good eating condition over a 
long period. Three fine sorts to fol¬ 
low the extra earlies are Longfellow, Keeney's Refugee and Ford- 
hook Favorite, which is a white-seeded, green-pod sort of extra 
fine quality. 
Of the wax beans, one of the best known, and an excellent sort, 
is Rustproof Golden Wax. It is still widely grown, although new 
sorts of better quality have since been introduced. Brittle-wax 
is one of the earliest and best. The old Black Wax is a little 
earlier, but not so good in quality. Golden Scimitar is a prolific 
and delicious sort to follow either of these. The New Kidney 
Wax is the best strain of this popular variety, which is valuable 
for its disease-resisting qualities. White Wax is a great yielder 
of excellent quality which has the advantage of having white 
beans that are good as shelled beans, fresh or dry. 
The bush limas are of great value where the seasons are too 
short or too cold to grow the pole limas. The Improved Hender¬ 
son is the most satisfactory extra-early bush “lima,” but it is dis¬ 
tinct in habit and size from the true dwarf limas, of which the 
Burpee-Improved is the best known and most satisfactory. In 
this sort both the pods and the beans are of enormous size for the 
compact, dwarf plants which bear them. New Early Giant I have 
not yet tried, but, from the description, I should say it to be very 
similar to the foregoing. The beans of the dwarf “Potato" lima 
are of good flavor and quite large, but the habit of the plants is 
not nearly so satisfactory, as they do not conform to the true bush 
type. 
Of the pole beans, Old Homestead (Kentucky Wonder) is prob¬ 
ably the most familiar. Burger's Greenpod is very similar, but 
earlier, and. on the whole, an improvement, especially as the seeds 
are white. This is a very desirable feature, because this type of 
bean matures the crop much faster than any family can eat them, 
ripening up a good surplus for winter use. Of the wax-podded 
pole sorts, Early Golden Cluster and Sunshine Wax are both ex¬ 
cellent sorts to succeed either of the above if planted at the same 
time. The Worcester Llorticultural and Mammoth Carmine 
podded are two good and decorative sorts, grown where the season 
is not adapted to pole limas. They are both good for either sum¬ 
mer or winter use. Scarlet Runner, which is easily grown almost 
anywhere, is quite as decorative as most of the flowering annual 
vines, and the large, flat beans, almost as large as limas, are of 
good quality for summer or winter use. 
Of the few large pole-lima beans, Early Leviathan is undoubt¬ 
edly the best early sort. Of the new large later sorts, Giant 
Podded is the best I have tried. It is a wonderful grower; very 
prolific and earlier than the old popular King of the Garden. 
Challenger (Dreer’s Improved) is the pole Potato lima, and is 
used verv largely for late crops, especially in the more northern 
States. The quality, however, is not considered by most people 
as good as that of the regular large limas, and as there is now a 
perfectly practical method — described later — of starting the few 
hills of limas required for the home garden in time for the crops 
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