unt of
excellence of quality, and to have successive gatherings from the same
vines. Pole beans are only used for horticultural purposes.

_Field-Beans._--For general culture there are three varieties of
white--small, medium, and large. Of all known beans, we prefer the
medium white. The China bean, white with a red face, is an early
variety. All ripen nearly at the same time. It cooks almost as soon as a
potato, and is good for the table; but it is less productive, and less
saleable because not wholly white. For planting among corn, as for a
very late crop, this bean is valuable, because it matures in so short a
time. Good beans may be raised among corn, without injury to the
corn-crop. This can only be done when it is designed to cultivate the
corn but one way. Many fail in attempts to grow beans among corn, by
planting them at first hoeing. The corn, having so much the start, will
shade the beans and nearly destroy them. But plant at the same time of
the corn, and they will mature before the corn will shade them much, and
not be in the way even of the ordinary crop of pumpkins. But
double-cropping land in this way, at any time, is of very doubtful
utility. A separate plat of ground for each crop, in nearly all cases,
is the most economical. To raise a good crop of beans, prepare the soil
as thoroughly as for any other crop. Beans will mature on land so poor
and hard as to be almost worthless for other crops. But a rich, mellow
soil is as good for beans as anything else, though not so indispensable.
Drill in with a planter as near together as possible, and allow a
cultivator to pass between them. One bushel to the acre on ordinary
land, and three fourths of a bushel on very rich land, is about the
quantity of seed requisite. Hoe and cultivate them while young. Late
cultivation is useless--more so than on most other crops. Beans should
not be much hilled in hoeing, and should never be worked when wet. All
plants with a rough stalk, like the bean, potato, and vine, are greatly
injured, sometimes ruined, by having the earth stirred around them when
they are wet, or even damp. Beans are usually pulled; this should be
done when the latest pods are full-grown, but not dry. Place them in
small bunches on the ground with the roots up. If the weather be dry,
they need not be moved until time to draw them in. If the weather be
damp, they should be stacked loosely in small stacks around poles, and
covered with straw on the top,