Improved Round Green Pod Extra Early Valentine Bean.
Varieties and Types.—The varieties of beans are well-nigh endless. Some demand poles, while some are dwarf, being called bush beans. The influence of man has developed the bean into a vast number of different forms, which frequently show a disposition to revert or go back to some ancestral type, no matter how carefully the seeds may be kept.
The pole beans, in general terms, yield larger crops and bear through a longer season than the bush beans. The green-podded beans, as a rule, are more prolific and more hardy than the yellow-podded or wax beans. The climbers demand a whole season, and bear until frost. The bush beans are mostly employed where two or more crops are demanded per year from the ground.
The so-called cut-short or snap-short beans are those in which the whole pod, in its green state, is used for food. They are of both types, climbing and bush. The Lima forms include a number of distinct beans, differing greatly in size and shape and also in habit of growth.
Bush Beans (green pod).—We recommend Improved Round Pod Extra Early Valentine; also, New Giant Stringless Valentine.
Bush Beans (yellow pod).—Wardwell's Kidney Wax and Davis' White Wax are largely grown in the South for shipment North. Valentine Wax is recommended for the North. For descriptions, see "Johnson & Stokes' Garden and Farm Manual."
White Field or Soup Beans.—We recommend Day's Leafless Medium and New Snowflake Field. For descriptions of these and other varieties, see "Johnson & Stokes' Garden and Farm Manual."
Pole Lima Beans.—We especially recommend Ford's Mammoth Podded Lima and Siebert's Early Lima.
Pole Snap Beans.—Golden Andalusia Wax is one of the best yellow-pod pole beans, and Lazy Wife's one of the best green-pod sorts.
Dwarf Lima.—Dreer's, Burpee's and Henderson's represent three distinct types.