Kinds.—For convenience in reference and for discussion, beans may be divided into two general groups—"field" and "garden" beans—which are by no means distinctly separate either in appearance or in characteristics. Each of these groups can again be divided into bush and pole beans. Bush beans of the field type are recognized, for commercial purposes, under three well-marked types, known as Kidney, Marrow, and Pea beans, each of which may be subdivided into two groups, colored and white. The garden beans, like the field beans, may be divided into bush and pole types; these again into Kidneys and Limas, the term "Kidney" in this case including all of the common garden beans whether of one type or another, and this group may again be divided into wax and green pod. The same subdivision may also be recorded under pole beans, as is suggested in the following classification:

{
{Kidney .............................. Colored.
White
{ {
Marrow.............................. Colored.
Bush ................ White.
{
Field beans................ Pea .................................... Colored.
White.
Pole or corn hill. White or colored.
{ {Kidney.............................. {Green Pod.
Bush................Lima.................................. Wax.
Garden beans................
Pole................{Kidney.............................. {Green Pod.
Lima.................................. Wax.
Runner (Scarlet Runner).

Soil.—While clay loams or soils overlying limestone are most desirable, sandy and even gravelly loams may be used, but these latter soils should contain more or less humus and the gravelly soil should not be too coarse. Beans may be grown on heavy clay soils but the surface or underground drainage, or both, must be good and special attention must also be given cultural methods to produce a fine, mellow seed bed. Muck soils or those with a superabundance of humus are not suitable as they tend to produce vines at the expense of the seed. It is also true that this crop will not thrive on low, wet, poorly drained soils. Beans seem to produce good crops on soils somewhat deficient in nitrogen when well supplied with potash and phosphorus. Contrary to a somewhat prevalent notion, beans will not produce well on very poor soils, but require a fair degree of fertility.

Seed.—Care should be exercised in the selection of beans for seed. None but the best hand-picked beans should be used for planting, as the success of the crop is quite largely dependent on the vitality of the seed.

Tilth.—Since the bean is a warm-season crop and can not safely be planted until after danger from killing frost has passed, the preparation of the soil for field beans should be deferred until the vegetation covering the area has made considerable growth, so that it may be as completely destroyed as possible during the operations of plowing, harrowing, and fitting the land for the reception of the seed. The short-season character of the bean crop enables the land to be occupied during the winter months by some cover crop, such as wheat or rye, and if the same land is used year after year for the production of beans, the turning under of winter cover crops furnishes an important means by which the store of organic matter in the soil can be maintained, a consideration of great moment in sections chiefly dependent upon commercial fertilizers as a source for available plant food.

After the land has attained proper dryness in the spring it should be plowed from 6 to 8 inches in depth, and immediately compacted and harrowed, so as to prevent the loss of moisture. The surface of the seed bed should be made smooth and fine, so that the drill or planter can be economically used upon it. If dry weather follows at this season of the year, a good practice is, immediately preceding the planting of the crop, to run a heavy land roller over the area, particularly if the planting is done with an ordinary grain drill. If the planting is done with a planter similar to the ordinary corn planter and the land has been rolled previously, it is advisable to go over it with a spike-tooth harrow or some other type of smoothing harrow after the crop has been planted, in order that the land may not possess a compacted condition from the substratum to the surface.

Planting.—Growers have found that it is better to postpone planting the crop until as late in the season as is practicable and yet be able to safely harvest the crop before the vines are injured by fall frost. The late planted crop has the advantage of escaping the most serious attacks of the bean rust. While there are undoubtedly varieties which are more or less resistant to this trouble, yet the general practice of late planting has been found to be of decided advantage. In planting the field crop the distance between the rows varies from 28 to 36 inches, according to the implements used in harvesting the crop, 30 inches being a very satisfactory and not an unusual distance for placing the rows. The seeds are so scattered as to fall from 2 to 4 inches apart in the row. The ideal distance would be undoubtedly 6 inches, if it were possible to obtain a perfect stand of plants at this distance. For distributing the seed in the row at these distances a bean planter or a check row corn planter may be set to drop the seeds in drills. A common practice is to use an ordinary grain drill and stop a sufficient number of tubes to enable two or three rows of beans to be planted at the proper distance apart without the necessity of purchasing a special implement.

Quantity of Seed.—The quantity required to plant an acre of beans varies with the size of the beans; that is, a half-bushel of small Pea beans is sufficient to plant an acre of ground, while a bushel of Red Kidney beans is hardly sufficient to plant an acre when the seed is distributed in the ordinary fashion in drills rather than in hills. In planting beans of the Pea and Marrow types the quantity of seed varies from one-half to a bushel per acre, depending upon the quality of the beans and upon the preferences of the planter. For Kidney beans the quantity varies from a bushel to as much as six pecks per acre. Ordinarily, with rows 30 inches apart, a bushel is a sufficient quantity for seeding an acre.

Depth of Planting.—The depth at which beans should be planted is determined by the character of the soil and the season of the year at which they are planted. In heavy, retentive soils planting should be made comparatively shallow, as the peculiar habit of growth of the bean is such that it can not readily reach the surface if planted deep in such soils. Upon light soils and early in the season, planting can be made quite deep. Three inches is not too deep upon such soils, but an inch and a half or 2 inches is the maximum depth for planting upon retentive soils. All things considered, a satisfactory depth for planting beans is about 1½ inches.