Early plantings will blossom in about six weeks, young pods may be plucked for use in seven weeks, and the crop will ripen in eighty-two days. If planted as late in the season as the first week in July, the variety will generally ripen perfectly; and, when cultivated for its green pods, plantings may be made at any time during the month.
The ripe seeds are either drab or light-slate,—both colors being common,—marked and spotted with light-drab. In some specimens, drab is the prevailing color. They are kidney-shaped, irregularly compressed or flattened, nearly three-fourths of an inch long, and three-eighths of an inch deep. A quart contains about sixteen hundred seeds, and is sufficient for planting a row two hundred and fifty feet in length, or two hundred hills.
This variety, as an early string-bean, is decidedly one of the best, and is also one of the hardiest and most prolific. The pods should be plucked when comparatively young; and, if often gathered, the plants will continue a long time in bearing. As a shelled-bean, either in its green or ripened state, it is only of medium quality.
The long peduncles, or stems, that support its spikes of flowers, its stocky habit, and fine, deep-green, luxurious foliage, distinguish the variety from all others.
White Flageolet.
From sixteen to eighteen inches high, of strong and branching habit. Flowers white; pods five inches and a half long, sickle-shaped, green while young, yellowish-white at maturity, and containing six (rarely seven) seeds.
It is a half-early variety; blossoming in six weeks, yielding pods for the table in seven weeks, pods for shelling in eleven weeks, and ripening in ninety days, from the time of planting. Later plantings will ripen in a shorter period, or in about eighty days; and, if cultivated as a string-bean, seed sown as late in the season as the last week of July will supply the table from the middle of September with an abundance of well-flavored and tender pods.
The ripe bean is white, kidney-shaped, flattened, three-fourths of an inch long, and three-tenths of an inch broad: about twenty-two hundred are contained in a quart, and will plant a drill, or row, of two hundred and seventy-five feet, or nearly three hundred hills.
The White Flageolet is very productive, and is recommended for cultivation: the young pods are crisp and tender, and the seeds, green or ripe, are farinaceous, and remarkable for delicacy of flavor.
White Kidney.