The garden yard

Peas and beans are the pulse plants, and although they are cousins they are widely different in their requirements. In this respect peas and beans resemble children, who though in the same family, do not always thrive under the same conditions or do best with the same treatment. Both these crops are leguminous, and, therefore, capable of storing the nitrogen from the air in their roots, and thus enriching the soil where they grow, yet it is often necessary to apply nitrogen to secure a quick start for early crops. This is especially true where the soil has not before been used to grow leguminous crops. The more we study plants the more we learn about children and the more likely are we to recognize the close relation between all forms of life.

PEAS.

Peas are a partial season crop, and do not require very rich soil. They are so hardy that the seed may be sown where it is to stand, even before frosty weather is wholly gone. It is best to plant the seed from three to five inches deep, which allows the roots always to be in cool, moist soil. A very rich soil tends to make the crop run to vines and leaves, so that a light soil is necessary, particularly where the crop is to be an early one. Peas should be early or late, because they like cool weather, and are apt to mildew if carried over into hot summer days. The fall crop may be planted early in August even in the Northern States. The plants should be from three to four inches apart in the rows. It takes a pint of seed, of the small varieties, for 100 to 125 feet of row, or one to two bushels to an acre. Where peas are grown in large quantities in a field, for canning, the seeds are sown broadcast and then it requires from two to three bushels to an acre. For early crops the dwarf varieties are preferred as they mature so quickly, and the tall, climbing varieties are planted for late crops. Planting and tillage for both kinds are the same. Peas should be planted in double rows only six or eight inches apart, so that the one row of supports, either brush or chicken-wire, preferably wire, may serve both rows in tall peas, while the dwarf plants support each other. Between each two pairs of rows the space should be wide enough to admit of tillage.

Very few farmers understand the value of peas to the soil or as stock feed. This is especially important for farmers of the Northern States, for peas will grow where corn will not, because of the cold; they do not need much soil preparation or after-tillage; they yield a good crop of forage that is excellent for fattening; they take any place in a good system of rotation of field crops, although it is most satisfactory to follow them with wheat; they may be sown at intervals of ten days, from very early in the season to very late, and when the crop has been harvested the ground is in better condition than before it was planted.

In Europe they grow peas with delicate pods, called edible-podded or sugar peas, which are eaten as string beans are, but these are almost unknown here. The two kinds of peas used here are the wrinkled-seed pea and the smooth-seed pea. The wrinkled variety is the best, but it is more likely to decay when planted very early. Both sorts of seed are found in dwarf and tall varieties of pea. The most popular of the very early peas are First-of-all, American Wonder, Philadelphia, McLean Little Gem, Daniel O’Rourke, and Blue Peter. Among the late peas the Marrowfat, Champion of England, Stratagem, Telegraph and Telephone are leading favorites.

Peas start so early that they do not suffer much from weeds, unless the land is infested with the annual wild mustard. This will choke the peas, but it may be destroyed by a spray made of eight to twelve pounds of copper sulphate dissolved in 50 gallons of water, when the plants are only a few inches high. This solution will not materially injure the peas.

The insect enemies are the “pea weevil” or “pea bug”; the pea moth, and the pea louse. The pea weevil lays its eggs on the outside of the pod, and the grub, on hatching, eats its way into the pea and while hiding there changes into a beetle of a brownish-grey color, and about one-fifth of an inch long. It does not come out until after the seed has been sown in the spring. This beetle spoils the pea for seed and even to a large extent for stock feed. Where the weevil has attacked the peas, it is the custom to place the seed in air-tight vessels or rooms and fumigate with bisulphide of carbon for several days. The proportion is one pound of bisulphide for every hundred bushels of peas. Great care must be exercised in using bisulphide, as it is highly explosive and very poisonous. But only the careless or stupid need get hurt; so there’s no danger for you. Get explicit directions from your nearest Experiment Station, and follow them closely.

The pea moth attacks late varieties of peas most severely, and as no remedy yet used has succeeded in destroying the pest, or even in materially reducing its ravages, the best thing is to sow early varieties of peas and so escape its worst effects. It is seldom seen in moth form, but is common enough as a “worm,” or small, whitish, somewhat hairy caterpillar, about a half-inch long. It lives inside the green pods and eats ragged-edged holes in the peas, which it then fills with excrement or waste matter.

The pea louse is pale-green in color, and clings in great numbers to the tips of the shoots, and sometimes covers the whole plant. It attacks whole areas of peas sometimes, and becomes a serious pest. However, its hold is slight, so that it may be easily knocked off. In small garden patches they are brushed off in pans and burned, while in large fields of peas what is called a “brush-and-pan” device is used, followed by the cultivator, which buries the lice or aphids.

To find out more about the culture of peas, get Farmer’s Bulletin No. 224, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C., and for the best methods of dealing with the crop’s enemies read Delaware Experiment Station (Newark, Del.) Bulletin No. 49.

Pea cultivation was recorded two thousand years ago.

BEANS.

All the well-known varieties of garden beans are tender to frost, needing a warm season and a sunny exposure. The seed is not sown until the weather is thoroughly settled and the soil in excellent tilth; then it is sown where the plants are to stand. The favorites in this country are the dwarfs; the chief advantage of the dwarf types is the saving of expense in supports, and the greater ease of cultivation. The early crop is usually eaten as string beans, though the best “string” bean is the kind that has no “strings to it.” This variety breaks off with a clean snap and is often known as “snap” bean. Beans that are well suited to be eaten as string beans have thick, fleshy pods and very little fibrous tissue. In order that string beans may be of the best quality, the crop must make a quick and uninterrupted growth. A succession of beans may be had all summer by planting at intervals, and late in the summer season a new crop may be planted for late fall use. String beans are always in demand; and now, because of the southern crops, the markets of large cities are seldom without them all the year around.

Beans, like peas, are nitrogen gatherers, but if the ground where they are to be planted has not been used for peas or beans within a year or two, it is well to apply a little nitrogen at first to start the growth. The land should really be prepared for beans the season before you plant them, because new, fresh or coarse stable manure applied when planted, will make the crop rank, without increasing the yield. This is especially true of Lima beans. Spread the manure the fall before, so that it will have done its work before the spring planting begins; if more fertilizer is necessary, use some of the quickly available commercial fertilizers, those rich in potash or phosphoric acid being the best. The soil should be harrowed at least twice before planting and thoroughly pulverized. This puts the soil in good tilth and prevents the growth of weeds. Through the whole season tillage should be frequent enough to prevent weeds getting a footing or a crust forming about the roots, but the plants should not be cultivated while wet with dew or rain, as that renders the crop liable to spore diseases.

LIMA BEANS.

Late Lima beans demand such a long season and such continuous growth, that it is not always advisable to try to grow them in the Northern States, especially not the true Lima beans. The Sieva or Carolina bean is a Lima that may be successfully raised in the Northern States if due attention is paid to soil and exposure. It is not so high a climber as the large, true Lima, and therefore matures before the nights get too cool. It is a comparatively early crop, quite hardy for a Lima bean, truly annual, with thin, short, broad leaves, and a lot of papery pods much curved on the back, which burst open when the beans are ripe. These beans or seeds may be white, brown, or marked with red, but are always small and flat. Challenger is the favorite brand of Sieva bean. The true Lima is larger, whiter, and may be speckled with red, brown or black. The pods are fewer, thicker, and do not split when the seeds are ripe, and the vines are more easily injured by a touch of frost. Both the true Lima and the Sieva Lima may now be had in dwarf varieties.

String and Lima beans are not the only sorts in common use. The others are not picked until fully ripe, when the pods cannot be used. They are known as “shell” beans, and there are several kinds, all in high favor. These are mostly of the pole variety and mature late in the season. The preparation of the soil and the general culture are the same as for dwarf beans, the Scarlet Runner and White Dutch Runner.

There are more than 100 varieties of beans and no one book could give in detail all that is of interest concerning them, but the gardener who wants to know more of his bean crop may read Bailey, Bulletin 87 Cornell Experiment Station, and Cornell Bulletin 115.

Bush beans are sown in drills, 18 to 20 inches apart to admit of easy and frequent tillage, which is necessary to preserve moisture and destroy weeds; the plants stand from five to ten inches apart in each row. One pint of seed will sow from 75 to 125 feet of drill, according to the variety of bean used, or at the rate of one bushel up to five pecks of seed to the acre, when sown in drills. Fall, or climbing beans, and all Lima beans, are sown in hills, four or five seeds to a hill, and the hills are three to four feet apart.

Pole and Lima beans need supports and when poles are scarce you may put strong stakes in the ground at distances of 10 to 12 feet, and then run two rows of wire from pole to pole, one row near the ground and one near the top of the stake. Then from the top to the bottom wire, run cords, up which the beans may climb. In small, home gardens, growers often sow Lima beans in a semicircle of hills around one stake and then run cords from each hill to the top of the stake; but this method is not suitable for a large area.

But climbing beans, especially Lima and Scarlet Runner, can be ornamental as well as useful, and the wise gardener looks out for all such possibilities in his crops. If you have an old fence or unsightly building, plant your climbing beans against it, feed them well, and they will make a good growth of green vines, which will be a pleasure to look upon, at the same time that they give a good yield. This is true intensive farming, as you are getting all there is out of your ground, and at the same time making your place more beautiful at no added expense, save the use of additional intelligence.

There is still another point to remember in planting Lima beans, and simple as it may seem, it is really one of those tricks of the trade which make all the difference between profit and loss. Plant your Lima beans eye down. Other beans will stand for anything in the way of planting, but Limas are particular and insist upon having their peculiarities considered. You have seen people just like that, and you know that a little special attention brings its own reward. It is the same with Lima beans—or indeed with any other crops—give them what they want and they will give you what you want in return. That is nothing more than a fair bargain, and the love of a bargain is ingrained in the American nature.

Commercial bean growing is a comparatively recent business, dating back only to 1839, although beans have been used for human food for many centuries. This branch of farming in New York State alone means the annual production of several millions of bushels of dried beans for commercial distribution.

The Northern States, Canada and California, are the chief bean-growing sections; in warmer sections the crop suffers severely from pests, so that it is not profitable to raise it. Southern bean growers use northern-grown seed to avoid the ravages of the weevil. Even in New York State some sections suffer more from this pest than others; beans grown in the northern counties being practically free from attacks. If you mean to grow beans by the acre, you will do well to read up more fully in Department of Agriculture Bulletins and in Bailey’s “Cyclopedia of American Agriculture,” Vol. II.

The chief disease from which beans suffer is anthracnose, which even the beginner may recognize when it has reached the stage where sunken brown spots appear on the pods; and when these spots have a tiny pink centre, you have seen the spore at work. The best known means of fighting it, is to select clean healthy seed, carefully hand-picked; go over the field as soon as the plants come up and weed out the affected ones; spray thoroughly with Bordeaux mixture⁠[8] to which has been added resin soap. The compound should be as follows: Bordeaux mixture:—1½ pounds vitriol, 1 pound lime, 12 to 15 gallons of water. Resin soap:—½ pound resin, ¼ pound crystallized salsoda, 1 pint water (boil until clear brown solution is secured, then add to Bordeaux mixture). Apply first when the third leaf of the seedlings is opening, and repeat at intervals of ten to twelve days or after rain has washed the mixture off.