lands, be of great advantage to ensure a succession of crops.
With respect to the properties of beans, in general, they are nutritive, but tend to produce flatulency. Hence they ought to be boiled in their fresh state, when they are less flatulent, and more easily digested. The horse bean has been used as a substitute for coffee, which it much resembles in taste, though it does not contain more than half the quantity of oil.
French Beans, when eaten before they attain to maturity, are equally palatable and wholesome; and, if ground and mixed with wheaten flour, they would, like other beans or pease, make a good and nourishing bread;—yet the daily use of it is apt to produce costiveness, and otherwise to disorder the alimentary canal.
Bean Flour, as Dr. Darwin observes, is probably more nutritive than that of oats; which appears by its effect in fattening hogs: and, from the relative prices of these articles, he is of opinion, that pease and beans in general supply a cheaper provender for horses and other animals. But, as the flour of beans and pease is more oily than that of oats, it must be more difficult of digestion. Hence, when a horse has been fed with pulse, he will be less active-for an hour or two afterwards, than if he had eaten oats. It will, therefore, be advisable to mix pollard, or straw finely cut, with pease and beans, before they are given to cattle.
Bean-Fly.—Great injuries are frequently done to beans, especially after a long drought, by a fly called the Dolphin; (perhaps the same insect termed the Black-bean puceron.) It is first observed on the top of the plant, and thence eats its way downwards, leaving the stem naked. These insects are so small and light, as to be often carried by the wind from one plant to another, and thus injure the whole crop. They seldom appear till after the beans are in blossom; and, if carefully examined, it will be often found that they are confined to a small space. On their first appearance, it has been observed, that one row of beans has been greatly tainted by them, while another at the distance of six or eight feet continued uninjured. At first, the top leaves and blossoms are attacked by these insects, in consequence of which they appear shrivelled, and full of blackish specks. Whenever this is perceived, the tops should be lopped and removed. If care be taken to leave none that are tainted, the malady will be effectually remedied.
A crop has often been preserved by lopping off the head of the plant, before the insect had descended; for it has seldom been known to rise after falling with the bean-top to the ground. If the plot is small, and lies near the farm-yard, the most effectual remedy is to turn the poultry into it: for they devour, in a very short time, an incalculable number of insects.
BEAN, the Kidney, or Phaseolus, L. is a plant of one species, with several varieties. Those principally cultivated for the table, are, 1. The common white, or Dutch kidney bean; 2. The smaller kidney, commonly called the Battersea bean; and 3. The upright sort, called the Tree kidney-bean.
The first of these varieties grows very high, and requires long stakes and poles for its support; its beans are of a considerable size.
The second kind, or Battersea
