Bean

[A. S. bean; W. ffaen, a single bean, from ffa, that which is enveloped or covered, as beans.] ( Agric.) A well-known vegetable, largely cultivated both in field and garden, as a highly nutritious aliment for man, and a food for horses. All the varieties are wholesome and nutritive, but the two species the most generally in use as aliment are the Vicia or Faba vulga ris, called also coffee bean and Windsor bean, and the Phaseolus vulgar is, known under the names of French bean, haricot, pole-bean, kidney-bean, and string-bean. Their scientific characters will be described under the names of the genera VICIA and PHASEOLUS. We here consider them only in an agricultural point of view. The Faba vulgar is, or common bean, of which there are several varieties, bears a pod containing several oblong rounded seeds, which are used in the soft young state for the table, and in the hard dry state for domestic animals chiefly, either whole or ground into meal. In some places, bean-meal is mixed with other meal in making coarse bread; or the beans are boiled into a me with fat meat, in which state they are very palatable and nutritious. The most common varieties of garden-beans are the Windsor, the Toker, the long-pod, and the Mazagan, all productive and palatable. In the field the tick-bean, the common horse-bean, and the small Dutch or Heligoland bean, are preferred, being hardy as well as productive. The long pod is usually sown in the field, the Mazagan and broad Windsor bean seldom. There is no plant in which the transformation of the cotyledons into seed-leaves is more readily traced than in the bean. If a bean is planted in moist earth, or soaked in water, in a moderate temperature, the cotyledons will swell and soon burst the skin which envelops them, separating into two lobes, which open like the shells of an oyster. In the part which forms the joint an oblong body will appear, which is the embryo stem of the plant. This increases rapidly in the earth, and pushes a root downwards, and a stem upwards, which latter carries the lobes with it till they rise above the ground, when they expand, and are transformed into seed-leaves. As soon as the seed swells by imbibing moisture, the oxygen, which is always present in the atmosphere and in water, acts upon the farinaceous substance in the seed, and takes a portion of carbon from it, producing carbonic acid, which is absorbed by the surrounding plants, or flies off in the state of gas; by this lo the remaining substance becomes a mild fluid emulsion, analogous to the milk of animals, which, being taken up by the minute ve els of the radicle, nourishes and increases them. In proportion as the farina in the lobes is gradually exhausted, new ve els appear through the substance of the lobes, conveying the newly formed juice from every part of them into the root and stem, and, at last, the cotyledons are transformed into seed-leaves. The fibres of the roots are by this time completely formed, and their extremities, called spongioles, from their appearance when closely examined, have acquired the power of absorbing nourishment from the soil. The stem is then considerably advanced in growth, having put forth new leaves of a different form from the seed-leaves; these last, having now performed their part, wither and soon fall off; if they are removed before this period, the plant, having lost its nurse, languishes and dies. The bean at this stage of its growth requires particular attention. If the soil is rich and well prepared. it will grow rapidly and luxuriantly, and be soon out of reach of insects or weeds, and capable of resisting the varying influences of the atmosphere; but if the soil is poor and parched, and the supply of nutritive juices is scanty, the plant will soon show weakne and disease, and the only way to prevent a total failure of the crop, is to supply by art the deficiency of nature. In very most effectual way to prevent any disease from attacking the plants in their growth, is to have the ground in good heart, and well tilled. The principal use of beans is to feed horses, for which purpose they are admirably adapted, and far more nourishing than oats. They should be bruised or split in a mill, and given to horses mixed with hay and straw cut into chaff; this will ensure proper mastication and prevent that thickening of the wind, as it is called, caused by indigestion, which makes beans alone not so well adapted for the food of hunters and race-horses. Great quantities of beans are consumed in fattening hogs, to whom they are given whole at first, and afterwards ground into meal. Bacon hogs may be fattened entirely on beans and bean-meal; but as this food makes the flesh very firm, it is not so well adapted for delicate porkers. Bean-meal given to oxen soon makes them fat, and the meat is far better than when oil-cake is used for that purpose; mixed with water and given as a drink to cows, it greatly increases their milk. A small quantity of beans is generally mixed with new wheat when ground to flour; the millers pretend that soft wheat will not grind well without beans, and they generally contrive that there shall be no deficiency in the nece ary proportion. Thus a quantity of beans is converted into what is considered as wheaten flour.The Phaseolæ vulgar is or French bean is universally cultivated, not only for the mature fruit, but for its tender and succulent pod, being one of the most esteemed vegetables for the table. The varieties are innumerable, differing slightly in their qualities; they may be divided into two distinct kinds, the dwarf and climbing; the former are the earlier, the latter the more productive. French beans are much le hardy than the common beans; a very slight degree of frost will destroy them entirely. The early sorts are therefore sown in sheltered situations, and occasionally protected by gla frames or mats. The climbing beans require the support of sticks or wires, round which they twine as they grow, with this peculiarity, that the coils turn round the support from the right to the left, contrary to the growth of some indigenous twisting plants, which turn from the left to the right, following the apparent diurnal motion of the sun. The best soil for French beans is a rich mellow loam, rather light than otherwise; but, provided the ground be well stirred, they will grow in any soil. They may be planted in rows, the dwarf sorts at two and a half or three feet distance: the runners at four feet. As soon as the stems begin to rise above the seed-leaves, the intervals should be well hoed with the horse-hoe, and the rows by hand. The scarifier or grubber may be used to loosen the soil; and when they are somewhat advanced in growth, the runners may have sticks to climb upon. A row of turnips may be sown between every two rows of beans; or cabbages may be planted for cattle. The crop may be harvested as soon as the lower pods are quite dry and the seeds hard, and threshed like other beans. The seeds, when raw, have a bitter taste, and are rather tough under the teeth, which makes animals refuse to eat them in that state; but when boiled, they become soft and pleasant. Oxen and pige eat them readily. They contain, according to Einhof, 84 per cent. of nutritive matter, of which 50 is pure farina, the rest gluten and mucilage; they are consequently superior to every other grain or pulse cultivated, in point of nourishment; and when it is taken into account that they remain in the ground only from May to September, and that a crop of cabbages or turnips is growing in the intervals at the same time, it will appear that the cultivation of this pulse on a large scale might add greatly to the resources of agriculture. (Med.) When young, all the varieties of the bean are equally good and wholesome. In weak stomachs, they are able to produce flatulence, but when eaten with moderation and with a due proportion of animal food, they prove highly beneficial, in consequence of the amount of starch and gluten they contain. Bean Blo om, in Indiana , a township of Monroe co. -A post-office of Brown co. poor soils, manure may be applied in a liquid state, or as Bean Blo om Creek, in Indiana, rising in Brown a top-dre ing; in those which are not exhausted, tillage alone will enable the roots to spread, and give them a wider range to seek their food in. The soil best adapted for beans is a rich strong loam, such as produces good wheat. In such a soil the produce is sometimes fifty or sixty bushels per acre, but an average crop, on moderate land, is about half that quantity. On very rich land, beans have produced extraordinary crops, by being sown broadcast and very thick, the stems being drawn up to a great height in favorable seasons. When the beans have pushed their stems, and the proper leaves appear above the seed-leaves, the intervals should be carefully hoed. The diseases to which beans are subject are, the mildew, which is a minute fungus that grows on the stems of leaves, and is caused by cold fogs and frequent sudden variations of weather; and the black dolphin, an insect of the aphis tribe, which appears first in the form of a honey-dew on the tops of the plants. For the mildew no remedy or preventative has yet been found. Whenever it has attacked the plants generally, before the pods are filled, the best method is to cut down the crop in its green state; and if it cannot be consumed in the farm-yard, to plough it into the ground, where it will decay rapidly, and bean excellent manuring for the succeeding crop of wheat. If allowed to stand, the crop will not only be unproductive, but the weeds will infest the ground, and spoil the wheat-crop by their seeds and roots, which will remain in the soil. Whenever the tops of the beans begin to be moist and clammy to the touch, it is the forerunner of the aphis. They should then be immediately cut off, and this, if done in time, may save the crop from the ravages of the insects; but the co., and entering the N. fork of White River, in Monroe co. Bean-caper, n. ( Bot .) See ZYGOPHYLLUM. Bean'-cod, n. A small ve el used in Portuguese rivers. It is sharp forward, having its stem bent above into a great curve.