This is a very different subject from those we have already treated on. It is the Vicia Faba of botanists, and grows three to four feet high, having a short stem, and very sweet-scented, black and white, showy, pea-shaped flowers. Our climate is too hot and dry for its constitution; consequently, it only succeeds as a first and early crop, excepting in very cool situations. When it is obtained, the flavor is so strong that nothing but a piece of fat pork, boiled in the same vessel along with it, will render it at all palatable. It is, notwithstanding, a wholesome farinaceous vegetable, and a small variety is extensively given as food to horses, while other kinds are used as a kitchen edible in Northern Europe. The Windsor and Long Pod are two of the best for the latter purpose. The seeds should be sowed as soon as the ground is in working order after the frost breaks up, six inches apart, in rows three feet asunder. When the plants are four inches high, hoe the soil up to the stems, and when in full blossom, pinch out the tops of the shoots, which will cause the pods to swell more evenly.

The seeds only are used, and they are fit to gather when fully swollen, but not approaching to ripeness.

A11 kinds of beans will readily impregnate with each other, if the different sorts be near neighbors and in bloom at the same time, for which reason, when the saving of seed is an object, and purity is desired, they ought to be sown in places as far apart as the limits of the premises will admit of.

How To Cook Beans

"String" beans, "Snap Shorts," or those of which the pods are used, are only good while fleshy and brittle. If they approach towards maturity, they become tough, and are always discarded by any cook who knows her business. Take each pod between the thumb and fingers, with the point upwards, and with a knife cut or strip out the stringy substance, which is attached to the back part. Cut into small strips and throw into cold water for half an hour. Have ready an ordinary sized pan of boiling water, put in a teaspoonful of salt and one-fourth of the same spoonful of carbonate of soda. Boil three-fourths of an hour, drain through a sieve, and serve up with melted butter. Dried Lima, or the other kinds - the seeds of which are used - may be soaked in water from the night previous, and boiled in the same manner.