Bean
a name applied to various plants of the pea family. Bailey recognizes five types.
1. The broadbean of history, an erect plant with large flattened seeds. This sort is much grown in Europe for fodder and ensilage. The summers of the United States are too short and hot for it, though the broadbean is grown to some extent in eastern Canada for cattle. It is closely related to our handsome wild peas of the copse wood (vicia). Originally it is said to come from the Caspian region.
2. The kidney bean. This is the type usually meant by the American bean. The navy bean belongs to this variety. It includes our common American field, garden, soup, and string beans. Whether bush or climbing, this is the bean of commerce, and the "Boston baked bean."
3. The Lima bean. A tall pole bean with large flat seeds, really a member of the second group.
4. Slender beans. South American beans of a long, slender type in which we are little interested.
5. Soy beans. A Japanese or Chinese bean lately attracting attention in the United States as a forage plant.
Beans are raised easily. As shiftless a man as Thoreau raised them at Walden Pond. To say that land is "too poor to raise beans," is to place a low estimate on its fertility. Harvesting, however, is another matter. Beans must be pulled and allowed to dry before they can be threshed. Many growers pile them up about stakes and protect from rain by a canvas cover. In continued dry weather they may be cured on the ground, but this method is risky. The bean crop of the United States is about 10,000,000 bushels. Michigan, New York, California, Maine, and Florida raise from 100,000 to 1,000,000 bushels each. In addition, about 19,000 acres are planted in green beans yielding a million and a half bushels of string beans for the market. It is stated that a dollar will buy more food in the shape of beans than in any other form. Sheep are fond of beans.