The Yard-long Bean
Categories:
Vegetable Growing
I wish to ask about the very long bean which I think was introduced from
China into California. I remember seeing one vine when I was living in
California which I think must have been 20 or 30 feet long and had
hundreds of pods and each of these pods were from 2 to 3 feet long. Are
these beans generally considered eatable? Would they be at all suitable
to get as a field bean which the hogs eat?
You probably refer to the "yard-long" pole bean. It is a world variety
and may have come to California from China as you suggest, but it has
also been well known for generations in Europe and was brought thence to
the Eastern States at some early date. It is generally accounted as an
unimportant species and certainly has not risen to commercial account in
California. The beans are edible and the whole plant available for stock
feeding, but there is no doubt but that the growth of some of the
cowpeas would be preferable as a summer field crop for hog pasture.