31 JULY 1941, Page 13

Preserving Beans Fellow-sufferers of the salted bean have kindly sent

many sugges- tions. Unfortunately few improve on the methods I already knew. The secret for one is very large quantities of salt ; for another a jar per day, tied down immediately. But a really practical series of hints comes from Somerset. First, beans should always be picked dry ; never in the evening ; second, the pickling jars should always stand on wood, never on stone, cement, tiles or slate (a good rule for home- made wines, too); third, great care should be taken to put ample salt between the edges of the layers of beans and at the sides of the pick- ling jars in order to exclude air. The fact that this correspondent originally had nothing but failures with beans, and now has con- sistent success, is encouraging. French beans, by the way, seem to be preferred to runners. Unfortunately, the season has been extremely bad for beans of all kinds and for French particularly, and it is worth remembering that it is still not too late to sow both kinds as a gamble for a late crop.