SEED IMPROVEMENT MEETING. 25I 



HOW I RAISE BEANS AT A PROFIT. 

 By F. H. Morse, Waterford. 



I have been raising beans for 30 years or more, and I have 

 learned that they will not grow without something to eat, any 

 more than any other crop. Another thing, the cheapest time to 

 hoe a crop is before it is planted. We try to prepare our land 

 very thoroughly for the bean crop. It is not a crop that will 

 overcome witchgrass, like corn. Most of our beans are raised 

 as a part of a regular rotation. We are troubled very much 

 with witchgrass, and we plant beans one or two years with corn, 

 until we get the witchgrass subdued. Instead of sowing grain 

 as our neighbors do and seeding down in grain, we have planted 

 beans and seeded down with beans. That, perhaps, you have 

 never tried, and to tell the truth I have had to give it up, for 

 this year we bought a bean harvester, and that tears the ground 

 all to pieces. 



As I said before, we try to give our ground very thorough 

 preparation. We intend to get the witchgrass very thoroughly 

 conquered in the corn. In planting beans we use a two-horse 

 planter. It is very essential when you use a planter that the 

 rows are straight and an even distance apart, so that you can use 

 tools to cultivate them. 



On land where the witchgrass and weeds have been thorough- 

 ly enough subdued, so that you can use it, I have found nothing 

 equal to the weeder to cultivate the bean crop. It must be used 

 with judgment. It would not do to go out some cool morning 

 and think you could kill the weeds and not kill the beans, for the 

 beans would be brittle and you would break them ofif. In the 

 heat of the day the beans will stand a good deal. This last sum- 

 mer we lengthened out*the regular weeder head, so that it would 

 cover four rows at a time. We cultivated the rows in that way 

 until the plants were three inches high, but found we would not 

 be able to keep the beans clean in that way. The question was : 

 Would it do to use the weeder? We examined that piece of 

 beans, and much to my surprise beans that stood 4 inches high 

 had roots 15 inches long. I found that practically the roots met 

 between the rows. 



Then the question came up : How could we keep the weeds 

 down and not destroy so many roots as to hurt the beans? If 



