PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL MEETING. 355 



ceed, particularly with the better class of beans, unless you have a pretty 

 strong, rich soil. The old notion that anything is good enough to grow 

 beans is entirely erroneous. In order to successfully grow beans you 

 must have a soil that is rich in all the different kinds of plant food. We 

 use much potash on our bean crop, never ashes, but always endeavor to 

 put out fall fertilizer upon a previous crop. Our favorite idea is to put 

 on an early crop of squashes, for instance. We put them upon clover and 

 put the fertilizer on the clover in the fall, and plow that under early in 

 June and plant our beans on that. 



Mr. Perkins: I would like to ask the gentleman what kind of tool he 

 considers best for the cultivation of the bean crop? 



Prof. Tracy: The best tool is cultivation of the beans before planting 

 them. If you put your ground in the best possible condition it can be 

 made by thorough preparation, you will need but very little cultivation of 

 the bean crop, and that should be by some arrangement by which you do 

 very little stirring of the soil, stirring only the surface. A great many 

 beans are ruined by cultivating too deeply. Get your ground in as perfect 

 condition as possible before planting your beans, and then go once or 

 twice over with some light form of cultivator which will just stir the 

 surface. We use what we call a harrow-tooth cultivator that we make 

 ourselves, a tooth-cultivator with a number of small, fine teeth which we 

 run over the surface. We don't stir the roots of our bean crop at all. 



Mr. Thayer: I should like to ask the Professor if deep plowing or deep 

 preparation of the soil is necessary for all garden crops, and when it 

 should be done; whether fall plowing or spring, or both? 



Prof. Tracy : That depends altogether on what kind of piece of ground 

 you have. If I had to answer yes or no, I would say deep cultivation is 

 most desirable, the deeper the better, and particularly in the lighter soils 

 where you don't run into anything objectionable underneath. If I have 

 new ground, haven't any old farm land, I like to plow it deeply in the fall, 

 plow in subsoil in the fall, but that is likely to expose too much of it to 

 the winter, and in that case we occasionally cover it with some green 

 forage crop just as soon as we have taken off our vegetable crop, and then 

 in the spring work it just as deeply as possible. 



Mr. Thayer: There is another question that your answer embraces. 

 Having laud well supplied with nitrogen, rich in potash, and deficient in 

 humus, how can I best and quickest supply the missing humus to the soil 

 for gardening? 



Prof. Tracy: Well, undoubtedly, in a general way, the best way is td 

 plow under, the most economical way. I am speaking not of a garden 

 place in a city, but outside of the city where you have plenty of land. 

 The best way is to plow under green crops of some kind, but we on our 

 farms do not let a piece of ground remain bare after we have taken a crop. 

 We think we ought to go out and apologize to it if we let it remain a 

 week. We immediately put on something; rye. or, as the circumstances 

 may be, some green crop which we kee]) going, and put manure upon that 

 and plow it under whenever we have a chance. 



Mr. Thayer: What green crop may I put on there to the best advan- 

 tage, in your judgment? 



Prof. Tracy: I can not answer that. We have used rye. We use rye 

 sometimes, and we use coni; under different circumstances we use differ- 



