{ 226 ) 
N°. XXVII. 
An account of the beneficial effects of the CasstA Cuame= 
ECRISTA, in recruiting worn-out lands, and in enrich-. 
ing fuch as are naturally poor: together with a botan-. 
ical defcription of the plant. By Dr. James GREEN-. 
way, of Dinwiddie-County, im Virginia. 
Read May $f N Maryland, and on the Eaftern-Shore of Vir~ 
ad, 178° ff ginia, they have long been in the practice of 
fowing a feed, which they call a bean, for the fake of re- 
cruiting their worn-out lands, and enriching fuch as are 
naturally poor. The beft information, that I have, is that, 
they fow a pint of the bean with every bufhel of oats. 
The oats ripen, and are cut, in July, at a time when the 
young beans are fmall, and efcape the injury of the fcythe. 
The beans flower in Auguft and September. In October, 
the leaves fall off, the feeds. ripen, and the pod opens with 
fuch elafticity as to featter the beans to fome diftance ar- 
round. The year following, the field is cultivated with 
corn; the beans, which fprout early, are all deftroyed 
with the plow and hoe; but the more numerous part not 
making their appearance, above ground, until the.corn is . 
jaid by, {pring up, unhurt by the inftruments of agricul- 
ture, and furnith feed for the enfuing year, when the field 
is again fowed in oats. The ground is, alternately, cul-. 
tivated with corn and oats, annually, and, in the courfe 
of eight or ten years, fo greatly improved that, without 
any other manure than the mouldered leaves and ftalks 
of the beans falling on it, the produce will be three * 
barrels to the acre, on fuch as, prior to.this management, 
would 
* A barrel is a meafure of five bufhels, much ufed in Virginia. 
