476 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



slightest frost; therefore it is never safe to plant them until all danger in his respect is past. 

 As they grow very rapidly, the planting may be delayed beyond the point of danger, and 

 they will then have sufficient time to mature before the frost makes its appearance in the fall. 

 About the first week in June, at the North, is the common time of planting, unless the season 

 is unusually early. If planted when the soil is cold and wet, the seed will be liable to rot; it 

 should therefore be done when the ground is warm. If the ground be very dry at the time 

 of planting, germination will be greatly hastened by soaking the seed in tepid water from 

 twelve to twenty-four hours beforehand. They may be planted either in hills or drills. The 

 distance apart in the hills and drills should be regulated by the variety cultivated, since some 

 kinds require more room for growth than others, the plants being larger and the brandies 

 wider-spreading. For plants of moderate growth, the distance between the rows should not 

 be less than two and a half or three feet, and that of the hills not less than from one to two 

 feet. Drills should be the same distance apart as the rows, and care taken not to sow the 

 seed too thickly. From six to eight plants to a hill is sufficient. The covering should be to 

 the depth of two inches, and the soil pressed down upon the seed. On soil free from weeds, 

 they have been known to produce largely, when sown broadcast, but this method is not to be 

 recommended, as it will not admit of after-cultivation. The crop should be kept free from 

 weeds with the horse-hoe or cultivator. 



Early ripening is desirable when other crops are to succeed field-beans during the same 

 season. When there is a tendency to produce a luxuriant growth of vines to the detriment 

 of the seed-product, it is well to cut off the ends of the vines once or twice during the 

 season. This has the effect of hastening the maturity of the crop and increasing the product. 

 Like all other crops, the use of good seed is of the greatest importance. Late-grown seed 

 usiially gives the best results, and it should be from a crop which grew more to seed than 

 vines. Beans are sometimes planted in connection with corn, but it is a practice that cannot 

 be generally recommended. 



Cultivation of Horse-Beans. The culture for the variety of field-bean known as 

 the English field or &quot;horse-bean,&quot; differs somewhat from the common field-bean. The 

 method practiced in Canada, is given by a farmer in that province as follows: 



&quot; The horse-bean thrives well in this section, the yield on my farm generally being from 

 forty to fifty bushels per acre. It requires good, heavy land, prepared the same as for 

 potatoes, either well manured in the fall and plowed in, or else the manure is put into the 

 drills in the spring. We spread the manure well in the bottom of the drills and then sow 

 the beans on the top of the manure, two and a half bushels to the acre, and cover six or 

 eight inches deep with the plow. I make the drills twenty-eight inches apart so that there is 

 room to work them and keep them clean like potatoes. A few days before they come up I 

 take the saddle-harrow and harrow down the top of the drills, and when they are about ten 

 inches high a furrow is thrown away from the drills. With a drill-harrow, I then level the 

 piece down, and then hoe and weed them. They are then moulded up like potatoes. They 

 will usually grow from four to five feet high and quite thick and bushy. They completely 

 kill Canada thistles. I think the reason is that the beans are so thick that they smother the 

 thistles.&quot; 



Harvesting. Beans should always be harvested before the appearance of frost. It is 

 better to gather the crop before fully ripe than to permit it to be injured in this manner. 

 When there is no danger from frost, and the land is not wanted for other purposes, it will 

 not be necessary to harvest them until the pods are turned yellow. In some sections the 

 plants are pulled by hand, the dirt shaken from the roots, and the vines thrown into small 

 heaps or spread on the ground to dry. In other localities, a. small iron rake is used for the 

 purpose, or if the vines are partially green at the time of harvesting, they are sometimes 



