THE CULTIVATION OF FARM CROPS. 537 



BEANS. The bean is partial to a quick, dry soil, too great strength or 

 -h manuring giving a large quantity of vine without a corresponding 

 quantity of fruit. 



The land should be finely pulverized, and if at all inclined to wet it 



ild be ridged. Beans are tender plants and will not bear the slightest 



frost, and as they grow rapidly, they will be sure to ripen if planted when 



10 longer to be apprehended. The seed is exposed to rot if put into 



the ground in a cold, wet time, and the land should, therefore, be prevr 



y well wanned by the sun. The bush beans are the only kind used 



for field planting, and of these there are several sub-varieties, Early 



i i[ ning, with field beans, is important, when other crops are to succeed 



the same season. They are usually planted in hills about two feet apart, 



and also in drills covered two inches with fine earth. They have been 



11 broadcast, on clean, dry soils, and produced largely. When planted 



in hills, from four to six plants should be left in each, according to their 



proximity, or if in drills they need about one and a-half bushels of seed to 



the acre. 



When the beans are fully formed and there is any danger of frost, they 



ild be at once secured, but this scarcely affects them when they are 



1 and thrown into heaps. If the ground is not wanted for other 



they may stand until the latest pods assumes a yellow colour. They 



are pulled with ease when the plant is mature, as the fibres of the roots 



are by that time dead. This is more quickly accomplished with an iron 



hook rake, or if the stocks are partially green they can be mown. The 



vines, if not dry, should remain tor a while in small heaps, and afterwards 



collected in larger piles around stakes set at convenient distances, with 



in the centre and secured at the top by a wisp of straw ; and 



n well dried they should be threshed, cleaned and spread till quite free 



, dampness. 



K. -This legume n succeeds best in moderately liidit and friaMe 



loamy and calcareous kind, or where lime or chalk has 1 

 |.pli.-d. in r>riti>h experience, In Canada, a clay loam is well 

 adapted to their cultivation, though a calcareous or wheat soil ma\ 

 t to be a pea soil. When sown on a thin sod, the manure should 



jiloiiLfhinL'. They should have a clean fallow, or fiv-di. rich 



sod. T -id can 1... sown as soon as the 



;nd is dry, thus enabling to follow with fall wheat. Peas are some - 



time, sown in drill, but most usually broadcast, at the rate of two bushels 



lie acre. 



