BEAK, Till:. 



TIIK. 



good land, owing to the drynass of tifo rammer. But thin WM on 



experiment which lucoeeded : had terete weather come ou in February, 



hole crop might have been lost. A* a general rule, beam may 



be sown ii "in the middle of February to the middle f March. The 



orU usually cultivated in the fields are the winter bean, the tick bean, 



w bean, and the nuill Dutch nr Heligoland bean. In Mime 



. jfamain and the long nod have produced good crop* in 



the field; the first four are however beet suited for general cultivation. 



There are several varieties of then, which differ but little in tln-ir 



appearance ; experience is the bent guide in chooaing the seed which 



suits particular soils and situations. The small round regular shaped 



beam art generally preferred, aa obtaining the belt prices in the 



market*, especially in large towns, where there in a great consumption 



of beans by hard-working hones. 



The soil beat adapted for beans is a rich strong loam, such as pro- 

 duces good wheat In such a soil the produce is sometimes fifty or 

 sixty bushels per acre, but an average crop, on moderate loud, is about 

 half that quantity. On very rich land beans have produced extra- 

 ordinary crops, by being sown broad-cant and very thick, the stems 

 being drawn up to a great height in favourable seasons. A small field 

 of very rich loud, in the county of Sussex, was sown in the year 1832 

 with four bushels of the small tick bean, which came up so thick, that 

 the proprietor thought of thinning out the plants by hoeing ; but he 

 was advised to see what the produce would be, and when they were 

 threshed out, there were 10 quarters and 1 bushel of beans. He had 

 the ground accurately measured, and it was found to be 1 acre and 

 29 perches, which makes the crop above 68 bushels per acre. They 

 completely smothered all weeds, and the subsequent crop of wheat 

 produced 6 quarters to the acre ; but this particular example of sow- 

 ing beans brood -cost we do not hold up for general imitation. By 

 cultivating the beans in rows, and by careful hoeing and manuring, 

 alternate crops of wheat and beans may be raised for many years, with- 

 out intermission, or any necessity for change or fallow : this has been 

 long the practice in the richest part of Kent. In this case the beans 

 must be drilled or set in row*, with intervals of from 24 to 30 inches 

 between the rows; and the intervals must be repeatedly stirred or 

 hoed with proper instruments, so as to prevent the growth of weeds 

 and keep the soil in a perfectly clean and mellow state ; the weeds 

 which rise in the rows are removed by hand. Immediately after bean 

 harvest, the land is scarified, or skimmed over with a plough having a 

 very broad share, whence the operation U sometimes called broad- 

 tharifij. All roots of weeds and the remains of bean-balm ore collected 

 and burned, or put in a heap with quicklime, to be converted into 

 manure. The ground is then ploughed once or several times, accord- 

 ing to circumstances, and wheat is sown about the month of October, 

 either broadcast or by means of a drilling-machine, in rows 10 or 12 

 inches asunder, which gives greater facility for hoeing and weeding the 

 crop when necessary. The wheat which follows beans is generally 

 good and heavy, and seldom runs to straw. After wheat-harvest the 

 Miihblu is ploughed up and turned in with a very deep furrow; the 

 land is harrowed flat, and a good coating of manure its put on in a 

 moderately rotten state, and this is covered with a shallow ploughing : 

 the land U well water-furrowed and left > till spring, when the beans 

 are drilled in the mellow surface produced by the winter's frost. This 

 is the most approved practice ; but many experienced farmers vary it 

 according to the varieties of soil, or according to difference of opinion. 

 Some put on manure for the beans in spring, and some drill the beans 

 in ever)- wound or third furrow after the plough ; but all good farmers 

 agree in manuring the land for the beans and carefully hoeing them. 

 It U evident that a different method in required in different soils, 

 varied according to their texture and situation. Alternate crops of 

 wheat and beans can only succeed, for any length of time, on soils 

 peculiarly favoured. In general, a change of crops and occasional fallows 

 will be indispensable to keep the land perfectly clean and in good heart. 



In cold wet soils beans require great care to ensure good crops. 

 Although they will grow well and seem to flourish in the stiffest and 

 most unsubdued clays, they will seldom produce much at harvest, 

 unlesi the land has been well prepared and the cultivation managed 

 with skill. There is no better criterion of the experience and industry 

 of the farmer of cold wet clays than the appearance of his beans at 

 harvest; and he may be judged by this crop, as the farmer of light 

 sandy soils may be judged by his turnips. The cultivation f them 

 two opposite kinds of inferior soils will, in general, be profitable or 

 otherwise in proportion to the produce of the beans in the one and the 

 turnips in the other ; the first being a substitute for clean fallow, and 

 the Utter the foundation of all the succeeding crops. The bean, by its 

 strong and penetrating root, opens the stiff noil to the influence of the 

 atmosphere, by which the surface is dried and at the same time 

 mellowed. Although the nutritious matter in a good crop of beans is 

 great, and almost equal to that obtained from a crop of wheat, it 

 exhaunU the soil much less : its succulent stems and leaves absorb 

 much nourishment from the atmosphere, and the latter falling off and 

 decaying, restore carbon and mucilage to the soil, and make up for the 

 inferior quantity of manure produced by the bean-halm in com|nrison 

 with wheat-straw. There is perhaps no crop, bearing seed, which gives 

 o gnat 'a return with so small an expenditure of the fertility of the 

 sou; and certainly none that repays manure better, or leaves the land 

 in a batter condition fur wheat or oaU. It is a very common practice 



to plough a stiff soil in spring only once, after it has borne clover, 

 grasses, or wheat, and to drill bean* in the furrows immediately after 

 the plough, by hand or by an instrument ; in this case it U best to 

 deposit the beans as near the angle of the furrow as possible, and in 

 every second furrow only, that they may rise regularly at a proper dis- 

 tance. In spite of the tough slices which the p! u-h turns over in a 

 mass, the force of vegetation in the bean makes it pierce through tin m, 

 ami. under favourable circumstances, a tolen. .'-time* 



obtained; while the more industrious neighbour, who ban til! 

 land in autumn and again in spring, by repeated ploughing*, and made 

 it fine and mellow, may be disappointed in his crop l.y uiu 

 variations of weather. The slovenly farmer then laugh* 

 perfect system of the other, pretending that it U wrong to work strong 

 soils so much and make them too ft, as the term is. Ti. 

 grass of a whole district in rational and improved culture in am 

 checked by the apparent evil of frequent ploughing. But th. 

 elusion in founded in error. There can be no rule better continued l.y 

 nee than that adhesive soils should be stirred and div: 



much as possible ; but this must be di with due regard to eiivum- 



stancea and seasons, and the differences in soils: chalking, mar! i 

 manuring ore necessary, in order to prevent the divided .-.-,. 

 ft/in;/ into a hard, conduct moss. Light-colom 



of siliceous sand and argillaceous earth only, \\i' ixtniv 



of other substances, set the harder in drying the more they ore bt 

 after being ploughed they soon have the appearance of stri| 

 unburned Lnck ; and if a heavy shower has fail, n alter the land has 

 been harrowed, they become hard like a bam floor. It is of no use to 

 pulverise such land, until its texture la altered by chalk, marl, dung, or 

 ashes ; and the safest way is not to stir it too much, as no goo. 

 can be expected at all events till it be ameliorated. 'I 

 middling stiff soil for beans, it should be ploughed in: 

 narrow lands in autumn, with numerous and deep water-fun . . . 



that no water may lie on any |irt of it, and, if possible, it should bo 

 manured with long dung before it ia ploughed. In spring, if there has 

 been some frost, the surface will be loose and mellow ; in this the 



beans should be drilled or dibbled by hand, and a time should l.o 

 chosen for hoeing them, when the ground is neither wet nor dry, so 

 that the hoe, whether hand-hoe or horse-hoe, may p. mini.- 

 three inches below the surface to open the .soil and destroy the weeds. 

 The hoeing of the beans in a meet essential part of the cultin 

 according as it is well or ill executed the land will produce in 

 fewer crops after it without its being necessary to have recourse to a 

 fallow. Objections have been ma.lc to the use of the horse-h 

 bcarifier between the rows in stiff soils ; because, when the ground is 

 dry and caked, the hoe raises large clods and lays the roots bare, some- 

 times even destroying the plants. But there ore means of preventing 

 this : if the ground is repeatedly hoed when not quite dry, it will not 

 bind into a hard crust or rise in clods ; and should a sudden dry wind, 

 after much rain, bake the surface in spite of every attention to it, a 

 rough roller, of such dimensions as to work between the rows, will 

 effectually loosen the soil, so that hoes and grubbers may follow with- 

 out inconvenience. 



When tho beans have pushed their stems, and the proper leaves 

 appear above the seed-leaves, the intervals should be carefully hoed, 

 and, where it is practicable, three or four bushels of gypsum per acre 

 may be sown, if the soil does not already contain this substance, and it 

 will greatly stimulate the growth. The mode of its operation 

 exactly known, but experience has proved its utility. [M ANT m:; 

 Gvi'SUM.] A small quantity of gypsum seems to stimulate the growth 

 of all leguminous plants and clovers ; but if this quantity be already 

 present in the soil, no additional quantity seems to have any effc. 

 has been recommended to cut off the tops of tho plants when the 

 lower pods are set, as is frequently done in garden culture, t 

 lerate the filling of them, and to prevent useless blossoms from draw- 

 ing the nourishment to the top. Tho reason for doing this in gat dm * 

 is, that when a plant ha* borne pods a certain time it is most advan- 

 tageous to remove it, and the top blossoms, of course, never come to 

 perfection. In the field this is not the case, there being no sue. 

 of plants; and. unless the top blossoms are very late, or the Ma. k 

 dolphin (opAw) begins to appear, which is shown by tho honey-dew 

 on the t..]. shoots, no advantage is gained by topping the plants, and 

 the labour is thrown away. When the leaves of tho beans begin to 

 lose their green colour, and the pods to turn black, the crop should lie 

 reaped with the sickle and made into small sheaves, tied with straw 

 bands or tar tw ine. and set up in the Held to dry. In some places 

 peas are sown mixed with the beans, or the headlands are sown with 

 peas, the halm of which is used to tie the beans with ; but pea 

 round the bean-stalks and impede the setting of the pods; they also 

 interfere with the hoeing and weeding, so thot the practice is not to bo 

 irr. ,n, mended. I'e.is require a lighter soil, and arc bent sown sei>arately, 

 except when they are sown broad -cost mixed with beans, in order to 

 be mown in a green state as fodder for cattle or for pi 

 beans for this last-mentioned i.iup .-< is not much practised in Kngland, 

 but is found very useful on the Continent, es|Hvially in Klande, 

 this case they are mown like tares soon after the pods are formed. In 

 order to haves succession of this green food, they should be sown at 

 different time*, with a week en '-interval. Uy this in. 



great deal of grass is saved, which may be reserved for hay ; the cattle 



