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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 ten quarters and one bushel of beans. 

 He had the ground accurately measured, and it was fuund 

 to be one acre and twenty-nine perches, which makes the 

 crop above sixty-eight bushels per acre. They completely 

 smothered all weeds, and the subsequent crop of wheat 

 produced five quarters to the acre ; but this particular 

 example of sowing beans broad-cast 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, without inter- 

 mission, or any necessity for change or fallow: this has 

 been long the practice in the richest part of Kent. In 

 this cage the beans must be drilled or set in rows, with 

 intervals of from twenty-four to thirty inches between 

 the rows ; and the intervals must be repeatedly stirred 

 and 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 is sometimes called broad- 

 shartng. All roots of weeds and the remains of bean-halm 

 are collected and burned, or put in a heap with quicklime, to be 

 converted into manure. The ground is then ploughed once 

 or several times, according to circumstances, and wheat is 

 sown about the month of October, either broadcast or by 

 means of a drilling machine, in rows ten or twelve 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 stubble is ploughed up and turned in 

 with a very deep furrow ; the land is harrowed flat, and a 

 good coating of manure is put on in a moderately rotten 

 state, and this is covered with a shallow ploughing: the land 

 is well water-furrowed and left so 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 expe- 

 rienced 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 every second 

 or t:iird furrow after the plough ; but all good farmers agree 

 in manuring the land for the beans and carefully hoeing 

 them. It is evident that a different method is required in 

 different soils, varied according to their texture and situ- 

 ation. 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 

 thestiffest and most unsubdued clays, they will seldom pro- 

 duce much at harvest, unless the land has been well pre- 

 pared and the cultivation managed with skill. There is 

 no better criterion of the experience and industry of the far- 

 mer of cold, wet clays than the appearance of his beans at 

 harvest ; and he may be judged by this crop, a.s the farmer 

 of light, sandy soils may be judged by his turnips. The 

 cultivation of these 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 

 latter the foundation of all the succeeding crops. The bean, 

 by its strong and penetrating root, opens the stiff soil to 

 the influence of the atmosphere, by which the surface is 

 dried and at the same time mellowed. Although the nu- 

 tritious matter in a good crop of beans is great, and almost 

 equal to that obtained from a crop of wheat, it exhausts the 

 soil much legs : 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 

 taiui-halm in comparison with wheat straw. There is per- 

 haps no crop, bearing seed, which gives so great a return 

 with so small an expenditure of the nutritive juices of the 

 soil ; and certainly none that repays manure better, or 

 the land in a better condition for wheat or oats. 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 

 beans in the furrows immediately afler the plough, by hand 



or by an instrument ; in this case it is 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 distance. In spite of the tough slues which the plough 

 turns over in a mass, the force of vegetation in the bean 

 makes it pierce through them, and, under favourable cir- 

 cumstances, a tolerable crop is sometimes obtained ; while 

 the more industrious neighbour, who has tilled his land 

 in autumn and again in spring, by repealed ploughings, 

 and made it fine and mellow, may be disappointed in 

 his crop by untoward variations of weather. The slovenly 

 farmer then laughs at the more perfect system of the other, 

 pretending that it is wrong to work strong soils so much and 

 make them too fine, as the term is. Thus the progress of a 

 whole district in rational and improved culture is arrested 

 or checked by the apparent evil of frequent ploughing. But 

 the conclusion is founded in error. There can be no rule 

 better confirmed by experience than that adhesive soils should 

 be stirred and divided as much as possible ; but this must be 

 done with due regard to circumstances and seasons, and 

 the differences in soils: chalking, marling, or manuring, 

 are necessary, in order to prevent the divided soil from 

 setting into a hard compact mass. Light coloured clays 

 which consist of siliceous sand and argillaceous earth 

 only, without any intermixture oi' other substances, set the 

 harder in drying the more they are stirred ; after being 

 ploughed they soon have the appearance of stripes of un- 

 burned brick ; and if a heavy shower has fallen after the 

 land has been harrowed, they become hard like a barn 

 (loor. It is of no use to pulverise suchlaryl, until its texture 

 is altered by chalk, marl, dung, or ashes ; and the safest 

 way is not to stir it too much, as no good crop can be ex- 

 pected, at all events, till it be ameliorated. To prepare a 

 middling stiff soil for beans, it should be ploughed into 

 high and narrow lands in autumn, with numerous and deep 

 water- furrows, so that no water may lie on any part of it, 

 and, if possible, it should be manured with long dung before it 

 is ploughed. In spring, if there has been some frost, tho 

 surface will be loose and mellow ; in this the beans should 

 be drilled or dibbled by hand, and a time should be chosen, 

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

 so that the hoe, whether hand-hoe or horse-hoe, may pene- 

 trate two or three inches below the surface to open the soil 

 and destroy the weeds. The hoeing of the beans is a most 

 essential part of the culture, and according as it is well or ill 

 executed the land will produce more or fewer crops after it 

 without its being necessary to have recourse to a fallow. 

 Objections have been made to the use of the horse-hoe and 

 scarifier between the rows in stiff soils, because, when the 

 ground is dry and caked, the hoe raises large clods and 

 lays the roots bare, sometimes even destroying the plants. 

 But there are 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 spiky roller, of such dimensions as to work 

 between the rows,' will effectually loosen the soil, so that 

 hoes and grubbers may follow without incmnenience. We 

 give a drawing of such an instrument, which has been found 

 very effective. 



The cylinder may be used with or without the spikes, or 

 may be removed entirely ; the instrument then becomes a 

 scarifier or grubber, according to the shape of the coulters 

 which are fixed to it. The front wheel is, of use, to move 

 the whole instrument upon, by lifting the stilts or handles 

 in the manner of a wheelbarrow, at the end of the rows, 

 when the horse turns out of one row into another. The 

 cross bar on the frame before the roller is to fix hoes or 

 coulters oh, when the roller is taken away. 



When the beans have pushed their stenis, 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 stimu- 

 late the growth. The mode of its operation is not exactly 

 known, but experience has proved its utility. [SceMANURK 

 and GYPSUM.] A very 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 hare any effect. It has been recommended 

 to cut off the tops of the plants when the lower pods arc set, as 

 is frequently done in garden culture, to accelerate the filling 

 of them, an'd to prevent useless blossoms from drawing the 



NO. 215. 



[THE PENNY CYCLOPAEDIA.] 



IV.-M 



