208 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. XV. 



The cukivation of beans was formerly conducted entirely on the hroad- 

 cast plan, as practised under the common-field system, and there are yet 

 many farmers who still pursue that method ; but they, in that case, usually 

 take the crop after wheat or barley, and without dunging the land*; 

 whereas the most judicious mode is to take it previously, in the place of a 

 fallow, and to lay the manure in the ground either during the winter or at 

 the time of sowing the seed. Beans are, indeed, considered as an ex- 

 liausling crop, and, as tlieir produce is highly nutritive, there can be 

 little doubt that they accordingly rob the soil ; but the plant is tap-rooted, 

 and thus seeking its sources of nourishment at a greater depth in the earth 

 than corn crops, which spread their roots upon its surface, it is not impro- 

 bable that thev may draw sustenance from parts w'here it would otherwise 

 lie dormant. Whatever may be the truth of this, it is a well-known fact 

 that large crops of wheat are constantly grown after beans, and that they 

 have been successfully grown for years together alternately. Throughout 

 the Isle of Thanet, barley, beans, and wheat is the common system, and 

 among numberless experiments in proof, by several agriculturists, we select 

 the following accounts of produce per acre, in three different courses of six 

 crops each, upon a cold and wet soil ; taken from a series of 36 rotations, 

 tried by Arthur Young f : — 



1. Beans, 24 bushels. Beans, 24 bushels. Beans, 24 bushels. 



2. Do. 32 „ Barlev, 39 „ Wheat, 22i „ 

 .3. Do. 40 „ Beans, 32 ,, Beans, 2^ „ 



4. Cabbages, 8^ tons. Barley, 44 ,, Wheat, 27^ „ 



5. Beans, 32 bushels. Beans, 33 „ Beans, 24 „ 

 C. Wheat, 33 „ Wheat, 25 „ Wheat, 24 „ 



TFhen beans are grown after corn, the land seldom gets more than one 

 deep ploughing, and is generally laid into narrow ridges in the same direc- 

 tion as the former ; being well water-furrowed to keep the ground as dry 

 as possible during the winter, and remaining in that state until the follow- 

 ing spriniT, when it is sometimes cross-ploughed, though the seed is not 

 unfrequently sown upon a stale furrow. It is, indeed, not an uncommon 

 practice to l)reak the slubble up in the spring, and sow the beans after the 

 plough ; the seed being then ])ut in as deep as possil)le with the drag and 

 harrows, and the furrows commonly closed a good full pitch with the 

 double mould-board ])lough. They are then hand-hoed and examined 

 from time to lime in order to keep down weeds ; but this mode of culture is 

 often attended with ineffectual expense and the produce is rarely abundant J. 

 The object in view being also rather the production of the crop than the 

 cleansing of the land, the seed, even if not sown broad-cast, is usually de- 

 posited in much closer rovvs than when meant as a fallow crop, and conse- 

 quently cannot be followed by the operation of the horse-hoe. 



JVhen grown preparatory to wheal, the ground should be ploughed as 

 soon as it can be conveniently got ready in the autumn, and should be 

 treated in every respect as if intended to form a summer-fallow : it should, 

 however, be stirred more deeply than when merely intended as a prepara- 

 tion for corn crops, in order to loosen the earth and afford sufficient room 



* In Leicestershire, liincoln, and many other English counties, the corn stubble is 

 frequently ploughed up, and the beans sown bi-oatl-cast upon one ploughing, and 

 merely harrowed in, without being ever rolled. Rep. of Leicestsh., p. 112. 



f See Nos.x.. xi., xii. in the 132rid and 133rd Nos of the Annals of Agric. : also some 

 instances in Chap. VII. of the present volume, on the rotation of crops, pp. 91 and 93: 

 Burroughs on the Cultivation of Green Crops, 2nd edit., p. 34 : Essex Rep., vol. i., 

 p. 363: and Pictet siir les ^sso/eniens, pp. 114, 132, 162. 



X Drew's Norfolk Husbandry, p. 1 14. iiurv. Hampsh.,p. 170. 



