CI:. XV.] ON BEANS. - -209 



for the roots of tlie plant to search for nourishment. The manure should 

 be long'-dinig ; and it should be ploughed under during the winter, or as 

 early as the season will pernn't in the following spring. The latter is the 

 most convenient, because it allows time for procuring the dung from the 

 stables and the clearance of the straw-yard ; but many farmers prefer bury- 

 ing it as soon as it can be got into the ground ; while others ol)ject to the 

 employment of fresh dung, as encouraging slugs and vermin. Upon this 

 it may, however, be observed that, if the beans be sown at wide distances, 

 the land may be kept clean by the oj)erations of the hoe and the scuffler 

 during the growth of the crop; antl that the long-dung, while imparling 

 powerful support to the beans, will become com])letely decomposed and 

 amalgamated with the soil, which will be thus brought into the best possible 

 state for the production of the wijeat. 



Some farmers give the winter-ploughing across the lands, with the in- 

 tention of confining the culture to one ploughing in the spring : on heavy 

 clays it is, however, an injudicious plan, for the ground can be laid drier, 

 and thus be more mellowed by the winter's frosts when ploughed end-long. 

 Although spring ploughing for corn crops is now much gone out of fashion, 

 yet on strong soils, on vvhicli beans are sown chiefly as the saving of a 

 fallow, two spring ploughings are found highly advantageous. Tlie winter 

 furrow should therefore be ploughed at length, and the land gathered into 

 one-bout ridges before Christmas ; but the second furrow should be across 

 the first, as soon as the ground is dry enough to undergo the o])eralion. 

 This being done, the field should be left untouched until it is sutliciently 

 dry, when a cast of the harrows may become necessary in order to reduce 

 the surface, and the seed-furrow may be then given. This, though cer- 

 tainly the most approved mode, yet in some years, and upon wet soils, 

 cannot be practised, and one spring ploughing can then only be given : 

 the land, indeed, will not be left in an equally good condition, and the 

 hoeing will be attended with greater diiliculty, but these are inconveniences 

 which must be submitted to in adverse seasons, unless seed-time be })ut so 

 far back as to render the after-crop unproductive*. 



The period of solving must of course depend in a great measure upon 

 the condition of the land, as well as the state of the weather, and whether 

 the seed is of a good and early sortf. The bean ripens slowly, and should, 

 therefore, be put into the ground early in the spring : it is indeed gene- 

 rally sown during February, and sometimes even in the beginning of 

 January; but March is not too late, and late sowing lias been in many 

 instances attended witli success t. The quantity must in some degree be 

 governed, if sown broad-cast, by tlie sort of seed ; the large tick being 

 generally used at the rate of four, and the small at that of tliree and a half 

 bushels per acre. When drilled, three bushels of the former are sufficient; 

 and two, if dibbled. In the latter case, indeed, a still smaller quantity may 

 suffice, for it has been clearly shown that, in good soils, and favourable 

 seasons, one bean is enough in each hole. It should, however, be observed 



* See Brown, of Markle, on Rural Affairs, vol. ii., p. 59. 



f To judge properly of these, and to ascertain whether they lie old or new, we are 

 told by an eminent seedsman, that they should he hitten across, so as to make them 

 crack or split in a longitudinal direction; if they split readily, and the hean appears 

 dry and huvky, hut not flowerv, it is a sure sign that they are either old, or have 

 heated in the mow, or have been kiln-dried ; on the contrary, those wliich are fresh 

 and sound will require a great deal of trouble to sejiarate, and they will be almost as 

 readily bit asunder in any other direction as down the middle. When old, they should 

 be sown lo or 20 da} s forwarder than new ones. 



X Von Thaer says ihat he has found late sowing very advantageous. Trine, liais, 

 d'AgriC; 2nde ed., torn. iv.. p. lyj. 



P 



