148 How to Make the Garden Pay. 



immediately cover the soil in over the seed with the feet, firming 

 the soil as I go, in one operation. For the first crop we may select 

 land just cleared from early radishes or spinach, and for successive 

 crops, any ground as it becomes vacant, continuing the planting 

 every two weeks until July or August. The width of rows may 

 be varied between one and one-half and three feet, according to 

 the gardener's convenience and the fertility of the soil. For it 

 is a very general rule, applicable to all crops, that for best results 

 we must plant the closer the poorer the ground, and the wider 

 the richer it is. 



After-culture consists in simply keeping the ground well 

 stirred, either with horse or hand cultivator, and free from weeds 

 and in drawing up the soil slightly to the rows when the plants 

 have attained some size. An old precept warns against hoeing 

 or working among beans when the leaves are wet with rain or dew, 

 as rendering them liable to become affected with rust under this 



treatment. The statement is 

 periodically passed around in 

 the agricultural press. Profes- 

 sional writers, who are not 

 always practical gardeners, love 

 to repeat it. I am not afraid to 

 hoe my bean vines any time that 

 it is convenient for me to do so ; 

 and I have never yet noticed 

 the bad results prophesied. 



HARVESTING DRY SHELLED 

 BEANS. The field varieties, or 

 any of the garden sorts grown 

 for seed on a large scale, are 



harvested as soon as ripe, best 

 Round Pod Valentine. by means of Qne of the modern 



devices constructed for the purpose, and operated by one or two 

 horses, or the plants are pulled up by hand, laid in rows on the 

 ground, and when sufficiently cured, put in small stocks, or 

 taken to the barn and in due time thrashed out and cleaned. 

 Beans intended for market must be picked over by hand a some- 

 what tedious operation, which, however, can be performed during 

 the winter and winter evenings at leisure, and by cheap labor. 



Along the coast, near the principal shipping places, from Vir- 

 ginia to Florida, string or snap beans are quite extensively grown 

 for northern markets ; and there they generally pay quite well. 



VARIETIES. 



Early Round Pod Valentine resembles the older Early 

 Red Valentine in every way, but is somewhat earlier. In this we 

 have probably the best variety for market garden purposes. 



