770 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



it sooner dry in spring, than can be the case when ploughed across. On the supposition, 

 that three furrows are to be given, one in winter, and two in spring, the following is 

 the most eligible preparation. The land being ploughed in length, as early in winter as 

 is practicable, and the cross gutter and headland furrows sufficiently digged out, take the 

 second furrow across the first as soon as the ground is dry enough in spring to undergo 

 the operation ; water-furrow it immediately, and dig again the cross gutter and headland 

 furrows, otherwise the benefit of the second furrow may be lost. This being done, 

 leave the field for some days, till it is sufficiently dry, when a cast of the harrows 

 becomes necessary, so that the surface may be levelled. Then enter with the ploughs, 

 and form the drills. ( Treatise on Rural Affairs. ) 



4771. Manure is frequently applied to the bean crop, especially if it succeeds wheat. 

 By some, dung is spread on the stubble previous to the winter ploughing, but this cannot 

 always be done in a satisfactory manner, at least in the northern parts of the island, 

 unless during frost, when it may lie long exposed to the weather before it can be turned 

 down by the plough. The most desirable mode therefore is, to lay the manure into 

 drills immediately before the beans are sown. (Supp. ^c.) 



4772. According to Brown, the best way is to apply the dung on the stubble before 

 the winter furrow is given, which greatly facilitates the after process. Used in this way, 

 a fore stock must be in hand ; but where the farmer is not so well provided, spring 

 dunging becomes necessary, though evidently of less advantage. At that season, it 

 may either be put into the drills before the seed is sown, or spread upon the surface and 

 ploughed down, according to the nature of the drilling process, which is meant to be 

 adopted. Land dunged to beans, if duly hoed, is always in high order for carrying a 

 crop of wheat in succession. Perhaps better wheat, both in respect of quantity and 

 quality, may be cultivated in this way, than in any other mode of sowing. 



4773. The climate most favorable to the bean is one neither very dry nor very moist, 

 he first brings on the fly, and the last prevents the setting of the blossoms. In general, 



however, a dry summer is most favorable to the production of corn, and moist weather 

 to the growth of the haulm. 



4774. The time of sowing beans is as early as possible after the severity of winter is 

 over ; in the south, sometimes in January, but never later than the end of March ; as the 

 ripening of the crop and its safe harvesting would otherwise be very precarious in this 

 climate. Bannister thinks, that the proper time for planting beans in Kent is towards the 

 latter end of January, or early in the following month ; though this business may be 

 continued to advantage till the middle or latter end of March, if the weather had pre- 

 vented their being got in at an earlier season : but in general it is best to embrace the 

 first opportunity of sowing them after Candlemas, as they often miscarry if the season 

 be procrastinated beyond that time, especially if a dry summer should succeed. 



4775. The mode of sowing is almost always in rows. Though still sown broad-cast 

 in several places, and sometimes dibbled, they are, for the most part, drilled by judicious 

 cultivators, or deposited after the plough in every furrow, or only in every second or 

 third furrow. In the latter method, the crop rises in rows, at regular intervals of nine, 

 eighteen, or twenty-seven inches, and the hand-hoe ought invariably to be employed ; 

 but it is only where the widest interval is adopted, that the horse-hoe can be used with 

 much effect in their subsequent culture. 



4776. nere are two modes of drilling beans. In one of these, the lands, or ridges, are divided by the 

 plough into ridgelets, or one bout stitches, at intervals of about twenty-seven inches. If dung is to be 

 applied, the seed ought to be first deposited, as it is found inconvenient to run the drill-machine after- 

 wards. The dung may then be drawn out from the carts in small heaps, one row of heaps serving for 

 three or five ridgelets ; and it is evenly spread, and equally divided among them, in a way that will be 

 more minutely described when treating of the culture of turnips. The ridgelets are next split out or 

 reversed, either by means of the common plough, or one with two mould-boards, which covers both the 

 seed and the manure in the most perfect manner. When beans are sown by the other method, in the 

 bottom of a common furrow, the dung must be previously spread over the surface of the winter or 

 spring ploughing. Three ploughs then start in succession, one immediately behind another, and a drill 

 barrow either follows the third plough, or is attached to it, by which the beans are sown in every third- 

 furrow, or at from twenty-four to twenty-seven inches asunder, according to the breadth of the furrow- 

 slice. 



4777. Another approved vmy of sowing beans, when dung is applied at seed-time, is to spread the dung 

 and to plough it down with a strong furrow ; after this shallow furrows are drawn, into which the seed is 

 deposited by the drill-machine. Whichever of these modes of sowing is followed, the whole field must 

 be carefully laid dry by means of channels formed by the plough, and when necessary by the shovel; for 

 neither then nor at any former period should water be allowed to stagnate on the land. 



4778. The dibbling of beans is considered by Arthur Young as an excellent method, 

 when well performed ; but the grand objection to it is the difficulty of getting it weli 

 done. When it becomes the common husbandry of a district, the workmen find thafe 

 great earnings are to be made by it ; and this is much too apt to make them careless, 

 and eager to earn still more ; and if a ver}' minute attention be not paid to them, by the 

 constant attendance of the farmer, they strike the holes so shallow, that the first peck 

 of a rook's bill takes the seed, and acres may be destroyed, if the breed of those birds be 

 encouraged. Boys are employed for weeks together to keep the fields^ but all works 



