772 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



uncut after the end of September, or the first of October ; because any benefit that can 

 be gained afterwards, is not to be compared with the disadvantages that accompany a late 

 wheat seed-time. Beans are usually cut with the sickle, and tied in sheaves, either with 

 straw ropes, or with ropes made from pease sown along with them. It is proper to let the 

 sheaves lie untied several days, so that the winning process may be hastened, and, when 

 tied, to set them up on end, in order that full benefit from the air may be obtained, and 

 the grain kept off the ground. (Brown. ) 



4785. Beans are sometimes mown, and in a few instances, even pulled up by the 

 roots. They should in every case be cut as near the ground as possible, for the sake of the 

 straw, which is of considerable value as fodder, and because the best pods are often placed 

 on the stems near the roots. They are then left for a few days to wither, and afterwards 

 bound and set up in shocks to dry, but without any head sheaves. (Supp. ^c.) 



4786. Beans are stacked either in the round or oblong manner, and it is always proper, 

 if the stack be large, to construct one or more funnels to allow a free circulation of air. 



4787. T/ie threshing of beans is nearly as easy as that of pease. Threshing them by 

 a machine may be considered advantageous as breaking the coarser ends of the straw, 

 and separating the earth from their root-ends, or roots, if they have been reaped by 

 pulling. 



4788. The produce of beans, when proper management is exercised, and where diseases 

 have not occurred, is generally from twenty-five to thirty-five bushels per acre. Donaldson 

 says, that a crop of beans, taking the island at large, may be supposed to vary from six- 

 teen to forty bushels, but that a good average crop cannot be reckoned to exceed twenty. 

 In Middlesex, Middleton tells us, that bean-crops vary fiom ten to eighty bushels per 

 acre. They are rendered a very precarious crop by the ravages of myriads of small black 

 insects of the same species. The lady-birds {Coccinella) are supposed to feed on them, 

 as they are observed to be much among them. Foot says, the average produce is from 

 three and a half to four quarters per acre. In Kent, A. Young thinks, they probably ex- 

 ceed four quarters ; but in Suffolk, he should not estimate them at more than three ; 

 yet five or six are not uncommon. 



4789. The produce in haulm, in moist seasons, is very bulky. 



4790. Jn the application of beans, the grain in Scotland is sometimes made into meal, 

 the finer for bread and the coarser for swine ; but beans are for the most part applied to 

 the purpose of feeding hoi-ses, hogs, and other domestic animals. In the county of 

 Middlesex, all are given to horses, except what are preserved for seed, and such as are 

 podded while green, and sent to the l^ondon markets. When pigs are fed with beans, 

 it is observed that the meat becomes so hard as to make very ordinary pork, but good 

 bacon. It is also supposed that the mealmen grind many horse-beans among wheat to 

 be manufactured into bread. 



4791. The four of beans is more nutritive than that of oats, as appears in the fattening 

 of hogs ; whence, according to the respective prices of these two articles, Dr. Darwin 

 suspects that pease and beans generally supply a cheaper provender for horses than oats, 

 as well as for other domestic animals. But as the flour of pease and beans is more oily, he 

 believes, than that of oats, it may in general be somewhat more diflScult of digestion ; 

 hence, when a horse has taken a stomach-full of pease and beans alone, he may be less 

 active for an hour or two, as his strength will be more employed in the digestion of them 

 than when he has taken a stomach-full of oats. A German physician gave to two dogs, 

 which had been kept a day fasting, a large quantity of flesh food; and then taking one of 

 them into the fields, hunted him with great activity for three or four hours, and left the 

 other by the fire. An emetic was then given to each of them, and the food of the sleeep- 

 ing dog was found perfectly digested, whilst that of the hunted one had undergone but 

 little alteration. Hence it may, he says, be found advisable to mix bran of wheat 

 w^ith the pease and beans, a food of less nutriment but of easier digestion ; or to let the 

 horses eat before or after them the coarse tussocks of sour grass, which remain in moist 

 pastures in the winter ; or, lastly, to mix finely-cut straw with them. It is observed in 

 the fifth volume of The Bath Papers, that it has been found by repeated experience, that 

 beans are a much more hearty and profitable food for horses than oats. Being out of old 

 oats the two last springs, the writer substituted horse-beans in "their stead. In the 

 room of a sack of oats with chaff, he ordered them a bushel of beans with chaff, to serve 

 the same time. It very soon appeared the beans were superior to the oats, from the 



ife, spirit, and sleekness of the horses. 



4792. Bean straw, when mixed with pease. Brown considers as affording almost as 

 much nourishment when properly harvested, as is gained from hay of ordinary quality ; 

 when it is well got the horses are fonder of it than of pease straw. It should either be 

 given when newly threshed, or else stacked up and compressed by treading or coverings, 

 as the air is found materially to affect both its flavor and nutritive quality. 



4793. The produce of beans in meal is like that of pease, more in proportion to the 

 grain than in any of the cereal grasses. A bushel of beans is supposed to yield fourteen 



