CULTURAL METHODS 77 



number of which are on the market, do excellent work. 

 Some growers prefer a planter having the slide rather 

 than the disc to regulate the dropping of the beans, 

 claiming that the slide cracks less beans. Another 

 point which some growers emphasize is having the 

 rows run north and south, for the same reason that 

 open shocks of wheat are set two by two north and 

 south. The theory is that the sun can get into the 

 rows and on both sides of the plants as it does in the 

 case of the long shock set north and south. On a 

 comparatively small scale beans may be planted suc- 

 cessfully by hand ; either with the hoe, or better still 

 by means of the hand corn planter. In this event, a 

 marker is usually run over the piece before plant- 

 ing to serve as a guide for the rows. The hand plant- 

 ing process is much more laborious and is not the 

 twentieth century way of planting beans on a com- 

 mercial scale. Fig. 22 shows commercial bean planter. 

 Cultivation. If the seed bed has been properly 

 prepared the operation of keeping the beans clean 

 will be a simple one and less cultivation will be re- 

 quired to conserve soil moisture. C. L. Allen, the 

 successful Long Island horticulturist, gives it as his 

 opinion* that the usual method of cultivating beans 

 is wrong. He takes the position that beans should be 

 cultivated before the bean is planted; that is, put the 

 extra work, in stirring the soil, into the preparation 

 of the seed bed. Having done this, he advises the 

 farmer to stay out of his bean field with the culti- 

 vator, after planting, unless a crust on the soil forms. 

 This it is necessary to break. Mr. Allen considers 

 the success of the crop depends considerably in 

 keeping away from the roots of the plants. 



American Agriculturist, May 2, 1903. 



