CHAPTER XVII. 



CULTURE OF BEANS. 



X OTHER very profitable crop for our market 

 is the ordinary wax or green snap bean. Great 

 areas are yearly planted to this valuable vegeta- 

 ble, it being one of the quickest and easiest 

 crops to produce. However, when we have the 

 crop grown, we are only half through, the pick- 

 ing being considered by those who have experi- 

 enced it often the larger half of the work. Be 

 this as it may, it is a very remunerative crop, bean growers being 

 among those who frequently realize the largest profits per acre. 



A rather light, well drained soil is considered best for this 

 product. The land should first be deeply plowed, preferably in the 

 early fall, allowing it to settle thoroughly, by having at least a 

 part of the late tropical rains fall upon the land. Frequent 

 shallow workings should be given with a disk or harrow, say 

 every ten days. Plantings are made for our Northern markets as 

 early as October i. 



The popular kinds known and called for in the Northern mar- 

 ; kets are the Refuge, or "1,000 to I," and the Valentine varieties. 

 Of wax varieties, the Davis Kidney or Hodson Wax are fore- 

 'most, the latter variety being particularly adaptable to this coun- 

 try and climate, producing a bean which will not only carry well, 

 but which is of a very superior quality. 



Furrows are spaced at about 30 or 36 inches apart, green vari- 

 eties usually being planted somewhat nearer together than the 

 wax. Fertilizer is applied at the rate of about 1,000 pounds per 

 acre directly to these furrows, it being well worked in some ten 

 days or two weeks in advance of planting time. 



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