18 



THE GENESEE FAEMER. 



BEANS AS A FIELD CROP. 



Messrs. Editors: — Many of your readers have 

 grown beans far more extensively than myself, yet 

 they fail to favor us with tbeir experience in this crop 

 — at least, I notice none reported in your paper. 

 Several farmers of my acquaintance plant from five 

 to ten acres of beans annually, and say they find it 

 profitable to do so. One of them remarked to me 

 that he " planted corn until it was too late to plant 

 more, and then put in his bean crop, which filled up 

 the time until corn was fit for hoeing." I made a 

 small trial of their culture the past season, planting 

 about half an acre, using up all the seed on hand, 

 and thinking even so much of a crop would give me 

 an idea of their expense and profit. 



The soil was a gravelly loam — was in potatoes 

 last year, and not recently manured. I planted three 

 varieties, though most largely of a small white bean, 

 common in this section, but unnamed, so far as I can 

 learn. A few rows of a large white bean were also 

 tried, and quite a patch of a French bean, (the Ha- 

 ricot flageolet, distributed by the Patent Office, and 

 characterized as a favorite dwarf variety in the vege- 

 table gardens and markets of Paris. 



They were planted the tenth of June, and har- 

 vested the middle of September. The account 

 stands as follows: 



Dr. To one-half day's plowino:, $1.00 

 " one-quar. bu. seed, at $2 per bu., .50 

 *' 1 day's planting, .75 



" 2i days' cultivating and hoeing, 2.00 



" 2 days' pulling and threshing, 1.50 



" interest on land, at $50 per acre, 1.75_$7.50 



Cr. By 9 bushels beans, at $1.41 per bu;, $12.09 



" one-half load bean straw, .81 13.50 



Profit per half acre, $0.00 



This trial shows that it costs eighty-four cents to 

 grow a bushel of beans. Prices range from $1.25 

 to $2.25, and higher, per bushel. 



Next season I intend to plant several acres, and 

 for a field bean, think the small white the most valu- 

 able. They yielded very fairly — as well, perhaps, as 

 any other — and ripened very handsomely and evenly, 

 and were, certainly, the fairest and cleanest lot of 

 beans I ever saw in market. Uneven ripening injures 

 the value of any bean, spoiling the straw, and de- 

 tracting largely from the good appearance of the 

 crop when threshed for market. The French beans 

 I shall confine to the garden ; the drouth seemed to 

 have most eftect upon them — the leaves withered and 

 rusted under its influence, and the product was far 

 less fair in appearance. In flavor, whether cooked 

 green or dry, they have no superior. The large 

 white beans ripened later, and imperfectly. We want, 

 for a field bean, one which will mature early, and 

 give time to manure the ground and sow to winter 

 grain, if desired. Such a bean crop may be employ- 

 ed instead of a fallow, to subdue and ameliorate the 

 soil; at least, such is the opinion of 



A Young Farmer. 

 Eemarks. — In a P. S., our correspondent asks us 

 to call upon the bean-growors to give facts in their 

 culture, as he wisees to learn more in regard to them, 

 and from the experience of others. We willingly do 

 so. In regard to their employment as a fallow crop, 

 there is some difference of opinion among practical 

 farmers in this country. In England, on heavy land, 



beans are extensively cultivated as a fallow crop to 

 precede wheat, and the experience of practical farm- 

 ers, and the results of scientific experiment, testify 

 to the advantages of the practice. Beans contain a 

 very large percentage of nitrogen — more than any 

 other crop we raise. This nitrogen is obtained, to a 

 great extent, from rain-water and the atmosphere, 

 if, therefore, you raise a crop of beans, and consume 

 them on the farm, and return the manure made by 

 the animals eating them to the soil, the field will be 

 greatly enriched, especially in nitrogen or ammonia, 

 which is the most expensive and natural ingredient 

 of all manures. 



That beans, peas, turnips, &c., organize a greater 

 quantity of nitrogen from rain-water and the atmos- 

 phere than wheat, we know to demonstration; and 

 we have little doubt that we may include with wheat 

 our great American cereal, Indian corn, and barley 

 and oats also. 



If we plant half a field with corn, and the other 

 half with beans, and sow them both to wheat after- 

 wards, we do not know that the half on which the 

 beans grew would be any richer than the half on 

 which the corn grew. But if the been crop and the 

 cvo]) of corn were fed to animals on the land on 

 which they grew, there cannot be a reasonal>le doubt 

 that the part on which the beans grew would be 

 much richer in those elements most needed by the 

 wheat plant, than the part on which the corn grew. 

 To obtain the full benefit from beans as a fallow 

 crGp, therefore, it is necessary that they be fed out 

 on the farm. 



We shall be glad to hear from our experienced 

 correspondents on this point. 



Sharpening Edge Tools. — A German scientific 

 journal says: "It has long been known that the sim- 

 plest method of sharpening a razor is to put it for 

 half an hour in water to which has been added one- 

 twentieth of its weight of muriatic or sulphuric acid, 

 then lighlty wipe it off, and after a few hours set it 

 on a hone. The acid here supplies the place of a 

 whetstone, by corroding the whole surface uniformly, 

 so that nothing further than a smooth polish is neces- 

 sary. The process never injures good blades, while 

 badly hardened ones are frequently improved by it, 

 although the cause of such improvement remains un- 

 explained. 



" Of late, this process has been applied to many 

 other cutting implements. The workman, at the be- 

 ginning of his noon-spell, or when he leaves o9 in the 

 evening, moistens the blades of his tools with water 

 acidified as above, the cost of which is almost no- 

 thing. This saves the consumption of time and la- 

 bor in whetting, which, moreover, speedily wears out 

 the blades. The mode of sharpening here indicated, 

 would be found especially advantageous iox sickles 

 and scythes." 



French Horses. — Linsley says: The best French 

 horses are raised in Limousin and Normandy. 

 Those from the latter province are of large size, 

 with plenty of bone and muscle, large limbs, heavy 

 quarters, sloping croup, deep chest and deep body, 

 but a little flat-ribbed. They are veiy tractable, 

 and possessed of very great endurance, and can 

 carry great weight at the rate of six to sevea milea 

 per hour. 



