(57 ) 

 FEBRUARY, 



BEANS. 



IN this month, a farmer should hegin to sow his 

 bean crop, and, if the soil and the season agree, 

 finish it if possible ; for later sown crops will^not 

 succeed so well. The land ought to have been 

 ploughed into the three-foot ridge, and well water- 

 furrowed the autumn before ; by which means his 

 only object now will be dibbling in the seed : so 

 that \\iejirst dry season may be taken. To get the 

 bean crop in the land in February is an object of 

 consequence, if the soil is dry enough. 



As to the methods of sowing, there are many. 

 Some farmers sow the beans over the land, and 

 plough them in ; others plough first, and harrow 

 in the seed ; and these both on ridge and flat work. 

 A better way of sowing is, either to half plough 

 the ridges, sow broad-cast, and afterwards finish ; 

 or to sprain them by hand before the plough, so 

 that they may rise in rows, on the tops of the 

 ridges. In the latter way, they are in single rows, 

 but in the former double. In the following sum- 

 mer, the single rows are ploughed between, in the 

 horse-hoeing manner, and the double ones hand- 

 hoed. Both methods are common husbandry in 

 several parts of the kingdom. But I shall recom- 

 mend, in preference to them, other methods, and 

 using a drill plough, as it executes that work with 



much 



