FEB.] BEANS AFTER CLOVER, &c. 05 



have, I think, been most productive. But this 

 point will entirely depend on the fertility of the 

 soil ; for in proportion as the land is rich, whether 

 from nature or from manuring, the distance should 

 be large. 



In Berkshire they have a custom, which, in this 

 respect, varies from all other countries with which 

 I am acquainted : it is, to plant in clusters four or 

 five beans in a hole, and nine inches from hole to 

 hole; the space between the rows varied according 

 to soil. Their crops are large. This method ad- 

 mits effective hand-hoeing in the rows, and the 

 intervals are horse-hoed. It may be combined with 

 de Chateaux vicux well-known experiment on plant- 

 ing barley in clusters, which seems to have been 

 very carefully made, and in which four, five, or 

 six grains in a hole, produced more than the same 

 number of grains singly, in as many holes as grains. 

 It is in vain to reason about such results ; but it 

 appears as if the germination of the grains, in such 

 close contact, caused a fermentation in the soil 

 around, that was beneficial, even in the produce at 

 harvest. In the case of the Berkshire beans, some- 

 thing is certainly to be attributed to the hoeing be- 

 ing more effective than in common rows. 

 BEANS AFTER CLOVER, &c. 



To put in beans after clover and other seeds, is 

 most excellent husbandry, and preferable to sow- 

 ing wheat, which does better after beans, and also 

 enables the farmer to get two profitable crops in- 



F stead 



