BEANS. 



BEANS. 



Beans are best given broken, especially to 

 aged live stock. An excellent bean mill 

 constructed by the Messrs. Ransome of Ips- 

 wich, will break one quarter of beans in an 

 hour. It is also made with an extra roller and 

 plate for malt ; and is sometimes constructed 

 so as to render it suitable for horse power. 



Field Beans. In England, the sorts usually 

 cultivated in the fields are, the tick bean, the 

 horse bean, and the small Dutch Heligoland, 

 or prolific bean. In some situations the ma- 

 zagon, longpod, and winter or Russian bean, 

 have produced good crops in the field: the 

 first three are, however, best suited for general 

 cultivation. The last, a new and useful va- 

 riety, has been more recently introduced, and 

 has lately come into very general cultivation 

 in various parts of the kingdom. It is planted 

 in autumn in the usual manner, and is supe- 

 rior to the common bean, inasmuch as it is 

 capable of resisting the severest frost, and is 

 ready for harvesting two months earlier. 



There are several varieties of beans, which 

 differ but little in their appearance. Ex- 

 perience is the best guide in choosing the seed 

 which suits particular soils and situations. 

 The small, round, regular-shaped beans are 

 generally preferred, as obtaining the best prices 

 in the markets, especially in large towns where 

 there is a great consumption of beans by hard- 

 working horses. 



All the varieties thrive best on strong clay 

 soils, heavy marls, and deep loams of a moist 

 description. In such soils the produce is 

 sometimes 30 to 60 bushels per acre, but an 

 average crop on moderate land is about half 

 that quantity. The Heligolands, and espe- 

 cially the Russian bean, have been found very 

 productive when grown upon hazel moulds, 

 and deep chalk soils intermixed with loam, as 

 they do not require so close a soil as the other 

 varieties. The last-named varieties seldom 

 succeed sufficiently to repay the grower, if at- 

 tempted to be raised on light lands; indeed, 

 sandy soils or late climates are ill adapted to 

 the successful cultivation of the bean. On 

 very rich land, beans have produced extraor- 

 dinary crops, by being sown broadcast and 

 very thick, the stems being brought up to a 

 great height in favourable seasons. A small 

 field of very rich land, in the county of Sussex, 

 was sown in the year 1832 with four bushels 

 of the small tick bean, which came up so 

 thick, that the proprietor thought of thinning 

 ont the plants by hoeing; but he was advised 

 to see what the produce would be, and when 

 they were thrashed out, there were ten quar- 

 ters and one bushel of beans. He had the i 

 ground accurately measured, and it was found 

 to be one acre and twenty-nine perches, which 

 makes the crop above sixty-eight bushels per j 

 acre. 



Beans are propagated by seed, which may ' 

 be sown broadcast, drilled, or dibbled; if sown j 

 broadcast, three or four bushels of seed per 



re will be required, which should be 



oughed or harrowed in ; if drilled, two and 



half or three bushels per acre will be suffi- 

 cient. Beans are tolerably hardy, and will 

 bear moderate dry frosts; but they suffer much 

 from alternate frosts and thaws, which in this 

 152 



climate are so common in February. The end 

 of February or the beginning of March is, 

 therefore, generally preferred for bean sowing. 

 When the season is remarkably mild, early 

 sowing is a great advantage. As a general 

 rule, spring beans may be sown from the mid- 

 dle of February to the middle of March. There 

 are two modes of drilling beans. In one of 

 these the lands or ridges are divided by the 

 plough into ridgelets, or "one bout-stitches," 

 at intervals of about twenty-seven inches. 



If dung is applied to beans, the seed ought 

 to be deposited first, as it is found inconvenient 

 to run the drill machine afterwards. The dung 

 may then be drawn out from the carts in small 

 heaps, one row of heaps serving for three or 

 five ridgelets ; which is evenly spread and 

 equally divided among them. The ridgelets 

 are next split back or reversed, either by 

 means of the common plough, or one with two 

 mould-boards, which covers both the seed and 

 the manure in the most perfect manner. When 

 beans are sown by the other method in the 

 bottom of a common furrow, the dung must be 

 previously spread over the surface of the win- 

 ter or spring ploughing. Three ploughs then 

 start in succession, one immediately behind 

 the other, and a drill-harrow either follows the 

 third plough, or is attached to it, by which the 

 beans are sown in every third furrow, or at 

 from 24 to 27 inches asunder, according to the 

 breadth of the furrow-slice. 



Another improved mode of sowing beans 

 when dung is applied at seed time, is to spread 

 the dung and plough it down with a strong fur- 

 row; after this, shallow furrows are drawn, 

 into which the seed is deposited by the drill 

 machine. Whichever of these modes of sow- 

 ing is followed, the whole field must be care- 

 fully laid dry, by means of channels formed 

 by the plough, and when necessary, by the 

 shovel ; for neither then nor at any former pe- 

 riod should water be allowed to stagnate on 

 the land. It is a common practice with many 

 farmers to mix and sow with beans a propor- 

 tionate part of peas, about one-fourth, which, 

 when growing, are called Polls, and are thus 

 cultivated both on the drill and broadcast sys- 

 tem. In either case the seed should be put 

 into the ground by the latter end of January, 

 or as soon after as the weather and state of the 

 land will permit. By this intermixture of peas 

 and beans, the straw or haulm is said to be 

 greatly improved. In some places the peas are 

 sown on the headlands, and the haulm is used 

 to tie the beans with ; but peas cling round 

 the bean-stalks and impede the setting of the 

 pods ; they also interfere with the hoeing and 

 weeding, so that the practice is not to be re- 

 commended. Peas require a lighter soil, and 

 are best sown separately, except when they are 

 sown broadcast, mixed with beans, in order to 

 be mown in a green state as fodder for cattle 

 or pigs. Sowing beans for this last-mentioned 

 purpose is not much practised in England, but 

 is found very useful on the Continent, espe- 

 cially in Flanders ; in this case they are mown 

 like tares, soon after the pods are formed. In 

 order to have a succession of this green food, 

 they should be sown at different times within 

 a week or a fortnight of each other. By this 





