

THE GENESEE FARMER. 



April 





CITI/TT7HE OF BEANS. 



Messrs. Editors: — Will you please to nnswer me the 

 following questions 7 The best kind of beans for field cul- 

 ture on un extensive scale ? The manner of culture, com- 

 mencing with the time of planting 7 The beat manner of 

 hnrvcstmg, drying and marketing? The place of marketing 

 a crop, of one, two, or three hundred bushels 7 



I would also wish to know the probable number of bush- 

 els per acre — the ordinary price — also, the earliest time 

 tliey may be taken from the ground : reference being had, 

 throughout, to the fall sowing of the bean ground to wheal. 

 Are they best planted in hills or rows? W. S. — Cwiaii- 

 daigna, N. Y., Feb.. 1850. 



The best field beans to plant, if reference be had 

 to a market, is the small white, as it sells the most 

 readily, and brings the highest price. The general 

 mode of planting is in drills or hills; usually the lat- 

 ter. When planted in hills, there should be about 

 six plants in a hill, and the hills about two feet apart. 

 Judge EuEL states that the largest crop he ever rais- 

 ed (48 bushels to the acre,) was in rows. The b(«,n 

 is partial to a quick, dry soil. It is a very tender 

 p'ant and will not bear the sligtest frost. It is there- 

 fore unsafe to plant them until frost is no longer to 

 be apprehended. Thirty bushel to the acre would be 

 a good crop, though much larger crops have been 

 raised, and much smaller might be very easily. 



When the beans are fully formed, and there is 

 danger of frost, pull and throw them into heaps, in 

 which condition the frost scarcely affects them. If 

 the ground is not wanted for other uses, they may 

 stand till the latest pods assume a yellow color. 

 Thpy are pulled with ease when the |>!ant is mature, 

 as the fibres of the root art by that time dead. This 

 is more quickly accomplished with an iron hook- 

 rake, or if the stalks are partially green, they can be 

 mown, or cut with a sickle. If the vines are not 

 dry, let them remain for a while in small heaps, and 

 afterwards collect in large piles, around stakes set 

 at convenient distances, with the roots in the center 

 and secured at the top by a wisp of straw. When 

 well dried, thrash, clean and spread ihem, till they 

 are quite free from dampness. 



The price of beans ranges from si.x to twelve 

 shillings a bushel. Nine shillings is now tl i price 

 In this market. They generally find a r j sale. 

 The time a crop could be got off must dope.ii; much 

 on the season. The long garden white bean, and 

 the China bean with a red eye, ripen earlier than 

 most others, and are very productive. 



Mkssrs. Editors . — Since my boyhood. I havo been en- 

 gaged in other business than farming, and all I know of ii 

 IS what 1 then learned, and that in the old hobbling way. 

 together with what observation I have made in riding about 

 the country in tlie practice of physic, till four years ago . 

 when I came in possest^ion of a small pie<;e of land, of some 

 2'2 acres, \\hich I have endeavored to work to the best ad- 

 vantage. IJul I feel greatly the need of some experienced 

 adviser, to enable me to do it all in the most approved 

 manner. In my way of firming, I believe I h.ive reaii/.cd 

 more profit than many do from a hundred ocres ; yet I am 

 sensible tliut still greater improvcftient might be made, if ] 

 vjihf htetv how. 



In reading your valiiahio publication, which I constantly 

 peruse, I sec tliat you have stuuc communications to obtain 

 answers to spccifieil questions, ami for this reason 1 address 

 you. On my place I have all varieties of sciil. Some half 

 an acre, alluvial; six or seven acres, gravel, dry. seven or 

 eight, clay 'jmirely, and some muck. 



Will Icaclied ashes, from the nshery in our village, pay 

 the expense of drawinj on to any of the vortelies of soil 

 above nu'ntioued 7 Will plaster bo good for any or all 7 If 

 so, when is the best time to sow ? 



Will alluvial or gruvel be best for carrots 7 I Imvo a 



garden spot of some fourth of an acre of drygn'eily soil, 

 which was rich when I came here, and which I nave ma- 

 nured from the barn every year since I have had it. Ijist 

 spring I covered it well with rotten manure. Will it he 

 good for onions 7 If so, and you will give n>e the best 

 method of raising, as to kind of seed, time of plonting, how 

 to fit the ground. Sec, &.C., in minutia, I will do it right, 

 and report my success in the fall. ! want to beat every 

 body else. How much seed shall I want? 



I read, in the January number, an account of what you 

 call a large crop of beets. I believe I beat that last year, 

 although I have not accurately measured the ground. 1 

 raised some 'M bushels on less than half that ground. 

 What soil is best for quince — wet or dry — rich or poor 7 

 Will they grow from slips 7 D. Seavek. — Hume, Alle- 

 gawj CO., N. Y., Feb. 25, 18.50. 



Apply leached ashes to your gravelly soil and 

 around your quince, apple and other fruit trees. 

 Quinces will do best on a medium soil — neither wot 

 nor dry. Hog manure, leached ashes, and spent 

 lime, havo produced the best crops of onions that we 

 have ever seen. About three pounds of seed are re- 

 quired for an acre. Plant early and not too thick in 

 the row, nor have the rows too close together. If 

 you "beat every body,'' please write and let "every 

 body" know hoio you do it. 



THE MILCH COW.-S W. AND MR WHISHT. 



Messrs. Editors : — In your Farmer for March, is 

 an article headed, "Milch Cow." The article seems 

 to be intended to cast a doubt upon the capability of 

 the cow, to impugn the judgment of the Journal of 

 Commerce and the veracity of a " Traveler," as well 

 as myself. Your friend Mr. "Wright" has done 

 himself a great "wrong," showing a lack of discre- 

 tion not very creditable : but that is liis affair, and 

 not mine. Your correspondent may have been 

 " hoaxed" by Mr. Wright, in regard lo the cow, the 

 ■pail, and the milk ; and it is very likely Mr. Wright 

 made "a fish story" of it. If he had adhered to the 

 facts as he heard them, and in fact saw them, he 

 would have staled that my noble cow did, for about 

 six weeks in June and July, 1847, ^ive forly-two 

 quurls of milk each and every day — "pure milk, with- 

 out froth — and some days more. The quuntity was 

 ascertained by a tin quart measure, such as is in 

 common use through the country ; true, it had not 

 been sealed by the County Sealer, but I do not believe 

 it could vary so much as to invalidate my assertions. 

 I repeat, therefore, that " the milch cow" did yield, 

 in 1S47, for about six weeks, forty-two quarts of milk 

 )ier day. The quantity given by the same cow in 

 1845 and 1846 was about the same as in 1847, though 

 in 1848 and 1849 the quantity was diminished, which 

 I attribute to her calving early in the season, too 

 soon for grass. The quantity she gave last year, for 

 a time, was about thirty-nine quarts per day. I 

 regret that she is not in a condition to give me a calf 

 this season, otherwise I doubt not Mr. Wright's 

 $500 would have been transferred to me. In her 

 present slate, I am oft'ered, by a neighbor, one hun- 

 dred dollars ; but I dissuade him from taking her, as 

 I doubt whether she will have another calf. 



Mr. Wright could not have seen a pail " with a 

 strainer'' here, as there never was such a pail about 

 my house. 



As to my under-drained fields, I will say, that I 

 have laid on my farm 41,000 drain tiles of fifteen 

 inches in length. S. W. may estimate the same in 

 miles and fractions, and correct a "Traveller" if ho 

 can. Yours, fcc, John Joh.nston. — JVear Geneva, 

 March, 1850. 





