

FEBRUARY. 



BEANS. 



IN this month a farmer should begin 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 welt. The land ought to have been 

 ploughed on to the three foot ridge, and well 

 \vater-furrovvett the autumn before ; by which 

 means his only object now will be dibbling in the 

 seed : so that the first 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 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 ridge?* 

 In the latter way, they are in single rows, but in 

 the former double. In the following summer, the 

 single rows are ploughed between, in the horse- 

 fooeing manner, and the double ones hand- hoed. 

 Both methods are common husbandry in several 

 parts of the kingdom. But I shall recommend, in 

 preference to them, other methods, and using a 

 plough, as it executes that work with much 



greater 



