Book VI. THE BEAN. 839 



sowing. In all cases it ought to be ploughed with a deep furrow after harvest or early in winter ; and as 

 two ploughings in spring are highly advantageous, the winter furrow may be given in the direction of the 

 former ridges, in which way the land is sooner dry in spring than if it had been ploughed across. The 

 second ploughing is to be given across the ridges, as early in spring as the ground is sufficiently dry; and 

 the third furrow either forms the drills or receives the seed. {Supp. E. Brit. art. Agr.) 



5229. Brown, one of the best bean-growers in Britain, gives the following directions: The furrow 

 ought to be given early in winter, and as deep as possible, that the earth may be sufficiently loosened and 

 room afltbrded for the roots of the plant to search for the requisite nourishment. This first furrow is 

 usually given across the field, which is the best method when only one spring furrow is intended ; but as 

 it is now ascertained that two spring furrows are highly advantageous, perhaps the one in winter ought 

 to be given in length, which lays the ground in a better situation for resisting the rains, and renders it 

 sooner dry in spring, than can be the case when ploughed across. On the supposition that three furrows 

 are to be given, one in winter and two in spring, the following is the most eligible preparation : The 

 land being ploughed in length as early in winter as is practicable, and the cross gutter and headland furrows 

 suflSciently dug out, take the second furrow across the first as soon as the ground is dry enough in spring 

 to undergo the operation ; water-furrow it immediately, and dig again the cross gutter and headland 

 furrows, otherwise the benefit of the second furrow may be lost. This being done, leave the field for some 

 days till it is sutticiently dry, when a cast of the harrows becomes necessary, so that the surface may be 

 levelled ; then enter with the ploughs and form the drills. {Treatise on Rural Jjffairs.) 



5230. Manure is frequently applied to the bean cnrp, especially if it succeeds wheat. By some, dung is 

 spread on the stubble previously to the winter ploughing ; but this cannot always be done in a satisfactory 

 manner, at least in the northern parts of the island, unless during frost, when it may lie long exposed to 

 the weather before it can be turned down by the plough. The most desirable mode, therefore, is to lay 

 the manure into drills immediately before the beans are sown. {Supp. Sfc.) 



5231. The best way, according to Brown, is to apply the dung on the stubble before the winter furrow 

 is given, which greatly facilitates the after process. Used in this way, a fore stock must be in hand ; but 

 where the farmer is not so well provided, spring dunging becomes necessary, though evidently of less 

 advantage. At that season it may either be put into the drills before the seed is sown, or spread upon 

 the surface and ploughed down, according to the nature of the drilling process which is meant to be 

 adopted. Land dunged to beans, if duly hoed, is always in high order for carrying a crop of wheat in 

 succession. Perhaps better wheat, both in respect of quantity and quality, may be cultivated in this way 

 than in any other mode of sowing. 



5232. The climate most favourable to the bean is one neither very dry nor very moist ; 

 the first brings on the fly, and the last prevents the setting of the blossoms. In general, 

 however, a dry summer is most favourable to the production of seed, and moist weather 

 to the growth of the haulm. 



5233. The time of sowing beans is as early as possible after the severity of winter is 

 over; in the south, sometimes in January, but neyer later than the end of March, as the 

 ripening of the crop and its safe harvesting would otherwise be very precarious in this 

 climate. Bannister thinks that the proper time for planting beans in Kent is towards 

 the latter end of January or early in the following month ; though this business may be 

 continued with advantage till the middle or latter end of March, if the weather should 

 prevent their being got in at an earlier season ; but in general it is best to embrace the 

 first opportunity of sowing them after Candlemas, as they often miscarry when the season 

 is procrastinated beyond that time, especially if a dry summer should succeed. 



5234. The mode of solving is almost always in rows. Though still sown broad-cast 

 in several places, and sometimes dibbled, they are for the most part drilled by judicious 

 cultivators, or deposited after the plough in every furrow, or only in every second or third 

 furrow. In the latter method the crop rises in rows, at regular intervals of nine, eighteen, 

 or twenty-seven inches, and the hand-hoe ought invariably to be employed ; but it is 

 only where the widest interval is adopted that the horse-hoe can be used with much 

 eflfect in their subsequent culture. 



52S5. 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 to be 

 applied, the seed ought to be first deposited, as it is found inconvenient to run the drill-machine after- 

 wards. The dung may then be drawn out from the carts in small heaps, one row of heaps serving for 

 three or five ridgelets, and it is evenly spread and equally divided among them in a way that will be more 

 minutely described when treating of the culture of turnips. The ridgelets are next split out or reversed, 

 either by means of the common plough or one with two mould-boards, by which means lx)th the seed and 

 the manure are perfectly covered. When beans are sown by the other method, in the bottom of a com- 

 mon furrow, the dung must be previously spread over the surface of the winter or spring ploughing. 

 Three ploughs then start in succession, one immediately behind another; 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 frcon twenty, 

 four to twenty-seven inches asunder, according to the breadth of the furrow-slice. 



52,36. Another apjrroved way of soiling beans, when dung is applied at seed-time, is to spread the dung 

 and to plough it down with a strong furrow ; after this shallow furrows are drawn, into which the seed is 

 deposited by the drill-machine. Whichever of these modes of sowing is followed, the whole field must 

 be carefully laid dry, by means of channels formed by the plough, and when necessary by the shovel j for 

 neither then nor at any former period should water be allowed to stagnate on the land. 



5237. The dibbling of beans is considered by Arthur Young as an excellent method 

 when well performed ; but the grand objection to it is the difficulty of getting it well done. 



52.38. When dibbling lyecomes the common husbandry of a district, the workmen find that great earnings 

 are to be made by it, and this is much too apt to make them careless and eager to earn still more; and if 

 a very minute attention is not paid to them by the constant attendance of the farmer, they strike the 

 holes so shallow that the first peck of a rook's bill takes the seed, and acres may be destroyed if the 

 breed of those birds be encouraged. Boys are employed for weeks together to keep the fields, but all 

 works that depend on bovs are horribly neglected, and thus the farmer suffers materially; however, if 

 the seed is deposited two and a half or (better) three inches deep, it is not so easily eradicated. In some 

 districts, as Middlesex, Surrey, &c., the method is to plant this pulse in rows struck out by a line, by 

 which a great saving is made in the article of seed, a circumstance which is thought to compensate for 

 the extraordinary charge of this mode of husbandry ; and thus far it may be fairly acknowledged that the 

 method of planting beans by thedibber is greatly to be preferred to that of sowing the seed at random. 

 The economy of this agricultural process is thus explained : The rows are marked out one foot asunder, 



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