156 MAKING HORTICULTURE PAY 



order to make the dirt stick to the roots. The 

 roots should not be disturbed more than necessary, 

 but the whole mass of dirt in the tin can removed 

 to the garden. In this way we get the delicious 

 lima bean for our table ten days or two weeks 

 earlier than by ordinary planting." 



John W. Broadway of Cumberland county, New 

 Jersey, manages somewhat differently. *' First, the 

 land should be in a high state of cultivation. 

 Use fall plowed land and apply 15 to 25 tons of 

 good manure an acre after ground is plowed. At 

 planting time apply 400 pounds high-grade fertilizer 

 an acre in hills well spread. Hills 4J/2 feet each 

 way; thin to two plants, give frequent cultivation, 

 once each way every week until vines reach top of 

 poles, then use binding twine from pole i. Pole- 

 train vines on string; keep up cultivating during 

 season. The cost of growing is not limited, as re- 

 sults are governed by special care. I claim cost an 

 acre $125 to $200 and first year a trifle more, as 

 poles will last three years. My profit last year 

 was $275 an acre net, as prices wxre good through- 

 out the season." 



" In the garden no one crop has regularly paid 

 me better than the lima bean," writes D. S. Kelsey 

 of Hartford county, Connecticut. " For eight years 

 I supplied the large hotels at Saratoga Springs, 

 New York. All that time I was, so far as I know, 

 the only grower of lima beans in the Adirondack 

 region. Not that I advise people to go north to 

 grow them, but there is a popular notion that lima 

 beans belong to the hot, sandy soils of the South. 

 They will mature anywhere that corn will mature. 



"The bean needs plenty of organic nitrogen ; 

 that is, stable manure, or chemicals, dried fish, 

 cottonseed meal, blood or tankage; never nitrates 



