CHARACTER OF SOILS SUITABLE. 



207 



The seeds are flat-sided, with dark black marks at the 

 end, and contain on the average about the same propor- 

 tions of meal and husk as the Long-pod varieties. 



The bean plant delights in strong soils ; indeed, those 

 soils which are best adapted for wheat are equally suited 

 for the cultivation of beans, in like manner as the lighter 

 class of soils on which barley 

 thrives are those most congenial 

 to the growth of the turnip. 

 Although it may be grown 

 successfully on the strongest 

 clay soils, as those of the Lon- 

 don, the wealden, the oolite, 

 and the lias, still a freer descrip- 

 tion of soil, such as the clay 

 loams (clays containing sand), 

 is that best suited to its habits 

 of growth, and in this class of 

 soils we see its cultivation 

 carried on to the greatest per- 

 fection. 



A good bean soil should have 

 a certain amount of tenacity 

 or staple to give it the requisite 

 firmness ; it should be deep, so 

 as to admit freely the down- 

 ward passage of the roots in 

 search of food, and it should 

 be free from any surplus water 



beyond that which such soils always naturally contain. 

 These are the principal physical conditions for a good 

 bean soil The first is natural to the soil, and in fact 

 determines its suitability; the second can in such a class 

 of soils be always secured by subsoiling and additional 

 tillage ; and the last generally requires the application of 



