QUANTITY AND SOLUTION OF SEED. 215 



for sowing has been determined upon, the same care 

 should be bestowed upon the selection of the seed as has 

 been recommended in regard to the wheat and other corn 

 crops (p. 19.) 



It is equally important for the reasons there given, that 

 the seed be fully developed and matured, true to its sort, 

 and free from injury or disease; as, upon the condition of 

 the parent seed, the health and vigour of the young plant 

 mainly depends. The same advice, too, in regard to the 

 advantages of changing the seed, holds good with the 

 bean, as, indeed, it does with all our other cultivated crops. 

 In the Lothians, where beans are largely grown, the 

 farmers prefer to get their seed from the rich carse districts 

 of Falkirk and Stirling ; while the produce of the Lothian 

 farms is considered an equally good change for the bean 

 soils of the aUuvial tracts mentioned. Steeping is never 

 practised with beans, as, although the plant has many 

 enemies to contend with during its period of growth, they 

 arise chiefly from the attacks of insects, and not from those 

 fungoid diseases which have been described in treating of 

 wheat. In Roman agriculture, however, it was strongly 

 recommended to immerse the seeds, previous to sowing, 

 in a certain manurial compound, for the purpose of in- 

 creasing their fertility ; and also to follow the practice of 

 the Greeks, who " asserted that the seed which is steeped 

 in capon's blood is not hurt by destructive weeds ; that if 

 infused in water a day or two before sowing, it will spring 

 the sooner; and if sprinkled with a little nitre before 

 being cooked as food, it will boil all the better for it." 1 

 The value of the first portion of the recommendation must 

 be limited to the mere weight of the fertilizing substances 

 added to the seed; while the advantages of infusing the 

 seed in water previous to sowing, would probably be far 



1 Palladius, lib. xiii. tit. i. 



