HOEING GROWTH OF CROP. 225 



attempt to hoe them any more, and they are then usually 

 left to take their chances in the field. In the north, and 

 some other districts where they are sown on wide ridges, 

 it is customary to finish the cultivation by slightly 

 moulding them up with a drill-plough, drawn by a single 

 horse up between the rows. This, especially on soft, rich 

 soils, is a sound practice : it has all the good effect of a 

 hoeing, while, at the same time, it affords a better support 

 for the bean-stalks by inducing an increased development 

 of rootlets from the base of the stem of the plant. 



Beans, during their growth, are not nearly so liable to 

 the attacks, either of disease or of insects, as our corn crops. 

 The injury, however, which they do receive from one of the 

 insects infesting them is generally far more detrimental to 

 them than the attacks of either of the insect enemies to our 

 corn crops which we have hitherto had to describe. This 

 is what is commonly known by the name of "blight/' 

 caused by a small, dark-coloured fly the "Black Dolphin/' 

 or " Collier/' as it is generally called which attacks the 

 plant about, or shortly after, the time of flowering, and 

 inflicts such injuries as effectually to destroy the plant, 

 unless its ravages are checked by natural or artificial 

 causes. These we shall have an opportunity of recurring 

 to when we describe this part of the subject, after we 

 have discussed the final process of cultivation that of 

 harvesting the crop. 



Here we meet with a wide discrepancy between the 

 practices which prevail in the north and in the south, 

 especially in respect to the proper period at which the 

 crop should be cut. In the north the straw is looked 

 upon as a valuable fodder substance, and as forming a 



crop, by merely measuring the length of the drills, and thus obtaining the 

 number of square rods, 160 of which go to the acre. For field piece-work, as 

 hoeing, harvesting, &c., this is a very convenient practice; therefore, we would 

 rather recommend 18-inch drills for beans than 10 inches, the width adopted 

 in the experiment referred to. 



