SOIL SUITABLE FOR BEANS. 247 



44. While pease, as we shall afterwards see, are grown upon 

 light, beans are grown upon heavy soils ; and if upon 

 light, only as catch or stolen crops. In growing them 

 upon heavy soils regularly they form part of the rotation, 

 as thus first year, fallow, dunged for wheat ; second year, 

 beans ; third year, fallow again. In the excellent essay 

 by Mr. Vallentine, already refered to, there are some valu- 

 able remarks on this part of the subject, that we here give 

 a resume of them. Such, as above stated, was the almost 

 universal custom of cropping heavy soils, in which beans 

 formed a constant part of the rotation. The wheat was 

 sown broadcast, or ploughed in, the beans treated the same 

 way, and neither wheat nor beans ever received any hoeing 

 or weeding, so that the filthy weedy state into which the 

 land rapidly got may be easily conceived, and even in this 

 day, where the system is still pursued, may yet be witnessed. 

 Mr. Vallentine states that this system was very generally 

 practised some years ago in Huntingdon, Berkshire, Bed- 

 fordshire, and Buckinghamshire ; but that now, under the 

 exigencies of another system, the naked fallow is rapidly 

 become more and more rare. Mr. Vallentine's own ex- 

 perience has shown him that it is quite possible to banish 

 the naked fallow altogether from heavy stiff clay farms, 

 and yet keep the land clean and free from weeds. The 

 rotation he has found best for such soils which are unsuit- 

 able for " roots," or at least unsuitable for thin, easy, and 

 profitable culture, is as follows first year, beans, dunged ; 

 second year, barley or oats, with seeds (grass) ; third year, 

 seeds, one or two years according to circumstances ; fourth 

 year, wheat. This being changed into a fifth or sixth 

 course, and alternating oats for barley in the second year. 

 By adopting this rotation, the land can be kept clean 

 throughout the whole of it, and in about the same condition 

 for each crop. The wheat and the bean crops require to 

 be drilled and thoroughly hoed, so that the land is left 

 clean for the barley and the seeds ; the grass land resulting, 

 being of course broken up for the fourth, fifth, or sixth 

 year's crop, which is, of course, wheat. On land of a 



