250 CULTURE OF FARM CROPS. 



however, an advocate of the system which aims at getting 

 a very finely pulverised condition of soil in spring, before 

 the sowing of the seed ; on the contrary, he prefers to get 

 the beans a first start in medium soil, reducing it after- 

 wards by subsequent cultivation ; thus at once getting 

 fine tilth, and clearing of the weeds. He deprecates as 

 " most injudicious," the ploughing and scarifying the land 

 to excess in February, for the purpose of pulverizing the 

 land, as the same object can be secured, and better secured, 

 after the plants have fairly come up. Great loss arises 

 from the padding of horses' feet in spring, when the dry 

 weather which generally follows renders land cloddy and 

 quite unsuited to hoeing and weeding. Mr. Vallentine is 

 no advocate for hand dibbling of beans at so much per 

 peck; as it is done generally in so slovenly a manner as 

 to cause the beans to come up in such crooked, uneven 

 l,jnes, as quite to prevent hoeing being properly carried out. 

 He drills his beans in straight lines in spring before the 

 harrow is worked over the land, and across the furrows or at 

 an angle, so that the drill itself breaks up the land ; the 

 seed being deposited at a depth of four inches, but not less 

 than three. The land is only harrowed once after the 

 beans are drilled, should it not be dry enough to admit of 

 the whole harrowing being done. In very stiff clays, it 

 sometimes happens that the soil becomes all at once finely 

 pulverized as the beans come up. In this case the use of 

 the roller is to be recommended, as it levels the land and 

 prepares it for after harrowing and hoeing, Some object 

 to this rolling of heavy land, but Mr. Vallentine has found 

 it beneficial in circumstances as above stated. The same 

 authority believes that beans are much improved by being 

 harrowed about a fortnight after they have come up. If 

 they are very thick on the ground, one harrowing may be 

 given in one direction, another across the rows. This will 

 be found very effectual in tearing up the weeds between 

 the plants. Let it be borne in mind, however, that no 

 harrowing should be done in a^frosty morning, nor, indeed, 

 says an authority, any other kind of cultivation. As soon 



