258 



CULTURE OF FARM CROPS. 



and it is quite obvious that 

 a I gets comparatively 

 mospheric influences. If 

 the astonishing efficacy 

 ply of light and air in 

 bean plant, let him sow 

 b 



rows three thus, 

 the central row 

 little of the at- 

 any one doubts 

 of a proper sup- 

 raising the produce of the 

 a patch of this shape abed, 

 and the interior space broadcasted ; 

 he will find that while the interior 

 plants will grow apparently as 

 vigorously as the exterior ones, 

 the podding will be confined almost entirely to the outside 

 plants in the lines a b, c d, d c, c a. Some successful 

 growers have made the distance between single rows five 

 feet, and have been perfectly well satisfied with the results. 

 Perhaps the most complete, if not the most satisfactory, 

 experiments referring to the distances to be given to the 

 rows of beans, were those carried out by Mr. George Hope 

 of Fentonbarns, of which a very full account will be found 

 in the Transactions of the Highland Society for July 

 1859, and to which the reader is here referred ; content- 

 ing ourselves, by here simply stating, that of the three 

 widths, 8-inches, 16-inches, and 27-inches, the medium 

 width, 1 6-inches, gave the best results ; the space between 

 the widest rows being a mass of weeds, those between the 

 narrower rows being remarkably free from them. Where 

 dibbling is resorted to, another question arises, and like 

 many others connected with the practice of agriculture it 

 is a disputed one and it is, what should be the distance be- 

 tween the dibbled pockets or the beans in the rows 1 Nine 

 inches is a very usual distance, and we have found it gwe 

 good, we may say the best, results. Others, again, while 

 advocating very wide intervals between the rows, advocate 

 the utmost possible degree of thickness of seeds in the 

 rows. We have tried this close seeding in the rows, but 

 did not find the result at all equal to that obtained by 

 dibbling them at 8 or 9 inches apart. Nor need we be 

 surprised at this, seeing the superior position of the dibbled 



