260 CULTURE OF FARM; CROPS. 



cases a useful purpose is served by ribbing up the land, 

 after being well harrowed, by a small plough, thereafter 

 sowing the beans by hand, which fall into the furrows 

 and are covered by the harrows; hand-hoeing can in this 

 system be well carried out. In the modified clays met 

 with in Essex, which have been washed with fresh water, 

 and in this way divested of much of their usual tenacity, 

 beans are cultivated in rows nine inches apart, from that 

 up to two feet, the seed being dibbled in by hand on the 

 top of the furrow slice, which is made as deep as possible, 

 a light harrowing covers the seed and concludes the oper- 

 ations. This mode is the first departure from the broad- 

 cast system where soils do not admit of being stirred in 

 autumn or in the spring ; and where the distance between 

 the rows is as great as 18 inches, the crop can be kept 

 fairly clean by hand-hoeing ; but horse-hoeing is scarcely 

 admissible, the hoes not being able to penetrate the soil 

 sufficiently,' hardened as it is from the winter furrow, so 

 that it is difficult to obtain a tilth favourable to absorption 

 and evaporation. Scarifying, however, is useful as an 

 auxiliary to the hand-hoeing, as tending to get rid of the 

 surface weeds. Soils of this class, being well-suited to the 

 bean, give large crops under this system of culture, from 

 50 to 60 bushels per acre being not unusual yields. 



5 6. Where clays, by mixture with chalk, assume a moder- 

 ately friable condition, the land is deeply ploughed in 

 winter and well harrowed, the beans are drilled by a corn- 

 drilling machine modified so as to deposit the seeds deeply, 

 the distance between the drills being from 9 to 1 8 inches ; 

 the seeds are covered by a light harrowing. Another 

 method in such soils is to well harrow them, and then run 

 a light plough up, so as to throw furrows at any desired 

 distance; broadcasting the beans which fall into the fur- 

 rows and are finally covered by the harrow. Both of these 

 modes admit of horse-hoeing or scarifying between the 

 rows in the earlier stages of the growth of the plants, 

 while hand-hoeing can be done. 



57. Where lands are so friable as to admit of autumn 



