262 CULTURE OF FARM CROPS. 



equalled." Beans here, generally follow the oat crop. On 

 this, farm-yard manure is spread and ploughed in by the 

 winter furrow. The land is then drilled turnip fashion 

 in spring, the beans sown and covered by reversing the 

 drills, and the after cultivation effected by the horse and the 

 hand-hoe. In the most recent practice, the land is worked 

 by ploughing and grubbing, the weeds being carefully re- 

 moved; drills are then opened by the common plough, 

 farm-yard dung spread along the hollows, on this the beans 

 are sown by machine, and the drills are reversed covering 

 the seed, a rolling levels the drills, and a slight harrowing 

 opens the surface just before the beans begin to show 

 through. When the plants are about two inches high, 

 the small plough, drawn by one horse, is sent in and takes 

 a deep furrow from the sides of each drill, sending the 

 soil into the intervals. The drill grubber is used to stir 

 the soil afterwards, and hand-hoeing is carefully carried 

 out. In some cases, the drills are earthed up by the 

 double mould-board plough. 



59. The same authority, of whose opinions we have just 

 given a resume, has other remarks which it will be useful 

 here to condense. Enlightened practice, he says, recom- 

 mends the farm-yard dung to be used for beans in a highly 

 wetted, yet scarcely putrescent state ; the roots of the 

 young plants delighting to search for nutrition amongst 

 the rank particles, so that while the tap root descends, the 

 lateral fibres receive plenty of nourishment. Top dress- 

 ings of almost any substance are not to be recommended, 

 producing, as they generally do, more top foliage than grain ; 

 this tendency is more marked in leguminous than in grain 

 crops. Dissolved bones, lime, gypsum, glauber salts, com- 

 mon salts, nitrate of soda, and potash, have all, he says, 

 been recommended for beans to be sown on the young 

 plants, and afterwards mixed with the soil by hoeing. 

 Gypsum and lime require a long time for solution, and 

 should be applied to the land before sowing the seed; on 

 the former along with the seed. Lime may be mixed 

 with the soil by hoeing, or laid in the winter furrow or 



