134 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



May 



large number of our friends will try the bean 

 crop this year, believing they will find their ac- 

 count in it. 



The following relates the practice of the late 

 Judge BuEL in cultivating this crop. 

 Beans as a Field Crop. 



They are a valuable crop, and with good care 

 are as profitable as a wheat crop. They leave 

 the soil in good tilth. I cultivated the beans the 

 last year in three different ways, viz : in hills, in 

 drills and sowed broadcast. I need not describe 

 the first, which is a well known process. I had 

 an acre in drills, ^hich was the best crop I ever 

 saw. My management was this : On the acre of 

 light ground, where the clover had been frozen 

 out the preceding winter, I s])read eight loads of 

 -ong manure, and immedialety ploughed and har- 

 rowed the ground. Drills of furrows were then 

 made with a light plow, at a distance of two and 

 a half feet, and the beans thrown along the furrows 

 about the 25th of May, by the hand, at the rale of 

 at least a bushel on the acre. I then gauged a 

 doubled mold-board plow, which was passed once 

 between the rows, and was followed by a light one- 

 horse roller, which flattened the ridges. The crop 

 was twice twice cleaned of weeds by the hoe, but 

 not earthed. The product was more than forty- 

 eight bushels by actual measurement. 



EFFECT OF SOIL OW GRAPES. 



At a late meeting of the Ohio Pomological So- 

 ciety, most of the grapes exhibited as Isabellas 

 ■were of the kind having large, compact bunches, 

 and large, round berries, so unlike the old style of 

 Isabellas that few persons could I'egard them as 

 the same, and yet the testimony of a large num- 

 ber of the growers would seem to show that the 

 change is only the result of soil, season and cul- 

 ture. 



Mr. Rateham called attention to the remarkable 

 difference among the specimens exhibited ; he said 

 his attention had first been called to this subject 

 by witnessing similar exhibitions in this part of 

 the State two or three years ago, and on calling 

 the attention of fruit-growers to it, through the 

 papers, he was informed that the large, round va- 

 riety was not the Isabella, but should be called 

 the Aiken. Since that time he had seen more of 

 these grapes and the growers, but he is still un- 

 able to satisfy himself that there are two distinct 

 varieties — and yet he admits that the difference in 

 the specimens is greater than he has ever sup- 

 posed could be produced by soil and culture. 



Capt. Stewart said he had found in his vineyard 

 great difference among Isabella vines, in the size, 

 shape and time of ripening of the fruit, as affected 

 by the soil and location ; could cut tsome ten days 

 earlier than others — thinks all the difference in 

 the specimens exhibited, may be effects of soil, 

 &c. Mr. Stores, of Painesville, expressed the 

 same opinion. 



Mr. Oviatt, of Richfield, Summit Co., said he 

 had a vineyard partly on clay soil and part sandy 

 loam ; the vines all propagated from one source, 

 by himself, and those growing on the sandy soil 

 produce larger and more compact bunches, and 

 larger and rounder berries, than those on the sand 



— difference like that exhibited in specimens here | 

 to-night, and at the Fair ; hence he did not be- 

 lieve in the Aiken variety. 



Dr. Taylor thought it would be found that the 

 large round specimens grew on rich, sandy land, 

 where the roots found plenty of food and moisture, 

 and the vines not over-loaded with fruit. Dr. 

 Kirtland had told him that last fall he found the 

 large, round (Aiken) variety growing on his 

 ground, where the vine stood near a sewer, while 

 other vines of the same origin, on common soil, 

 bore old-fashioned Isabellas. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 NEW MODE OP CULTIVATING CORIf. 



Friend Brown:— The practical fiirmer should 

 always be ready to impart information to his 

 brother workers. He should improve upon the 

 old adage, "Live, and let live." He should not 

 only "live, and let live," but should live, and help 

 live. To help live he should make use of the ag- 

 ricultural papers to converse with his brethren of 

 the plow. There should be a more general desire 

 to "swap" information. Tkat information should 

 be of the genuine kind, founded upon his own 

 practical experience. No live farmer in these 

 days plods along in the old path, never turning 

 to the right or left. If he attempts to, in these 

 days of scarcity of labor, he will find himself in 

 the background. Premising there may be now 

 and then one of the readers of the Farme)- who 

 are ready to seize all the advantages that turn up 

 to save labor, I propose to state, briefly, my meth- 

 od of raising corn for the past two years, and 

 which I adopt as the best. 



After my ground is well prepared by manuring, 

 plowing and harrowing, I drill it one way with a 

 small plow. Into this drill I put whatever of 

 compost or manure is intended for the hill, and 

 mix it thoroughly with the soil, with an instru- 

 ment made by attaching two or three of Shore's 

 harrow teeth to a joist four inches square and four 

 feet long, with handles on one end and a hitching 

 place at the other. After this operation the corn 

 is strewn all along the drill, at the rate of four to 

 six kernels to the foot. A plow is then used to 

 cover the whole, in soil tolerably free from stones. 



When the corn is up suflSciently to see the rows 

 the same little plow is run on either side of it, 

 turning a furrow from the corn. In a week or so 

 a cultivator is run through and the soil is again 

 levelled. When it gets up a little too big for the 

 crows, and the worms have got their share, with 

 a dexterous use of the hoe it is thinned to about 

 eight inches and left standing in as straight a row 

 as possible. When ten or twelve inches high the 

 same little plow is used to turn a furrow against 

 either side of the corn. With a little practice 

 the weeds may be nearly all covered and destroyed. 

 With my two years' experience I can confidently 

 recommend this method to my brother farmers, 

 especially to those who have light soils to man- 

 age. I have actually raised a good crop of corn, 

 and not used the hoe at all, and at harvest, one 

 could not find three bushels of weeds to the acre. 

 ■ Weave, N. H., March 17, 1864. Z. Breed. 



An elk can run a mile and a half in two min- 

 utes ; an antelope in a minute; the wild mule of 

 Tartary has even greater speed than that. 



