September 5, 1878. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
195 
some sort, but we cannot tell which it is from the leaf, as the genus is a very 
numerous one. (W. Hilloak).—1, Hieracium sylvaticum; 2, Stachys palus- 
tris. (John Davis).—An Epilobium, but the specimen is insufficient to 
enable us to determine it. (“dward Long)—Calceolaria scabioszfolia. 
(Jeune).—1, Berberis vulgaris; 2, Anthemis Cotula; 3, Eupatorium odora- 
tissimum. (Conan).—Your Lily is from Japan, and is the new variety of 
Thunbergianum which has recently been called Bateman. It is very beau- 
tiful and, we believe, very scarce. 
THE HOME FARM: 
POULTRY, PIGEON, AND BEE CHRONICLE. 
THE CULTIVATION OF WINTER BEANS. 
THE cultivation of winter beans is altogether so different from 
that of spring beans that we propose to treat of it separately, 
and this not only applies to the beans, but to the land upon 
which they are or may be most advantageously grown. Spring 
beans are identified in their growth with strong heavy land 
only, but not so with winter beans, because almost any loamy 
Jand in good tilth and cultivation will produce them in great 
abundance in favourable seasons. There is also another striking 
difference between winter and spring beans—the latter are far 
more subject to blight than the former, and are consequently a 
more speculative crop ; and when we consider the variety of soils 
upon which the winter beans may be profitably grown, it in our 
estimation places them far in advance of spring beans for cul- 
ture on the home farm. We shall have to refer to their culti- 
vation under varying circumstances, not only as regards their 
growth as an individual crop, but also as a double crop in con- 
nection with other pulse, and also as a crop with vegetable pro- 
duce in intermediate culture. 
Although the winter bean may be grown with success upon 
dry loamy land with various subsoils, yet it is a question of 
climate as well as soil, for we find that the westemm and mid- 
land counties being subject in ordinary seasons to a greater rain- 
fall than the eastern and southern counties, and consequently 
beans, either winter or spring sort, flourish better and are less 
subject to blight than in the drier counties. It often happens 
that a week of dry harsh weather from the east whilst the beans 
are in bloom is fatal to the crop, and this harsh east wind is 
peculiar to the eastern counties, whilst moist and rainy weather 
accompanied by a lower temperature more nearly represents the 
seasons peculiar to the western counties. 
When land is intended for this crop it is well that it should 
be free from couch grass, and in order to save expenses in cul- 
tivation by horse labour it is best to have any couch forked out 
by hand which may be found in small separate bunches here and 
there. It is altogether unnecessary to incur heayy charges in 
horse labour in preparing the land, for in case the land is fairly 
clean one ploughing with harrowing and rolling will be quite 
sufficient to make the land firm at bottom and fine on the sur- 
face, which are practically the two leading points required in 
cultivating for-winter beans. It is common now to drill winter 
beans, but formerly the plan was to plant with the dibble by 
hand, one man using two dibbles, followed by women or boys 
to drop the beans, not more than two in each hole, and this is 
the best way to insure a regular plant. It is also best when a 
double crop of pulse is required. For instance, when winter 
vetches are drilled with the beans it is very difficult to adjust 
the quantity of beans and yetches, even when a few vetches are 
put in the drill at every turning on the headlands. The vetches 
usually will run much faster than the beans, and this causes an 
irregular and bunchy plant, but in dibbling we insure a regulay 
and even plant. The quantity of seed required will be two 
bushels per acre when drilled, but when dibbled 14 bushel will 
be sufficient, and when vetches are dibbled with the beans a 
half bushel per acre of vetches will be quite sufficient. When 
the winter beans are required as a single crop the distance be- 
tween the rows may be 2 feet when dibbled, but 27 inches when 
drilled. We recommend the latter distance as best to secure 
the full advantage of interculture with the horse hoe. Winter 
beans usually stalk out and branch much wider than spring 
beans; in fact, drilled beans always require most room. In all 
cases, either of drilling or dibbling, the distance between the 
rows is of great importance, because when the plants become 
crowded the free circulation of air and the action of the sun is 
excluded to a certain extent, and renders the crops far more 
susceptible to blight, and causes the blooms not setting so well 
nor will the pods fill so regularly as they should do. 
It is of consequence to consider how this crop stands in the 
rotation, for although a crop of oats may pay as well as the 
beans the difference would be very great in the wheat crop 
whether it followed beans or oats, and much in favour of the 
beans. Although we haye sometimes grown fine crops of wheat 
after oats upon the same style and rotation as grown in some 
parts of Lincolnshire and other counties on the fen lands, yet 
under ordinary culture upon the generality of soils the wheat will 
be much better after the beans, because we view it as a fallow 
crop, in the culture of which the land becomes aérated and mel- 
low, and the falling leaf of the. bean crop is considered to have a 
beneficial and fertilising effect upon a wheat crop following. 
Some of the best soils of strong loam in various districts are 
cropped with beans and wheat alternately, and some have been 
cultivated in this manner for a long period, and the land let sub- 
ject to such a system of sowing fetches a higher rent in conse- 
quence. When this is the case it is, however, just a question 
which answers the best purpose—the winter or the spring beans. 
When it is intended,to take a crop of roots in conjunction with 
winter beans the land should be clean and bouted up into ridges 
3 feet wide, and a single line of beans planted in the centre of the 
ridges, and‘in this way we have taken a lesson from the market 
gardeners, who grow beans and cabbages in alternate lines. We 
first tried the plan of intercropping with roots about twenty-five 
years ago, and it proved very successful, our cultivation being, 
after setting the beans in the centre of the 3-feet ridge, to let it 
remain during the winter months. In the spring, as soon as the 
land would work freely, the horse hoe was used; we then drew a 
furrow with a one-horse double mould plough, into which the arti- 
ficial manure was applied, and then horse-hoed again, and dibbled 
either mangold or carrots, seed or planted cabbages; the latter 
proved the surest and best adapted for the purpose. As soon as 
they have taken root well the land may be hand-hoed for the last 
time, and allowed to remain until the beans are fit to cut, which 
will be generally about the time of commencing wheat harvest, 
and sometimes a little earlier. When the beans are removed the 
land is horse-hoed between the roots, and this has a most bene- 
ficial effect upon the root crop, as well as clearing the land of any 
weeds which may have crept up in the lines of beans. The lines 
of beans being 3 feet apart we have found them yield much better 
than when planted closer, and in the same way the roots having 
so much rooting space they come yery large, particularly if the 
manure for them has been applied liberally. We have frequently 
grown from 5 to 6 sacks of beans, and from 18 to 20 tons of man-° 
golds per acre in favourable seasons, which must be considered a 
great produce as compared with a single crop. Cabbages do 
equally well and give a heayy crop, and are more certain to main- 
tain a plant, because any crop to be reared from seed, like mangold 
or carrots, will always have to contend with insect enemies during 
their infancy. This method of double cropping only applies to 
the kinder and better soils, and is not adapted for strong clay 
land, strong land being most suitable for the growth of spring 
beans. When the beans are grown alone after the first horse-hoe- 
ing it is a good plan to harrow a single line across the rows of 
beans when the weather is dry, which will not only destroy the 
small weeds, but will break the shell or crust of the land around 
the plants and greatly facilitate their growth and the hand-hoeing 
which is to follow. 
The best time for drilling or planting winter beans is about the 
middle of October, and it should be remembered that after the land 
is properly harrowed drilling answers best upon stale furrow, but 
planting succeeds best upon a fresh ploughed furrow, the land 
being properly harrowed and water-furrowed after plantings 
