LEGUMINOUS PLANTS. — THE BEAN. 



65 



Instead of planting in continuous lines, 

 a good way is to plant in detached patches 

 of four or five seeds each, at distances 

 agreeable to those given above. 



Subsequent cultivation. — Beans, like all 

 other crops, require to be kept clear of 

 weeds, and to have the soil well stirred 

 up between the rows during their growing 

 season. When they have attained the 

 height of 6 inches, it is proper to draw a 

 little earth to the stems, merely to keep 

 them steady, as the bean is not disposed 

 to send out horizontal roots so near the 

 surface as to derive any advantage from 

 the soil thus gathered round them. Nor 

 is it a usual practice to afford them any 

 support, as in the case of the pea, although 

 no valid reason can be given to the con- 

 trary. True, the bean is not a tendrilled 

 climbing-plant like the pea, and hence 

 could not attach itself to the supports 

 presented to it ; but we have seen the 

 tall-growing sorts so often beaten down 

 by strong winds, even in not very exposed 

 places, that we often do, in defiance of 

 usual practice, support them when in 

 lines, by driving in, along the rows, stout 

 stakes, 6 or 8 feet asunder, and running 

 a line of tarred cord along both sides of 

 the plants, at the distance of about 15 

 inches apart, the first one being that dis- 

 tance from the ground. Those grown in 

 patches, as above, have three stakes to 

 each, with two tiers of cord as above. 



When the plants are fully in bloom, or 

 rather when they have set their flowers, 

 and the first series of beans have made 

 two inches in growth, three inches of the 

 tops of the plants should be pinched off, 

 to throw that nourishment which would 

 be expended in uselessly increasing the 

 height of the plant into its general system, 

 and consequently increase the bulk of 

 crop, as well as advance its early matu- 

 rity. This often-recommended opera- 

 tion, although disregarded by many, is of 

 very signal importance. Some, to secure 

 a very late crop, cut over a few rows of 

 a progressing one just when the plants 

 are in full flower. New shoots are formed 

 at the bottom of the stem, which shoot up 

 and produce a crop late in autumn. Did 

 it not occur to him who first recommended 

 this, that, by sowing a crop later in the 

 season than general crops usually are, the 

 same end would be arrived at, and in a 

 far more business-like manner 1 



In gathering the crop, the first attack 

 should be made on them when the beans 

 are about the size of a marrow-fat pea. 

 In such state only are they fit for a table 

 where elegance in display and gastronomic 

 taste are cared for. A disregard of this 

 on the part of the purveyor has probably 

 tended more than anything else to banish 

 this excellent esculent from the tables of 

 the great. The young gardener should 

 attend to this; and, indeed, the same rule 

 is applicable to every other article of gar- 

 den produce. He may rest assured that 

 his success in life depends to a great de- 

 gree on the quality of his productions, 

 not altogether on the quantity ; and he 

 may set it down as a pretty general rule, 

 that all vegetables are most appreciated 

 when young and delicate: and to none 

 does this more strongly apply than to the 

 Order of which we are now treating. 



Soil and manures. — In a strong alumi- 

 nous soil the bean luxuriates most ; that 

 soil must, however, be rich, and highly 

 cultivated. In light soils they are earlier, 

 but their produce is less, nor do they con- 

 tinue so long in bearing. It is the force 

 of manure and high cultivation that 

 enables the gardener to produce good 

 crops of this plant when he has to con- 

 tend with a light and gravelly soil. In 

 soils of the latter description, it is scarcely 

 possible to manure too highly ; and of all 

 fertilisers, that of the stable or cow yard 

 is the best in such a case. Mr Stephens, 

 in the "Book of the Farm" (vol. ii. p. 423), 

 gives an excellent instance of the benefi- 

 cial effects of gypsum being used as a top- 

 dressing to an acre of beans, and that at 

 the very moderate cost of 6s., the quan- 

 tity applied being 4 cwt. The balance in 

 produce in favour of one acre so treated 

 over another that received no top-dress- 

 ing, was 11^ bushels of beans and 127 

 stones of straw, the cash profit in the one 

 case over the other being £3, 4s. 4d. No 

 other manure was used ; the ground was, 

 however, dressed with 2| chaldrons of 

 quicklime slaked in water, that held 

 common salt in solution in the propor- 

 tion of 1 cwt. to the chaldron of lime, 

 before the beans were sown on the 6th of 

 March. The top-dressing was applied on 

 the 6th of May, and the crop reaped on 

 the 1st of September. The soil was partly 

 moss, partly sand or gravelly loam, and 

 had been trenched 16 inches deep, and 



