( 425 ) 



XXYll.— On the Bean-Turnip Falkic. By the 



Rev. TlI. BURROUGHES. 



I DO not know how to assign a more appropriate name to that 

 particular system of cultivation, whicli I am about to recommend 

 after five years' experience ; trusting that I shall be able to 

 prove, that by the regular adoption of this course on a fourth 

 part of the fallow, a considerable increase of profit will be ob- 

 tained, on a mixed soil or turnip-land farm under the four-course 

 husbandry, vvithout the slightest imjury to the subsequent crops. 



1 am, however, well aware that I cannot aspire to any pretension 

 of novelty with regard to this plan ; for, though as far as I can 

 learn, it has only been adopted by myself in this part of the 

 country, I have since seen in Mr. Pusey's paper (Journal xxvi., 

 p. 427) that it has already been practised to some extent in 

 other parts. My aim, therefore, is more fully to explain the 

 details of this method of cultivation and its expenses ; to remove 

 existing prejudices against it ; to prove, by example^ the advan- 

 tages and profit arising from it ; and hence to recommend it as a 

 systematic 'part of the fallow. 



My plan consists of having two rows of winter beans about'T 

 inches apart, and then a yard interval, in the middle of which is 

 a single row of turnips ; the average produce of the former, 

 during five years, has been a little over three quarters per acre, 

 varying from four quarters to two, though only in one instance so 

 low ; and the latter has invariably been a full half-crop, with both 

 bulbs and leaves of a large size ; the soil being in a great degree 

 silicious, and of that kind which is commonly called " red land," 

 of a fair average quality and depth, with various substrata of 

 gravel, chalk, and red brick-earth, and, upon the whole, entirely 

 different from w^hat is commonly called " bean-land." It may be 

 important to remark, that these beans have in no instance heen 

 attacked by the Aphis, or any diseases peculiar to beans, while 

 in one of these years the ordinary spring crop in this part of the 

 country suffered severely : but the last summer they were not 

 exempt from that peculiar blight which was said to have affected 

 the winter-beans generally, and I believe they were thus reduced 

 nearly a quarter per acre, but still have yielded 3 quarters 



2 bushels per acre. 



For the first four years I grew the small dark Russian bean, 

 which is said to have degenerated in this country from its original 

 size ; but last year another kind of bean, equally hardy, of a pale 

 colour, and much larger size but similar shape, and with the 

 peculiar property of branching much more from the root ; and I 

 believe it is so far more productive as to ensure an increase of at 

 least 4 bushels per acre. I have been unable to ascertain the 



