428 



The Bean -Turnip Fallow. 



a bean stubble being favourable, according to common opinion, 

 to the growth of barley. At all events, all gainsajers have 

 found, from personal inspection of the crops, a full answer. 



With respect to the turnips, my experience leads me to remark 

 that the space of 2 acres will thus maintain a ewe-flock of about 

 12 score for a week ; or, what may be more desirable, about 10 

 score of fatting sheep, with a pint of beans each a-day, and which 

 will thus consume just one-half only of the beans produced upon 

 the land. I have grown different varieties of turnips in this way, 

 but it is particularly adapted to the Tankard, which requires a 

 wide space, and thus reaches a great size. 



Amongst other objections against this sj^stem the chief one has 

 usually been put in the form of a question, "Why not have at 

 once a full crop of beans on one-half of the land and a full crop 

 of turnips on the other, instead of your mixed crop ?" The 

 answer seems to lie at the foundation of the system, and it is 

 this: — " taking, for instance, 2 acres ; the first, with the beans 

 only would thus be no fallow at all, and any increase of the bean 

 crop would be counterbalanced at least by an equal decrease of 

 the barley ; and, moreover, it is not so certain that the former 

 would take place as that the latter must. Again, on the other 

 acre, if the full crop of turnips should be followed by the 

 increase of a quarter of barley, I should only have this said 

 quarter of barley to compensate me for the loss of 3 quarters of 

 beans ; while, v/ith regard to the turnips, it is obvious that the 

 total amount could be no more than that of the mixed crop on 2 

 acres. 



There are also other modes of cultivation which have been 

 successfully applied to winter beans and turnips ; and an account 

 is given in Journal, No. xxix. p. 63, of a large produce both of 

 beans and turnips grown in single alternate rows 27 inches apart 

 — I know not whether on ridges — but " on a deep black gravelly 

 soil," no doubt superior to mine ; and I had myself thought of 

 this plan, but I considered that the land could not be thus so 

 perfectly cleaned where annual weeds, as here, so much abound ; 

 also, that on flat land it would be difficult to prevent the horses 

 trampling on the rows of beans set so close, and that the bean- 

 stalks would be much more apt to be snapped by the high winds 

 which prevail here ; moreover, that the turnips would be more 

 difficult to set out, and would suffer more from the tram.pling of 

 the reapers. But the recorded result is enough to induce me to 

 make the experiment on a part of my next crop. 



Another plan, which is recommended by Mr. Pusey himself in 

 the Essay before referred to, is to have a whole crop of winter 

 beans followed by turnips; but the bean stubble would thus have 

 all its usual foulness, and much cleaning would be perhaps 



