Cultivation of Beans and Peas. 
481 
much better than it can be laid upon the land when ploughed 
up in spring-. The dung, when applied in winter and ploughed 
in, acts to the best possible advantage in every respect on all 
but the wettest and undrained soils. The soil absorbs the 
products of the manure as it decays, the heavy soil is rendered 
porous, and is phvsically improved, and the land requires scarcely 
any labour in spring besides the drilling of the crop. More- 
over the forcing — the active forcing of dung when applied in 
spring — is calculated to induce disease in the crop. Every one, 
as a matter of course, has not manure to apply early in winter, 
but many have it who do not use it, and doubtless spring dunging 
is preferred by many who have clung to ancient practices, and 
who have never tested the innumerable advantages of winter 
dunging. Whether dung is to be afforded or not for a pulse 
crop, the ploughing in winter should be conducted in the same 
manner ; the heaviest soils on any given farm should be ploughed 
first. To render a pulse crop strictly a cleansing one, the pre- 
ceding corn crops should be drilled and well hoed, so should the 
beans or peas be drilled and tliproughly hoed : and in propor- 
tion to the state of cleanliness which the land may be in, so 
should the drilling be regulated to a great extent as to the width 
between the lows. It is in extremely rare cases, however, to be 
able to clean land at all foul when cropped with peas. The 
only chance of cleaning is to drill in rows from 2 to 3 feet apart, 
and hoe immediately after the crop is above ground, and con- 
tinue to hoe as frequently as possible until the spreading of the 
crop })rcvents the battle against the weeds from being carried on 
any longer without doing injury to the peas. Beans may be 
grown upon land very successfully as a cleaning crop, if the 
cultivation is properly carried out. The first step, as already 
mentioned, is to plough as early in winter as circumstances will 
permit ; and when this first operation is properly executed, it is 
very seldom that another ploughing in spring is necessary, or 
even advisable. A scarifying with Earl Ducie's, Coleman's, or 
any other of the best implements of the day, to be procured in 
every part of the country, is quite sufficient to move the soil in 
an effectual manner, where the weather has not pulverized to the 
depth of 4 or 5 inches. I have not for years, however, found it 
necessary to use any implement for reducing the land in the 
spring, hut the heaviest patent iron harrows, which go to the 
depth of 3 or 4 inches on land worked, when neither too wet nor 
too dry. The object of reducing the land to a certain tilth is 
obviously intended to allow the plants to derive the greatest 
possible amount of nourishment which the soil contains during 
their growth. I rather, however, prefer committing beans to 
the soil, in such a state as they can make a first start, and by 
