Cultivation of Beans and Peas. 
487 
common grey ami maple peas succeed better than eitlier white 
or blue peas. They produce more corn and straw, and only fall 
behind the garden sorts in value per bushel, but beat them in 
value per acre. Every one who has farmed for a number of 
years must know that there are beans and peas of innumerable 
names, and, according to different persons, of endless and peculiar 
good qualities. I have named those kinds of pulse which possess 
the most distinct peculiarities, and were I to name more, I should 
be borrowing from books or hearsay only. Tlie quantity of seed 
which I have sown of beans ranges from 3 to 4 bushels per acre, 
according to the state, condition, and time of sowing. Of course 
more seed should be sown on poor, rough ground if late, than 
on land in rich condition, highly pulverized. It was more 
customary to mix baans and peas together at one time than it is 
now. The land which is most suited for beans should have no 
peas sown with them, and vice versa. The peas are sometimes 
sown to bind up the beans with, and the beans in a small 
quantity are sometimes sovvn to support the peas. I do not 
think a mixture is profitable in a general way. Peas should be 
sown thick, never less than 4 bushels per acre. No crop suffers 
more from tliin seeding than peas. 1 need not enter into the 
time of sowing pulse. Almost every one knows that winter 
beans should be sown from the end of September to the middle 
of November ; the earlier the better. Spring beans may be 
sown fi-om tlie middle of January to the middle of March. It is 
better to sow any time in February when the land is in good 
order, than to sow earlier when it is not. Peas may be sown on 
dry soils any time from Christmas to the end of March. Almost 
all the kinds of peas I have mentioned have stood the weather 
after Christmas. I think, however, that February is the best 
month for sowing peas, and the early part of March Avhen 
February is not suitable. 
The diseases which beans and peas are most commonly attacked 
by are blight or mildew, and fh« attacks of aphides of different 
kinds. I think that blight and premature ripening are produced 
by peculiarity of season, which cannot well be accounted for in 
any way as yet. We know that frequent and sudden transitions 
from wet to dry, and from liea^ to cold, are generally foUov/ed 
by disorder both in the vegetable and animal creation. Still we 
cannot pievent atmospheric changes. I have observed that beans 
and peas when sown out of season are liable to blight ; that 
when sown on calcareous, peaty, or sandy soils, they are more 
subject to blight than when sown on heavy clays of the yellow 
or blue lias formations. I have observed that beans or peas 
grown on land much enriched by manure just before the crop 
was sown, are more subject to disease than such as are sown on 
