May a, 189II THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST 
of the ryot they are thrown away or perchance left 
to rot on the fields for manuring purposes ; a bad 
proceeding as the manure value they return to the 
soil could easily be added at very little expense — 
certainly not a fiftieth of the commercial loss sus- 
tained by the uon-utiii--ation of these stems and 
leaves. 
The clioJompluill from the green leaves and unripe 
legumes is pretty largely used to impart a fine green 
colour to sweetmeats and other toothsome delicacies, 
but it is not extracted te any commercial extent ,• 
and during this extraction of the coloring matter by 
the sweetmeat manufactures, a great deal of valuable 
matter in the shape of strach amd sugar is lost. 
Bean flour has frequently been used for the adul- 
teration of v/heaten fiour, but the cheat can readily 
be dected by throwing a little of the suspected meal 
into boiling water when the peculiar smell of the 
bean flour is almost instantly appearant, if it has been 
used. 
Any doubt, however, can be easily removed by the 
aid of the microscope ; for while the meshes of bean 
cellulose are very much larger than those of the 
fourth coat of wheat, the starch, which belongs to 
(class II. to which also belomg the pea, dari and 
mazie) is quite distinct and is composed of oblong 
oval (rarely reniform) granules, averaging 0.00135 
inch, long diameter, and in which concentric rings 
or layers are all but invisible and the hilum is 
stellate. 
Alcohol is not recovered from beans in India, but 
on the continent of Europe a very brisk trade is 
done in this commodity which afterwards finds its 
way to India in the form of cheap spirits and very 
often as the menstruum of the so-called No. I Brandy 
and Whisky. 
Laboratory experiments prove that starch 
of an excellent quality may be recovered from beans 
iu precisely the same mode as from wheat and other 
grains, but lack of energy and the extreme difficulty 
to secure capital for plant and necessary machinery 
combine to prevent this useful substance assuming 
commercial proportions, Biid in this way no en- 
couragement is held out towards tiic cultivation of 
beans. 
CULTJVATIOSr. 
Season for planting : — Indian or country beans should 
be sown at the beginning of the second week of 
May and so also many of the varities of Dolichos 
and ervum ; but creeping or runner beans such as 
the broad bean and scarlet runner etc. should not 
be put down before July, while English and French 
beans, kidneys and the delicate sorts of Phaseolus 
and Vicia may be sown at any time duriyg October 
to December, yet far more healthy plants and lux- 
uriant crops are obtained when the planting is done 
immediately after the cessation of the rains. 
The reason why sowing should not be done with- 
in the rainy season is that as soon as a seed begins 
to sprout it depends for existence on the starch 
and gluten stored up in the cotyledons which under 
the influence of sufficient moisture are respectively 
converted into sugar and diastase and the latter 
helps the sap of the tender plant to dissolve, and 
utilise the starch ; but under the influence of exces- 
sive moisture the farnia expanding too rapidly, 
germination is pushed forward long before its proper 
time and weak, unhealthy plants are the result or 
the continued action of the water on the seed may 
so theioughly rot it as to utterly prevent germina- 
tion. 
Sowing, as it is done by the ryots, is a mistake' 
because they cast the seeds on to the fields where 
the birds pick up a good quantity and a coi,- 
s.derable number, get destroyed by the action cf 
the sun and air, while of the GO or 70 per cent, 
that do find their way into the ground, about 
another 5 to 10 per cent are choked up by the time 
the pluimiles shoot out by having been cast too 
closely together; besides this too, little attention 
is paid to the condition of the soil or to the proper 
rotation of crops. 
Soils not only sustain the plant in an erect posi‘ 
tion and afford it food but also are the medium 
of the various chemical actions necessary to the 
preparation of the proximate principles of which 
plants are built up. 
No matter what part they are destined to play 
in the economy of nature or how diverse their 
appearance, structure and life-historv, the whole of 
the vegetable world is composed of the same organic 
elements in varying proportions and from 2 to 9 
per cent of inorganic matter of which the greater- 
part consists of varying proporation of alumina, the 
alkalies, iron and silica iu combination with carbon 
dioxide, chlorine, vitriol, and phosphoric acid. 
Now as the organic matter is derived partly f-ora 
the air and partly from the ground, while the 
whole of the inoganic substances are obtained solelg 
from the earth, it stands to reason that the .«oil 
should bear a distinct relation to the substances 
composing the plant it is required to sustain, and 
any excess or deficiency of any necessary consti- 
tuent must be compensated or regulated, if we 
wish to have successful crops and healthy fruitful 
plants. 
Due allowance must .also be made for the im- 
povershing action that plants exert on the soil by 
abstracting from it various important constituents 
that they require for their own nutrition and de- 
velopment. 
By studying the subjoined analysis of the com- 
mon bean [Phaseolus vulgaris) and remembering that 
the constitution of various plants depends greatly 
on the materials on which they are constructed the 
reader will understand the loss the ground must 
suffer. 
Phaseolus Vulgaris. 
Roots. 
Leaves 
and 
T3 
s 
Organic matter 
80.74 
Stems. 
74.46 
W 
78.80 
Water 
14.21 
19.28 
16.09 
P jiceiitagrt of a h [i.e. minerals) 
2.86 
2.01 
2. ,5 4 
loo p.Lii.. of suoh as will cont,.in : — 
Carbonic acid 
1.79 
1.20 
1.63 
Chlorine 
2.15 
1.56 
1.96 
Iron sesquioxide 
0.72 
0.52 
0.65 
Lime 
13.26 
9.65 
12 06 
Magnesia 
6.60 
4.80 
6.00 
Phosphoric acid 
37.11 
26.99 
33 74 
Potash 
40.39 
29.38 
36.72 
Silica 
1.67 
1.22 
1.62 
Soda 
1..53 
1.25 
1.44 
Sulphuric acid 
3.65 
3.32 
4.28 
Or in other words every maund (i.e-, 80 lbs.) weight 
of bean-plants raised, denuded the ground of the 
quantity of material shewn in column A of the 
following table in which the figures under B represent 
the amount restored by the Indian system of burn- 
ing such part of the stems &c., as they do not other- 
wise untilise and scattering the ashes over the ground. 
Column 0 gives the loss still sustained. 
Carbonic acid 
A. 
0.045 
B. 
0 008 
C. 
0.037 
Chlorine 
0.056 
0.022 
0.034 
Iron sesqitioxide 
0.018 
0.007 
0.011 
Lime 
0.349 
0 139 
0.277 
Magnesia 
0.174 
0.068 
0.106 
Organic Matter- 
60.840 
24.920 
35.920 
Phosphoric acid 
0.928 
0.371 
0.557 
Potash 
1 064 
0.425 
0.639 
Silica 
0.044 
0.017 
0.027 
Sulphuric acid 
0.112 
0.044 
0.078 
Soda 
0.042 
0.016 
0.026 
Total in lb. 
63.612 
26.037 
37.63o 
Suppose this was allowed to go on year after year 
and nothing were done to remedy the loss hi some 
scientific mode, the most fertile ground would be 
rendered perfectly barren as may be seen by the 
