CULTURAL DIRECTIONS 
235 
wheat. In trucking and market gardening, the garden 
varieties may be worked into the system of cropping at 
almost any point, provided there is a sufficient time for 
the beans to attain marketable size. As this crop must 
not be started until the ground is thoroughly warm, there 
is often opportunity to grow early spring crops, such as 
lettuce and radishes, before planting beans. In the truck- 
ing sections of the South, snap beans are often planted 
after kale or spinach, and the beans are removed in 
ample time for starting fall crops. 
Early spring plowing is especially important when 
sod land is to be used. The soil should then he har- 
rowed several times before planting to destroy weeds 
and to conserve moisture. 
305. Fertilizing. — It is generally conceded that the 
mineral elements are of greatest importance in the grow- 
ing of beans. This is unquestionably true with the field 
class and late-maturing varieties which have the entire 
season to provide themselves with nitrogen from the 
atmosphere. In the districts where dry beans are grown 
extensively, it is seldom that more than 2 per cent of 
nitrogen is used in the fertilizer. Many farmers omit 
this element altogether. Some producers of field beans 
apply six to eight tons of stable manure an acre and the 
mineral elements are used quite freely. 
In trucking and market gardening, fertilizers are gen- 
erally employed that contain high percentages of the 
three elements. Voorhees (“Fertilizers,” p. 269) suggests 
500 to 600 pounds an acre of a 4-8-10 mixture, supple- 
menting if necessary with 20 to 30 pounds of phosphoric 
acid and 60 to 75 pounds of potash. While potash is 
regarded essential, experiments in Mississippi show that 
the addition of kainit lowered rather than increased the 
yield of snap beans. The same station recommends 125 
pounds of cottonseed meal (or its equivalent), 62.5 
pounds of nitrate of soda and 250 pounds of acid phos- 
