AMERICAN KITCHEN GARDENER# 
IS 
advantage of the potatoes and weeds, and, as they come in early, may m 
gathered before they can possibly incommode or injure the potatoes. 
Manual process. —The work of sowing is most generally effected by a 
dibble, having a thick, blunt end, to make a wide aperture for each bean, 
to admit it clear to the bottom, without any narrow, hollow parts below 
strike the earth fully and regularly into the holes over the inserted beans. 
Or the planting may be performed, occasionally, in drills drawn with a hoe 
the proper depth and distance as above ; place the beans at intervals along 
the bottom of each drill, and earth them over evenly; which method 
though suitable to any kinds, may be more particularly adopted in sowing 
the early and other small sorts. 
Soaking seed in summer. —In planting late crops in June or July, if the 
weather be dry, it is eligible to give the beans a previous soaking for several 
hours in soft water; or, if they are to be sown in drills, water the drills be¬ 
forehand ; then directly put in the beans, and earth them in while the 
ground remains moist. 
Subsequent culture. —“ As the plants come up, and advance from four to 
six inches high, hoe up some earth to the stems on both sides of each row, 
cutting down all weeds. Repeat the hoeing as future weeds arise, both to 
keep the ground about the plants clean, and to loosen the earth to encourage 
their growth. In earthing up, great care must be taken that the earth does 
not fall on the center of the plant, so as to bury it; for this occasions it to 
rot or fail. After earthing up, stir between the rows with a three-pronged 
fork. As the different crops come into full blossom, pinch or cut off the 
tops, in order to promote their fruiting sooner in a more plentiful production 
of well-filled pods.”— Abercrombie. 
Nicol says, u Topping is unnecessary for any but the early crops; being' 
practiced to render them more early.” Mr. Armstrong is of opinion, that 
u of this practice, and of the theory on which it is founded, we may be per¬ 
mitted to doubt, because it does not appear to follow that, when thq growth 
of a plant is checked or suspended in one direction, it will not exert itself 
in another as injuriously to the crop as any increased length of stem would 
have done. Every day’s experience shows, that, if we pollard an apple- 
tree, we indeed stop its growth upw r ard; but that, instead of sending its 
surplus juices to the support and enlargement of the fruit, (as this practice 
supposes,) it hastens to throw out lateral stems or suckers, which give no 
fruit whatever. Our creed, therefore, is, that, in the vegetable economy, 
certain juices go to the production of the stem, and certain others, more 
elaborated, and of a different quality, to that of flowers and fruits, and that, 
whether desirable or not, the art of giving to either a destination different 
from what nature intended, is yet to be discovered.” 
Gathering. —For table use, gather only such are tender, the seeds decreas¬ 
ing in delicacy after they obtain about half the size which they should posses*? 
