BEANS. 
21 
The pea, English bean, and kidney bean are .iabU to the attacks of 
various insects, especially the aphides , [plant lice,] in dry seasons. When 
early crops are newly sown, or planted, mice will burrow for and eat the 
seed, and when it begins to penetrate the soil, it is attacked by snails, slugs, 
the cut worm, &c. The usual means of guarding against the ravages of 
insects must, therefore, be resorted to by the gardener. 
As regards the field culture of the bean, we would observe, that the white 
kind, which is most generally approved of in New England, will produce 
pretty good crops, on poor, sandy, or gravelly soils; but when planted on 
such ground, it is good husbandry to wet and roll them in plaster before 
planting. They may be planted in hills or drills, the rows two and a half 
or three feet apart, according to the strength of the soil, anti cultivated like 
other hoed crops. They may be planted in the latter end of May, or be¬ 
ginning of June, or about the time of planting Indian corn. If planted in 
hills, they may be placed from fourteen to twenty-four inches apart in the 
rows, and the row r s the distance before mentioned. Five beans are quite 
enough to remain in a hill. Hogs’ dung, mixed with ashes, is said to be 
the best manure for them, and it is said to be very injurious to beans to hoe 
them while the dew is on, or in wet weather. 
Judge Buel, of Albany, has given the following notices of some experi¬ 
ments in the field culture of this vegetable :—“ Beans may be cultivated in 
drills or in hills. They are a valuable crop, and, with good care, are as 
profitable as a wheat crop. They leave the soil in good tilth. The China 
bean, with a red eye, is to be preferred. They ripen early, and are very 
productive. I cultivated beans the last year in three different ways, viz., 
in hills, in drills, and sowed broad-cast. I need not describe the first, which 
is a well-known process. I had an acre in drills, which was the best crop 
I ever saw. My management was this:—On an acre of light ground, 
where the clover had been frozen out the preceding winter, I spread eight 
loads of long manure, and immediately plowed and harrowed the ground. 
Drills or furrows were then made with a light plow, at the distance of 
two and a half feet, and the beans thrown along the furrows about the 25th 
of May, by the hand, at the rate of at least a bushel on the acre. I then 
gauged a double mould-board plow, which was passed once between the rows, 
and was followed by a light one horse roller, which flattened the ridges. 
The crop was twice cleaned of weeds, by the hoe, but not earthed. The 
product was more than forty-eight bushels, by actual measurement. 
The beans brought me one dollar the bushel last fall. The third experiment 
was likewise upon a piece of ground where the clover had been killed. It 
was plowed about the first of J*une, the seed sown like peas, upon the 
first furrow, and harrowed in. The drought kept them back ; but about 
65 rods of ground, on which the experiment was made, gave a prodcct of 
twelve and a half bushels. The crop was too ripe when it was harvested. 
