SS —_._ nnn: 
E mS : 
‘BEAN. 
latter of these practices is greatly the preferable, 
especially on strong clays; for it lays the field in 
a better situation for throwing off moisture in 
winter, and for becoming sufficiently dry for the 
tilling and sowing operations in early spring. 
Yet all wet, adhesive land, no matter how natur- 
ally fertile, ought to have been previously relieved 
of its superabundant moisture by thorough drain- 
ing; for as beans must necessarily be sown at a 
very early period in spring, an undrained field of 
this description can rarely be brought into a 
condition of mellow, pulverized tilth in sufficient 
time for the reception of the seed. 
The amount and manner of preparatory tillage 
in spring, immediately before seed-time, vary in 
different districts, and obviously depend, in a 
great measure, on the character of the weather, 
and on the nature and condition of the soil. In 
good weather, light and well-drained lands are 
easily prepared; and in wet weather, ill-drained 
heavy lands cannot be even moderately prepared 
| without a maximum degree of both skill and 
labour. Though spring ploughing for corn crops 
is now very generally superseded by easier till- 
age, yet on clayey soils, when beans are to be 
sown as a substitute for a fallow, two spring 
ploughings, preceded by an endlong autumn 
ploughing, are highly advantageous. The first 
of these ploughings should be given across the 
ridges, as early in spring as the land is sufficiently 
dry to admit of the operation ; immediately after- 
wards, all the inter-furrows, furrows of the head- 
lands, gaw-furrows, and cross-cuts, should be 
carefully opened up by the plough or shovel, in 
order to prevent the stagnation of surface-water; 
and the second spring ploughing may belong to 
the seed-process, and either form the drills for 
sowing, or receive the seeds under furrow. Har- 
rowing and weed-gathering ought, in every prac- 
ticable instance, to be prosecuted and repeated 
till the soil is thoroughly pulverized, and till as 
many roots as possible of Triticum repens and 
other vivacious weeds are removed. Yet in even 
the best beau-growing districts, many farmers, in 
. dealing with wet or heavy land, form the drills 
on the winter-furrow,—some dispensing with all 
other spring tillage, and others adding only one 
good harrowing. _ In these cases, however, the 
deep, open furrows ought to be levelled in, and 
_ any root-weeds which are exposed by the plough 
in forming and reversing the drills, ought to be 
carefully collected and removed. “It would, 
perhaps, be found a judicious practice,” says a 
writer in the Farmer’s Monthly Miscellany, “ to 
give strong adhesive soils, intended for beans, a 
course of tillage in autumn, or at any suitable 
opportunity before the severity of the winter 
season sets in, The land, after being ploughed 
and harrowed in a sufficient manner, may be 
formed into drills in the usual way, in which 
state it remains till the period of sowing arrives. 
The manure is then laid on in the hollows be- 
mugen the drills, the seed deposited by the sow- 
385 
ing-machine, and all covered in by reversing or 
splitting the drills. The advantages resulting 
from this mode of autumn-tillage, are, that the 
soil is effectually pulverized by the action of the 
frost and other atmospheric changes during win- 
ter; many of the roots of perennial weeds, and 
the larva of insects, are destroyed by the same 
agency; and the land, by being formed into 
raised drills, is preserved in a dry condition dur- 
ing the winter months. By preparing the ground 
in this way in autumn, the seed can be sown at 
the proper season ; the soil is finely pulverized and 
well prepared for its reception; and there is every 
favourable prospect of an abundant return in 
harvest.” 
The bean is a crop which makes an ample com- 
pensation for manuring; and when it figures in 
a rotation which is quite or nearly free from tur- 
nips, potatoes, and any similar crop, all the dung 
of the farm may be advantageously given to it as 
a preparation for wheat. The manure for it, of 
whatever quantity, is sometimes spread upon the 
surface, and ploughed in when giving the winter- 
furrow ; and, in this case, the manure tends to 
keep a strong clayey soil loose and open in the 
bottom, and the land is in a state of considerable 
forwardness for the operations of early spring. | 
Another and not infrequent practice is to apply 
one-half of the manure immediately before the 
autumn ploughing, and the other half immedi- 
ately before the spring tillage. When either the 
whole or part is reserved till the latter season, it 
ought, at convenient times during the winter 
frosts, to be carted to some spot in the field, 
there laid in a heap, and, afterwards at a proper 
time before being required for use, turned over 
in order that it may undergo the requisite degree 
of fermentation ; and, at seed-time, while the 
drills are being formed, it should be carted from 
the heap, dragged out in small portions into the 
hollows of every third or fifth drill, and distri- 
buted equally along the intervals. In the coast 
districts of the bean-growing baronies of Forth 
and Bargie, in the south-east of Ireland, fresh 
sea-weed is spread on the stubble land during 
autumn and early winter, and the bean-seed is 
ploughed into the ground in ridges immediately 
before Christmas; and in the interior districts of 
these baronies, composts of dung or sea-weed, 
earth, sand, and other materials are accumulated 
during autumn and early winter, and carted to 
the field and ploughed in at the time of sowing. 
But beans grown in these baronies— though 
owing partly to the inferior plant and the infe- 
rior culture, as well as to the manure—do not, in 
the Scottish markets, bring within five shillings 
of the price of those grown in the carses of Fal- 
kirk and Gowrie. 
Beans may be either sown broadcast or dibbled 
or drilled. The broadcast method is commonly 
practised in Ireland; the dibbling method is ex- 
tensively practised in England; and the drilling 
method is almost universal in Scotland. The 
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