BEAN. 
and the depth, in the better and more accurate 
method of sowing in hollow drills, covered over 
by the splitting or reversing of the ridgelets, is 
originally much deeper, but is. afterwards re- 
duced to 4 or 5 inches by the harrowing down 
of the ridgelets into the hollow interspaces. 
A new method of bean culture was commenced 
a number of years ago on M. de Fellenberg’s 
farm at Hofwyl in Switzerland, and has since 
been successfully practised, for several years, at 
Ockham Park in England. It consists in so 
treating beans and cabbages, that a fair crop of 
both is obtained from the same land in a single 
season. In February, the beans are dibbled in 
double rows at 4 inches asunder from each other, 
and at exterior distances of 3 feet; and these 
wide exterior distances permit the subsoil plough 
or the double mould-board plough to pass freely 
along, without injury to the beans, as often as 
the state of the soil may require till the planting 
of the cabbages. The cabbages are sown in a 
garden seed-bed in the previous autumn, pricked 
out in a corner of the garden in March, and 
planted between the rows of beans in the field in 
May or June. They are of the thousand-headed 
variety, and are planted at distances from one 
another in the row of about two feet, and ought 
to be from 5 to 8 inches out of the ground. The 
beans are generally removed early in August; 
the space which they occupied is then ploughed; 
and the cabbages, though hitherto restrained in 
growth, now grow with such rapidity as effec- 
tually to prevent any considerable growth of 
weeds. The cabbages yield a great bulk of green 
food towards Christmas, and, if then stripped of 
their leaves, produce a second sprouting at the 
end of March or beginning of April. But as food 
for breeding stock is much more important in 
early spring than at Christmas, the cabbages 
may be left untouched till the supply of turnips 
is exhausted; and then, in the latter part of 
March and early part of April, they may be eaten 
off the ground in couples. The quantity of keep 
afforded by them, in the latter mode of consump- 
tion, is equal to that which would be yielded by 
the same area of many kinds of turnips; and im- 
mediately after their being eaten off, the land 
needs but a single ploughing to be ready for the 
reception of spring corn. The yield of the bean 
crop, too, so far from being diminished by the 
great width of the rows and the accompaniment 
of the cabbages, was found at Ockham Park to 
be actually increased; for the average annual 
produce during five years previous to the adop- 
tion of the new method was 35 bushels per acre, 
and the average annual produce during five years 
of the accompaniment of the cabbages was 41 
bushels. 
The after-culture of the bean, in all the or- 
dinary methods, is somewhat operose and not a 
little important. In cases of broadcast sowing, 
the harrow is used of course to cover in the seed : 
but it is also used afterwards, in order to destroy 
387 
young annual weeds, either immediately before 
the plants appear at the surface, or just after 
they are fairly above ground, and have trans- 
muted their cotyledons into seed-leaves. The 
young bean plants, between the time of their 
appearing at the surface and the time of their 
obtaining their first green leaves, are so brittle 
that their necks would be broken by the harrow; 
but afterwards they yield without fracture, and 
receive benefit rather than injury from the im- 
plement, while, of course, a greater amount of 
annual weedy growth is destroyed. When the 
beans are sown in drills, the harrow ought to be 
used ten or twelve days after the sowing, or as 
soon after that number of days as the weather 
will permit. The harrowing is given across the 
drills so as at once to level. down their summits, 
to destroy the annual weeds which have vege- 
tated, and to lay the soil level for the subsequent 
operation of hoeing. The grass-seed harrow, or 
even the common harrow, is very commonly em- 
ployed ; but the kind of curved drill-harrow, used 
in some districts, to perform a similar office in 
the cultivation of the potato, is to be preferred. 
This implement consists of two light curved har- 
rows, adapted to the curvature of the drills, and 
drawn by one horse. The two parts are mutually 
connected, and severally provided with handles ; 
and by means of these handles, the workman 
keeps them fair on the drills, and disengages 
them from weeds, large clods, or other obstruc- 
tions. If the field is at all hkely to retain any 
surface water, the replacing of all the water- 
furrows must be carefully attended to, both after 
the harrowing, and after the subsequent clean- 
ing operations. 
These subsequent operations consist of repeated 
horse-hoeings, hand-hoeings, and hand-weedings, | 
and ought, in every instance, to be performed 
when the ground is in a medium cendition be- 
tween wet and dry. Before the introduction of 
the horse-hoe, a common small plough, drawn by 
one horse, was driven once up and once down in | 
the interval between every two drills, gathering 
the soil from the drills into a ridgelet in the 
middle of the interval; a hand-hoeing was then 
given, to cut the weeds close to the rows; a se- 
cond hand-hoeing followed, to destroy any fresh 
growth of weeds; and, some time after, a small 
double mould-board plough, also drawn by one 
horse, split open the ridgelet in the middle of 
the interval, and laid it up as an earthing against 
the sides of the drills. The implements now gen- 
erally used, in addition to the common small 
one-horse plough, are various kinds of drill-har- 
rows or grubbers, provided with different sets 
and shapes of coulters and tines, and powerfully 
adapted to destroy weeds and pulverize the soil. 
The small plough, when employed, first pares 
away a portion of the sides of each drill; and the 
‘scraper, grubber, or drill-harrow then follows to 
reduce, level, and clean this removed portion of 
the soil. But the plough is really not needed; 
