though the pod should be neither black nor dry, 
the crop is in a fit condition for being cut down. | horizontal subdivions. 
is formed and thatched like the roof of a house, © 
When wheat follows the bean, the latter ought 
not to remain uncut after the first week of Oc- 
tober; and, should any obstruction occur to a 
sufficiently early housing of the crop, it ought, 
immediately after being bound into sheaves, to 
be removed to anothor field to be dried. The 
expense of twice removing it—first to another 
field, and afterwards to the rick-yard—will be 
very richly compensated by the superior yield 
from duly sown wheat, or especially by escaping 
the risk of being compelled to withhold wheat 
and substitute barley, 
A somewhat common method of reaping beans, 
is with old sickles which are not fit for reaping 
corn; another very common method, called bag- 
ging, is with an instrument in the form of a 
| sickle, but broader in the blade, and as sharp as 
a scythe ; and another method, though not so 
common, is to mow them. Whichever of these 
methods is practised, the crop ought to be cut as 
near as possible to the ground, both that as much 
of the straw as possible may be secured for fod- 
der, and because the best pods are often situated 
very near the base of the stems. A fourth 
method, when the haulm is short, as in the case 
of the Mazagan bean, is to pull up the crop by 
the roots, and this method has the recommenda- 
tion of leaving the land in a state of far better 
tilth than if the crop were cut; but it requires 
a comparatively large number of workpeople, is 
difficult or nearly impossible on firm or adhesive 
soils, entails the duty of a very careful cleaning 
of the roots previous to the operation of thrash- 
| ing, and, in almost any case, is unsuited to the 
economy of an extensive farm. 
The reaped crop ought to be left for a few days 
in the swathe if mown, or in loose broad-band 
quantities if cut with the sickle; and when the 
plants have somewhat lost their succulency, or 
begin to be comparatively dry, they ought to be 
bound into very small sheaves, either with the 
twisted haulm of intermixedly grown pease, or 
with bands of straw, hop-bine, or yarn. The 
sheaves should be set on their buts, to dry, in 
double rows or stooks, without any hoods or 
riders; or if a prolongation of moist weather be 
apprehended, they may be piled into small round 
ricks, so constructed as to admit a free and 
searching circulation of air. 
Beans continue to incur considerable risk even 
in the rick-yard, and must be stored there with 
careful regard to their being kept dry and ven- 
_tilated, so as to escape mould or heating. They 
may be built in round ricks in the same manner 
as wheat; but whenever these ricks are not very 
small, each should be constructed with a boss, or 
conical opening through the centre from the base 
to the top, so as to permit a free and constant 
circulation of air. But when the crop is large, a 
better method of storing is in large oblong stacks, 
resembling a house in outline, and constructed 
BEAN. 
389 
with a considerable number of both vertical and 
The top of such a stack 
and does not impose its weight upon the beans ; 
its subdivisions are made by cross-rails, which 
serve the double purpose of preventing pressure 
and permitting ventilation ; its base rests on 
staddles, which cut off all direct communication 
with the ground; and the portion of beans within 
each of its subdivisions has a perfectly separate or 
independent lodgment, so that the stack can be 
diminished piecemeal to suit the minutest con-— 
veniences of thrashing or consumption. The 
cost of the frame-work of such a stack, including 
staddles, and measuring 40 feet at the base, about 
44 feet in length, and about 18 feet in height at 
the eaves, needs not be more than at the utmost 
£12; and, if properly used, it will last during 
many years. 
Beans may be thrashed either with the flail or 
with the thrashing-machine ; and they are dressed 
by the winnowing-machine in the same manner 
as corn; but, in the process of riddling, all their 
light seeds and broken shells ought to be care- 
fully skimmed off with the hand. Thrashing by 
the flail is better suited to progressive consump- 
tion, and to the preservation of comparative suc- 
culency than thrashing by machinery: and it 
ought, therefore, to be preferred in every instance 
when the haulm is given as food to working 
horses. 
Produce of the Bean.—The bean is the most 
uncertain and fickle of all the field erops of Great 
Britain, except pease, and ranges from a degree 
above mere worthlessness to a degree superemi- 
nently remunerating. The amount of produce is 
affected not only by the habits of the plant itself, 
but very powerfully by culture, weather, and the 
aggregate of agricultural accidents. Professor 
Low says, “Forty bushels to the acre are re- 
garded as a great crop; thirty bushels are a full 
and satisfactory one; and probably the average 
produce of the kingdom does not amount to 
twenty-four.” Sir John Sinclair says, “A good 
crop of beans on a fit soil, well managed, and in 
favourable seasons, may sometimes exceed 42 
bushels per statute acre, but from 24 to 32 bush- 
els are reckoned a satisfactory produce. In un- 
favourable seasons, even on very good soils, the 
crop sometimes turns out almost an entire blank, 
so far as the grain produce is concerned, and not 
worth thrashing, except to clean the straw from. 
soil and mouldiness, before using it as fodder.” 
And Loudon, exhibiting the opinions of several 
other eminent agriculturists, says, “ The produce 
of beans, when proper management is exercised, © 
and where diseases have not occurred, is generally 
from 25 to 35 bushels per acre. Donaldson says 
that a crop of beans, taking the island at large, 
may be supposed to vary from 16 to 40 bushels, 
but that a good average crop cannot be reckoned 
to exceed 20. In Middlesex, Middleton tells us, 
that bean crops vary from 10 to 80 bushels per 
