Vermont daily transcript. [volume] (St. Albans, Vt.) 1868-1870, 1869-04-19

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not sell for half the price of.thc best
>inds.
In selecting seed, il j. Il good plan to
go into the field before harvesting the
ere p, and select those plants that ripen
earliest and at the same time. II the
early variety is the one wanted for flu
turc cultivation, those plants running
to vines should be rejected; as what are
termed bush beans are best for field
culture. They iipen more evenly.
Those sci ,cted for seed should be prop
crly saved for planting. II the quantity
saved for seed is not very large, they
should be hand-shelled.
The above described course has been
practiscd by farmer i'm this town,
with the best results. He obtains the
highest price for his beans, "a they re-
quirc bu, little time in picking ovei for
cooking. The past season he sold his
crop ut q 90 bushel, while some slip
shod farmers beans were so badly mix
ed and injured while curing that they
sold for less than $500 a bus hel.
Under proper culture, sixteen to twcn-
~ bushels an acre have been grown.
At S4,Oo bushel such crops p well.
Mr.. A len, in his American Farm
Book, says: Sixty bushels have been
raised on an acre. | have usually made
use Of small handful of compost in the
hill at planting time. Last year l used
slpcrphosphatc in the hills. IL doubled
the crop, over those rows that had none
in the. hills, and it very much hastencd
the ripening of Ii G crop.
Planting in rows wide enough dis
tant to allow The passage of the cultiva-
tor between them, very much lessons
the labor of hoeing. Five to eight beans
may be dropped in the hill-hills from
eighteen to twenty-fOur inches apari.
Beans are easily killed outright by late
frosts Therefore they should not be
planted till all danger from that source
is over. The usual method Of harvest
ing beans n this section is by stacking
them around stakes, tie stakes having
the limbs about one foot in length.
These prevent the settling of the stack,
admitting circulation of the air, so
that usually the beans dry without
moulding or coloring. Last year r1any
the frequent rains that followed after
putting up the stacks. The beans all
came out bright and uninjured, and
readily sold at 81 bushel.
In England beans are grown in great
quantities, not so much, however, for
human food as tor stock feeding. And
when its feeding and manurial values
ale taken into view, it is considered a
profitable crop, even on their high
priced lands. But the beans grown in
England are quite different varieties
from the field beans grown in this coun-
try. The English varieties grow upon
stiff, upright stalks; and they are coca
sionaily found growing in some of our
gardens, and are known as coffee beans.
They have been grown to some extent
III I,,rt
have not been found so we'll adapted to
our climate as the ordinary crops or va
rieties we cultivate. Pound for pound
/ presume there is little difference in
the nutritive value of the two kinds.
Both contain larger percentage of
heterogeneous compounds, the real mus
cle-forming, strengthening, nutritious
matter than any other vegetable we
cultivate. There is no vegetable we
produce which SO nearly supplies the
place of animal food as the beam
Beans freely fed to mich cows in
crease the quantity of milk-as also the
casein-(curd) the animal principle.
Fed to sheep, they increase the muscle,
Qean meat, wool and milk, in much
greater proportions tLan Inlian corn.
But beans are not so productive of fat
to sheep, as corn or Oilcake: hence,
for stall-feeding sheep, more oily foods
are preferable, such as corn, oil and
cotton-seed cake; while for the flock
master, whose object is wool and strong,
healthy sheep and lambs, beans and oats
are to be preferred.
If the preceding remarks are true,
and / think there can be no doubt of it,
then it would be for the interest of wool
growers to cultivate beans much more
extensively, as winter fodder for their
sheep. For this purpose it will not be
necessary to grow the small, white pea
bean, or other choice varieties; because
there are many other kinds, of large and
colored beans, that are more productive
and are equally valuable for sheep feed
ing.