Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1876-12-27
White Beans.

OF them cannot he grown unless the soil IS
not only good, but in good condition. 1t is
useless to plant beans for profit, in a field
that will not grow good corn or potatoes.
The dominant of beans-that is, the
item of pant-food that must be most abun-
dant where they are CROWNS the same as
the dominant of potatoes, clover and peas,
that u.s. potash. Consequently ashes as
direct fertilizer, or plaster for a soil in which
potash is already present, but in an insolu-
BILE state, is the mauurial sine qua non for
this crop. Phosphoric acid and nitro
genous fertilizer must also be present, but
not too much of the latter, or there will be
an excessive LEAKAGE without correspondent
crop of seeds
As both potatoes and beans draw heavily
upon the potash of a soil, one should not
succeed the other, unless free application
of that fertilizer is to be made to the second
crop. Experience has shown that beans
grow well in soil fitted for corn, and they |
also succeed corn well, with a moderate |
dressing of ashes We raise large crops of |
beans between the rows of young nursery |
trees the first year after they are set the
rows of trees being spaced four feet asunder
and the beans growing, therefore, two feet |
from the trees, each way. In the height of |
their growth they pretty well cover the
ground, and keep down the weeds very
effectually. In the succeeding years Of the |
nursery's growth we plant beans IN the rows
of trees, where the gratis have failed, or
where trees have been removed but not
Jetceen the rows, after the first year, As
the land for nursery is always well
MANFRED with ashes and ground bone, the
crop of beans is always of the first quality
and very abundant, more than paying the
cost of tilling and tending the young trees.
The only thing to be guarded against in
this culture is planting a kind of bean that
makes vine, as these running upon the
young trees, bend them down and destroy
them.
Beans will grow well, and bear WELL ex-
posed to the full light of the sun; but they
will do equally we'll, and some believe bet
ter, in partial shade We have never seen
one bean crop suffer from rust when planted
among corn or in the shade of nursery trees,
while in the open field this evil sometimes
happens. Yet we are not prepared, on this
account, to attribute the freedom from rust
to the shade, since the nursery and the corn
field are always abundantly fertilized, while
the bean-field may have wanted in some
essential element of plant-food required for
the perfect growth of the crop. Our ex-
perience and observation leads us to the
strong belief that the occurrence of the
fungous disease known as rust is due, on
any plant, to deficient vigor of the plant in
consequence of an insufficient supply OF
some manurial element This deficiency
may be actual, or only the result of INSULT
cient rainfall to dissolve the requisite sub
stance, so that the plant roots can take itup.
The culture of beans, as of every hoed
CROP should be clean. No crop is easier
swamped and destroyed by weeds; yet if
well hoed during the early stages of growth,
they will, on suitable ground soon so shade
lection, with very little assistance 1t is often
said that hoeing beans when wet with rain
or dew will cause them to rust As stated
above, we hold different view of the cause
of this disease, and in this we are supported
by the testimony of Mr.. Robert ]. White, of
Shelbun Point, who has probably been the
most extensive bean grower in the state for
many years, cultivating nearly every variety
on large scale for the seed dealers. He
hoes them wet or dry, without seeing any rust
when the soil and season are right.
As beans may be planted late, it is easy,
on land entirely in this crop, to kill two or
three crops of weeds with the harrow, be-
fore planting and thus have the ground
very clean. On this account it is a good
weed-killing crop, almost equal to a fallow
indeed, without the injury that bare fall
low always inhicts on a light soil.
In raising field beans for market crop it
is of the highest Importance 10 select the
most profitable variety. What this shall be
depends somewhat upon the market. In
New York the marrow bean takes the lead,
while in Boston the pea bean and yellow
eye command the highest price. The mar
row bean is often quoted high in the Boston
market, but this is only for large lots for
shipment. There is no local sale for them,
and small lot is difficult to dispose of in
that market.
We have grown all these three and other
varieties, but have settled on the yellow-eye
as the best for our purpose. Yet there is a
great choice in the different strains " of
yelow-eyes, some being worth twenty-five
cents, or more, per bushel, over others in
market, besides having other merits i'm
portant to the grower
We have now kind of yellow-eye Job
tanned from Maine) that seems to be as near
perfection, for field bean, as we can well
expect to reach. tits plump bean, almost
like a marrow in shape, of an ivory white
ness except the "eye,' which is Distinct,
though not conspicuous. Unlike the mar
row it is very firm under the fail, never
splitting il threshed with reasonable care.
1t has the great aud peculiar merit of the
yellow-eye Chat of ripening its crop all to-
gether) in high degree--so high, indeed,
that stacking them for drying is quite un.
necessary we pull them, give them one or
two days sun ON the hill, then draw them in
and thresh them at once. They are thrifty
and hardy, do not vine, and have but mod
crate leafagei while the yield is immense
our first crop being six bushels from one
quart, and on moderately good land a crop
Of thrty-hve bushels per acre is easily OBJ
tanned. We call these the Oxford Yellow
eye" and do not believe they are equaled
for profit by any other bean grown. Their
uniform ripening is an especial merit, as
they all thresh out perfect, and pass as
"hand-picked" in the market Just as they
,o,,a from, ha famine mill