The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1883-04-21
Rean@s

No land should be planted to beans
which has not good natural or artificial
drainage. No crop is more unfavorably
affected by standing water than beans.
Very rich land, like river bottoms and
some of our western prairies, is not
adapted to raising beans. Neither Is
land that Is very highly MANFRED with
rank dung or commercial fertilizers.
The tendency of the very rich land Is to
produce rank growth of vines and
leaves without corresponding pro-
portion Of bean pods. Land very highly
MANFRED will also cause the vines to
continue to throw out new branches for
long time after the first pods have set,
and there viii be succession of bios
SONS producing pods that ,wiu be very
difficult to cure, as they will not mature
by the time the first beans ripen. The
entire plot of land devoted to beans
should be of about the came elevation
and degree of richness, SO that the beans
grown on all portions of it will be at the
same degree of advancement and ripen
at the same period. The soil should be
quite free from weeds and grass to IN
sure a good crop, and to prevent much
moderate richness, and the degree OF
fertility should be nearly uniform over
the entire field. A good mellow loan is
admirable for beans. Soil chiefly com
posed of sand, if moderately enriched
with well-rotted manure, will produce
good beans. An excellent crop of beans
is often raised on an inverted pasture
sod turned in fail or spring with very
little trouble or expense. 1t will be quite
free from weeds, and but little cult
walton will be required In some cases
a good crop of beans has been raised on
inverted sod, the seed being sown broad
cast. and covered with a cultivator or
barrow.
Beans should not be planted till the
weather is we'll settled and quite warm.
There is no occasion for planting them
till the corn and potatoes are planted.
The rows should be as straight as posi-
BILE. Most cultivators place them from
twenty-five to thirty incaes apart. The
seed, consisting of from three to five
beans, can be placed in the hills twelve
to fifteen inches apart. Many prefer to
drop the seed in drill instead of hills.
The seed should be covered to about the
same depth as corn. There are hand
and horse drills for planting beans.
When the plants are few inches high a
man should go over the rows with a
hand Loe, loosen the soil around the
plants and remove the stones or pieces of
hard earth that may be over any of them.
Most of the remaining work may be
done with horse cultivator. Under no
consideration should any cultivation be
done to beans when the vines are wet
with dew or rain. Ii. the leaves are dis
turbed when they are wet they are
almost certain to be injured by rust. A
sharp hoe can be used to advantage to
cut down weeds and grass after too much
of the ground is covered with vines to
allow the cultivator to be used. The
harvesting should commence as soon as
the leaves begin to fall off and the polls
turn yellow. 1t was formerly the prac-
tice to pull the stalks and to place them
in little punches on the ground where
they would dry, or at least wilt, when
they were put into small stacks built
around or between strong stakes. Many
large raisers now cut the stalks with a
machine, and after allowing them to
cure for a week of good weather place
them under cover and thresh them with
a machine. The threshing, however,
can be done to good advantage with a
handhail on a tight barn floor. Chicago
Times.