The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1896-05-27

phorlc ACID and potash give the best
returns.
Turning now from the consideration
of the nature of the plant, knowledge
ofwhich is always essential to its most
profitable culture, to the practical
lessons of experience, we find that
beans do best on a rich, well-drained
soil containing enough clay or loan to
hold the plant food developed in it,
and yet with sufficient sand or fine
gravel TO make it friable and loose.
Beans can be raised, and sometimes
proftably, on almost any soil, from a
heavy clay to light sand, provided it
be rich, well-drained and can be made
friable by proper handling.
AS to condition, heavy sod is the
most desirable. 1t is doubtful if the
application of any fertilizer to a rich
field in good condition will so increase
the yield of beans as to be profitably
used for this crop. But on a poorer
soil, particularly if it be in stubble, a
liberal dressing of well-rotted stable
manure well worked into the surface.in
late fall or early spring is often the Sc
cret of a profitable crop. If CONNER
cial fertilizers are to be used, wood
ashes, potash salts and fine ground bone
are the best, and they should be applied
early in spring in order to become
available.
The field of sod should be plowed
late in the fall, and early in the spring
gone over with disc or cutting har-
row, and this should be repeated, each
time stirring the soil TO greater depth,
every week or ten days till the crop is
planted If fall blowing is impracticable,
turn the sod over as early as possible in
the spring, roll it, and then use the
cutting-harrow as before, taking care
not to cut into and turn up the sod.
Stubble ground should be treated in
the same way, except that it should be
gone over with cultivator before the
first blowing, and a spring-tooth or
other deep-working cultivator should
be used.
1t may seem as though 1 were calling
for an unnecessary and useless prepare
ton for the crop; but have been con-
WINGED by the careful inspection and
study of from five 10 ten thousand
acres of beans yearly that the bean crop
is profitable one about in the proper
ton to which all necessary working of
the soil is done before the seed is
planted, when it can be done cheaply
and without injury TO the roots of the
plants.
In the latitude of New York and
Michigan, the best time to plant beans
is generally from May 20 to June 20,
though some of the largest and best
crops we have ever known have come
from paintings made both earlier and
later. They may be planted in hills or
drills, according to the taste and habits
of the farmer, ! prefer to plant in
drills about twenty-eight inches apart
and dropping two 10 four seeds once in
sixteen inches. This can be done very
quickly aud nicely with common hand
corn planters, or we may use one OF the
horse bean planters, which mark out
and plant two or three rows at once,
and do excellent work. We use from
one-half to two-thirds of bushel of
seed TO the acre, according to the size
of the bean, and / am convinced that
great many crops are reduced in
quantity and still more in quality by
overseeing and consequent crowding.
AS soon as the beans are up so the
rows may be seen, go through with a
cultivator, running it as deep and as
close to the row as is practicable with
out covering the plants. This is the
last stirring to any depth the soil should
receive, and in the case of many OF the
best crops l have ever seen, it is the
only work done in the field between
planting and harvesting. In most
will hn hnc CT n fTn
through about week later, this time
with horse hoe set so as to draw
about an inch of soil from as near the
row as possible towards the center, but
care should be taken not to run too
deep. In sandy soil the roots will meet
in twenty eight-inch rows by the time
the plants have made the first true
leaves, and every root cut is an injury
to the plant. i have known of case
where the alteration for half day of
the draft and set of horse hoe 30 that
the outside teeth ran little deeper
close to the plants, though it left the
field looking better, resulted in the
lessening of the yield Of the part of the
field so treated to degree which was
found by careful measurement TO
amount to over three bushels per acre.
A few days later 60 through again with
the hoe set to throw back this earth,
and little more, 80 as to leave one to
two inches of fresh earth about the
stems of the plants and smother any
weeds which may have started. If the
preparation before planting has been
thorough and this work carefully done,
the crop will need no farther attention
till harvest time, unless it be going
through with hoe and cutting out a
few weeds which may have escaped the
early cultivation and horse hoe.