The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-05-08
TIE GARDEN PAYS.
A Successful Trucker Tells What Car be
DsRe Vita Beans.

| DsRe Vita Beans.
| Correspondence Of The Progressive Farmer.
| AS the season advances and the
press of farm work increases, the
garden is more than likely to suffer
from neglect; and yet, if You will
but stop and think a moment, you
must admit that nothing on the farm
pays so well for the time devoted to
it's care. If your garden has been
properly laid out, so that it can be
worked with horse and euItivator,
an hour or so each week VIII suffice
to keep everything in first-cIass cen
ditiOn, and the time will never be
missed from tho crop. Use a fine
tooth cultivatOr or harrow, most of
the time, for tool of this kind can
be run very close to the young plants,
and will save much hoe work.
Among the vegetables which
should occupy a prominent place in
the farm garden is the snap bean,
both bunch and pole Repeated
planting of this bean should be kept
| up to insure q continuous supply.
The new Stringless Green-pod, Val
entine, and Best of All are good bunch
varieties, with the Kentpeky Won
der and White Creaseback for pole.
One quart of the bunch beans will
plant one hundred feet OF drill, or
about 3 bushels and 1 peck to to the
| acre, where the rows are two feet
apart. The pole beam can be planted
at the rate of quart to $50 hills, in
rows feet or feet apart, and hills
feet ia the row, training two hills
to pole. There are a number of
good wax varieties, but we much
prefer the green podded sorts, they
being more hardy and productive,
also better sellers,
The culture Of beans is very sim
pie, and comparatively little manure .
or fertilizer is required. This should
consist principally Of petash and
phosphoric acid, as the bean belongs
to the 1eguminous family and can OBJ
tain a large portion of it's nitrogen
from the air. A fertilizer anaFyZing
ammonia 3 per cent, phOsphOric
acid z per cent, and potash z per
cent, is about right for this crop;
applied at the rate of 800 pounds per
acre. To prepare a fertilizer which
will analyze as above, take 100pounds
nitrate of soda, 456 pounds cotton
seed meal, 1900 pounds acid phos-
phate, and 259 pounds muriate Of
potash, to make a ton, or /, 200
pounds bone meal and 500 pounds
muriate of potash, will also give "a
similar fertilizer. Care should be
taken to have the soil fine and the
fertilizer well mixed in the row. We
like to prepare our land, apply the
fertilizer, put two burrows on it, and
let it stand about two weeks before
planting, then plant as soon after a
rain as the land will do to Owork. The
top of the ridge can be knocked off
with d board, and the seed put IN
with a drill; or the ridge can be
opened with a small scooter, and the
seed dropped by hand, covering about
two inches deep. In this way you
may be almost sure of getting good
stand. IF, however, there comes IA
heavy rain after planting and crust
forms ever the seed, it should be
broken with harrow or rake, else
the beans will be slow to come, and
an inferior stand will be the result
When cultivating, be careful to plow
and hoe your beans only when the
vines are dry; otherwise they will
turn yellow, and the crop be greatly
damaged.
OF lima or butter beans, the small
bush varieties, such as HendersOn's 3
| Bush Lima, succeed best in the South.
There is also the Small Lima (Sieva)
pole variety which does nicely.
have seen this bean completely hide
a garden fence in Florida. and fur
nish a continuous supply Of beans all
summer. Lima beans should not be
planted until the weather is thor
| Oughly settled and warm, otherwise
the seed is likely to rot in the ground
Their culture is similar to that of
the snap bean, with the exception
that they require very much richer
land for best results, and we there
fore use double the quantity Of fer
tilizer for them that we do for the
snaps. We find these beans very
profitable for the home market and
last year we sold $10O worth from
One-ha1f acre on land that had grown
a crop Of strawberries IN the spring