Since the above trial, we have uniformly drilled beans upon a great scale, according to the first mentioned me thod, with this single alteration, that the hand-hoc is laid aside, and the whole operation performed by horse labour. The different ploughings are given with one horse, and repeated according to the nature of the soil, and the dryness of the weather. This is the cheapest and most effectual way of cultivating beans ; and indeed it is now very generally practised.
The following paper, by Mr Robert Dudgeon, late farmer at Tyning-hate, extracted from the Transactions of the Society of Arts, Sec. shows, in the strongest light the utility of taking beans as a preparatory crop for " Having been in the practice of sowing wheat after drilled beans, I take the liberty of laying before the So ciety for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, an account of three fields, containing nearly twenty-three and a half acres, (English statute measure), drilled with beans in the spring of 1707, and sown with Iv heat the same year.
One hundred and Mt nty bushels of K were sown, which, at an au crave, is five bushels one peck and a half of seed per acre. The total produce was one hundred and thirteen quarters, fin bushels, and three pecks ; that is, thirty-eight bushels, three pecks, per acre, ION rage produce.
The field marked No. I. in the surveyor's certifi cate, contained 8.26 acres, is part strong red ( lay, upon a limestone bottom, and part a mixed soil of clay and loam, upon the same bottom ; but the soil is of a greater depth. This field was twice ploughed. The first lur row was given in October 1796. In February 1797, it was Bunged at the rate of sixteen cart-loads per acre (containing from fourteen to sixteen hundred each,) and immediately got a second ploughing, the beans being drilled into the bottom of the furrow, be hind the plough. Two acres and a half were (trilled at the distance of every third furrow, making an interval of twenty-four inches between the rows; but this being too wide, the remaining part of the field was drily d at the distance of two furrows, making cighteen inches width between the rows. The same quantity of seed per acre, viz, live bushels and three pecks, was sown in both cases ; and at harvest, no apparent difference could be observed in the crop. The beans were drilled on the 27th and 28th of February, and the 1st of March, and the field completely harrowed. Some days after wards, having had a frost, which made the soil crumble and fall, it was harrowed a second time, to reduce the mould to as fine a state as possible. This field was
reaped on the 6th, 7th, and 8th of October ; and once ploughed and sown with wheat on the loth and Ilth of November, 1797. The produce of beans was forty-se ven quarters, or forty-five bushels two pecks per acre.
"The field No. 2. containing 10.88 acres, is part clay, the same as No. 1. upon a limestone bottom, at a consi derable depth, and part a light deep gravelly soil, with a subsoil of red clay. It was twice ploughed, first in Oc tober 1796, and lastly in February 1797, immediately af ter which it was formed into ribs of twenty inches width, by making the horse on the left-hand side of the ploiigh go in the last drawn furrow. The beans were drilled between these ribs on 2d, 3d, and 11th of March, and covered by harrowing first along the drills, and then across with a common harrow, till the surface was per fectly flat, and the mould fine, the beans being left at a depth of four inches. The quantity of seed per acre was five bushels. This field was reaped on the 4th, 5th, and 6th of October; (lunged on the bean stubble, at the rate of fifteen cart-loads per acre ; once ploughed, and sown with wheat, on the 13th, 14th, and 22d of Novem ber, and the 21st of December, 1797. The produce of beans was fifty-one quarters, four bushels, or thirty-se ven bushels, two pecks, per acre.
The field No. 3. containing 4.22 acres, is a light gravelly soil, upon a subsoil of sand mixed with small gravel. It was twice ploughed, first in October 1706, and lastly in February 1797. It was afterwards ribbed in the same manner as No. 2. and the beans drilled on the 16th and 17th of March, at the rate of five bushels two pecks per acre, and covered by harrowing the same as No. 2. This field was reaped on the 21st of Septem ber, and one half of it ploughed. It was then (lunged at the rate of eighteen cart-loads per acre, and the whole field ploughed over ; and sown with wheat on the 28th of December, 1797. But the crop of wheat upon that part of the field whirl) got two furrows, was much inferior to that Is here it got Only one ; w Inch shows the impropriety of loosening soils ol this quality by repeated ploughing, par ticularly where the subsoil is so little calculated for the retention ol moisture. The produce of beans upon this field was fifteen quarters one bushel, or twenty-eight bushels two pecks per acre.