In 1792 I drilled forty-six acres with beans from the 14th to the 28th of March, the land being all ribbed at twenty inches wide, after being most of it twice ploughed ; the crop was reaped from the 22d of September to the 16th of October, hut the extreme wetness of the season prevented the beans being cleaned off the land till the 10th of November, which was sown with wheat front the 18th of February to the 14th of March 1793.
in 1793 I drilled sixteen acres and a quarter with beans ; in 1794, twenty-six acres and a quarter ; in 1795, twenty-one acres and a quarter ; and in 1796, three acres, all which were followed by wheat in their respec tive years. And the bean-straw of these several crops was uniformly applied as fodder for the working horses.
As the early season at which beans are generally sown, prevents the soil from being so well prepared as for the later sown spring grains, in order to ascertain how late they would admit of being sown, I drilled a bushel so late as the 19th of April in 1792. The crop was reaped on the 16th of October, and produced twelve bushels two pecks ; but the grain was of an in ferior quality.
\Ve have a species of pea in this county, which admits of being soon so late as the month of May, and ripens at the usual season. If a beau with the same pro perties could he procured, it would be a most desirable acquisition ; as the land would be so completely pre pared before the time of sowing, that with proper horse hoeing the bean fields would be as clean and lit for wheat as a complete summer fallow.
The procuring of a species of bean possessing such qualities, would be an inquiry not unworthy of a Society so enunent for their patriotic exertions in the improve ment of the country." Impressed with a sense of the advantages resulting from bean husbandry, when the land is properly drilled and cleaned, and considering it as equally beneficial upon 'wins and clays with the husbandry or turnips upon suit, dry, or kindly soils, the writer of this article has persevered for many years in making beans a regular article in his rotation of husbandry. In the course of his practice, he has found them an excellent assistant to fallow, and their culture a good preparation for wheat. Several years ago, when that useful institution, the So ciety of Arts in London, offered a premium for the cul ture of beans, to be succeeded by wheat sown in the same season, he appeared as a competitor fur that pre mium, and it was decerned in his favour. The substance of his competition essay, delivered to the secretary of the Society, may, perhaps, not be unacceptable to the readers of this work.
" I take the liberty of transmitting to you an account of eighty-eight and a half acres of land drilled with beans in the months of February and March 1798,among which a few pease were mixed, in order to improve the straw as fodder for horses, and for making ropes to tie the crop. The whole of the said lands was sown with wheat in the month of October the same year. I shall shortly state the mode of managing the beans, being ready to give any further information that may be required.
The land was first cross-ploughed during the preced ing winter, and about twenty acres were clunged previ ous to this furrowing being given, and ten acres inure in the spring, when the beans were drilled. The quantity of dung applied to the acre was about twelve cart-loads, each drawn by two horses, the weight of which might be about a ton. The land at seed time was clean plough ed over, and the drill-barrow followed every third plough, which gave an interval between the rows of twenty-six or twenty-seven inches. The quantity of seed sown was front seventeen to nineteen pecks per acre, as those who managed the drill sometimes from inattention allowed it to sow a degree thicker at one time than another. The kind of beans sown was the common horse bean, mixed, as I have already said, with a trifling quantity of pease ; and the average produce per acre of the whole fields sown was nearly thirty-six bushels per acre, the produce being altogether 3258 bushels, \Winchester measure. They were reaped from the first to the middle of Sep tember, and the straw w'ts used for supporting the work ing-horses during the winter months.
It is now proper I should explain my method of clean ing or ploughing the land, when the crop was on the ground, which was effected by a one-horse plough, with out any hand hoebeing used. I first harrowed it com pletely before the beans appeared above ground, and wa ter-furrowed and griped it. As soon as the beans would stand the plough, a gentle furrow was given, and women were employed to turn any of the earth from the plants which might haul' been thrown upon them. Ili, cry sin cecding lurrow was taker deeper, and the last 1% as used linr laying the earth up close to the plants, which I con sider as of great important c. Tln ) o re ploughed four times and I estimated the o hole expense of cleaning them at four shillings per acre, and that of drilling and hallowing at one shilling and lourpenee. In no other way can the ground be cleaned at a h ss expense.