times sown on stubble, after one ploughing and harrowing, for green feeding for lambs and ewes in February or March; and this practice, on light gravelly or sandy soils, is generally found advantageous.

Rye is much used for bread all over the continent of Europe, and also in Wales, and some parts of England and Scotland. It is often likewise mixed with wheat flour for that purpose, and is considered to be very wholesome. Rye is likewise much used by distillers, and is roasted and used as a substitute for coffee, by the poorer classes in the mining and manufacturing districts of England.

BEANS.

Beans. The bean, like all other plants cultivated for their seed, is an exhausting crop, although less so, it is believed, than any of the corn crops. From the nature of its growth, and its being always cultivated in drills, which admit of horse and hand hoeing, it must be regarded as a cleansing crop; and it is therefore well suited to prepare the land for wheat or barley. Beans thrive best on strong clay lands, heavy maris, or deep loams but sandy soils are generally not well suited to their cultivation. In cold wet climates, and bleak, exposed situations, beans will rarely ripen.

In Scotland, beans are managed with the greatest care, and are proportionally productive. It is there not uncommon to see twenty acres of beans in one field, without a single weed being allowed to appear among them; the drills being so distant as to admit of a horsehoe, or light one-horse plough, to work between them. Weeds are thus effectually kept down, and the ground is left nearly as clean and as fine after a crop of beans, as it would be after a naked summer fallow. In this way, beans form an excellent auxiliary to summer fallowing, and as a preparation for wheat.

Although most frequently drill-sown, beans may be dibbled with advantage, especially on small farms; but in all cases the ground ought to be ploughed with a

deep furrow in the autumn, or early in the winter. Two ploughings in spring are always advantageous, and the winter furrow may be given in the direction of the former ridges, by which mode the land will be sooner dry in spring, than if it had been ploughed across. After the autumn ploughing, the land will be mellowed by the winter frosts; and early in February, if it be sufficiently dry, it should be cross-ploughed, and broken as fine as possible by heavy harrowing.

Do not, if you can avoid it, cart out the manure for the bean crop until it is wanted, and then spread it and plough it in at once. Take the furrow slices at about six inches; and in every third furrow, close to the edge of the cut, let women or children plant the beans, four to six inches apart; then cover the seed with the next furrow slice, and so proceed throughout the field, taking care to regulate the size of the furrow to the width of the drill. After this apply the harrow.

The root of the bean penetrates deep into the soil, and deep ploughing is therefore necessary to its perfect growth. With proper management, and on strong soils, the bean may be cultivated alternately with wheat, on the same land, for several years. In the Isle of Thanet, barley, beans, and wheat is the usual rotation.

Beans ripen slowly, and should therefore be put into the ground as early as the weather will permit: if later than the end of March, the ripening of the crop will be precarious. Indeed, beans must generally be considered an uncertain crop, in consequence of their backwardness in ripening, except under favourable circumstances of soil and climate.

The distance between the drills should be regulated by the nature of the soil. On strong clay land twentyfour to thirty inches is recommended, to admit the horsehoe or plough to be freely used between the drills, for on such soils the hand-hoe in dry weather will have little effect. On looser and thinner soils, the intervals may be something less; and eighteen or twenty inches between the rows, will be found to afford room enough for hand-hoeing.

When the beans have made some progress, set the

horse-hoe to work between the rows, and let this be followed by the hand-hoe, to cut up any weeds the horse-hoe may have left; and any weeds growing in the rows among the beans must be removed by hand. These operations must be repeated as often as necessary, and not a weed must be allowed to remain in any part of the field.

PEAS.

There are two varieties of the field pea, the early and the late. The early kind may be sown at any time till the end of May, but the late kind must be sown in February or March, to give it a better chance of ripening. The early pea seldom exceeds three or four feet in the length of its straw, and in a favourable season and good soil produces a good crop of grain. The late pea is larger in the grain, and its straw is five or six feet in length. It is more valuable for fodder, but is less certain in its produce, than the early sort.

Peas are nearly of the same nature as beans, in regard to nutrition; but they will grow on soils of a lighter and poorer quality: the preparation of the land is the same for both.

Broadcast-sowing of peas should never be practised. Drilling ought always to be adopted, as it is better for the crop, and admits of horse and hand hoeing, to keep the soil free from weeds; and it is only when this is done, that the cultivation of peas can be usefully adopted. When sown in drills, four bushels of seed to the acre will be generally sufficient.

The soil in which peas grow best, is a sandy loam, neither too moist nor too dry. A mixture of calcareous earth is highly favourable to the growth of peas; and chalk, marl, sea-sand, or lime, is found to forward their growth more than any other kind of manure. The grey or field pea is found to succeed best on strong soils, and the white or garden kind on light dry lands.

The straw, or haulm of the pea, cut into chaff, is used as fodder for horses. It makes excellent provender,

and sheep are very fond of it. When the peas are ground into meal, and mixed with skimmed milk, they form very good food for calves; and they are also much used for feeding pigs.

The cultivation of the field pea is understood to be diminishing, since the introduction of the turnip and other green crops; and except near large towns, it has in a great measure given way to the bean.

HARVESTING.

To avoid loss of grain by shaking, you must cut the corn before it is dead ripe; and moreover, if allowed to stand until dead ripe, it assumes a dull dusky hue in sample, whilst on the other hand, grain not suffi ciently ripened, shrivels in drying. In both states, it wants that brightness of colour, which is important in all grain; and it does not yield the quantity of farina which it would do, if reaped at the proper period, when it is neither too green nor over-ripe.

When the grain is ripe, the straw assumes a golden colour, from the bottom of the stem nearly to the ear, and the ear begins to droop gently-the corn may then be cut. If the straw be a little green below the ear, it is of no consequence, provided the stem be yellow at the neck, and also at bottom, which shows that no more nourishment is needed from the earth.

All kinds of grain do not shrivel alike, when cut too early. Wheat shrivels the most. Barley suffers next to wheat; and oats least of all, being covered with a strong husk or shell, and possessing the quality of filling and hardening in the stook. Barley requires to be thoroughly ripe. Where it is reaped with any green on the grains, it assumes a bleached dull whitish colour, instead of the rich golden yellow colour which it ought to exhibit.

Much loss of grain is incurred every year, by permitting the crops to stand until they are over-ripe. The loss which then takes place in the reaping, binding, and stooking; in the leading from the field to the

stack-yard, and again in removing the sheaves to the barn for thrashing, is altogether very serious in amount. This loss may in a great measure be avoided; and we recommend the following practice, which has stood the test of experience, and been found generally to answer. Reap before the corn is over or dead ripe-ledge for two, three, or four days, according to the weather-clear the corn and straw of weeds, clover, grass, &c., before binding-in binding, make the sheaves small-stook and hood them, when bound-let them rest in the stooks eight, or ten, or twelve days, having regard to the state of the weather; and then cart them to the stack-yard. In making the ricks in the stack-yard, if the weather be rainy, or the corn at all damp, construct chimneys or openings for ventilation, to guard against injury by heating; and thatch the tops as soon as practicable.

Barley and oats require to remain some time in the field after they are cut, before they are ready for stacking, as they are generally more or less mixed with grass and clover; and unless these are thoroughly dry, there is danger of their heating in the stack, and injuring the grain. The clover must be completely withered before the corn is stacked, and especial attention should be paid to this by the farmer. Care should also be taken that the stacks are built in a proper manner, the sheaves sloping regularly downwards and outwards throughout. When a stack is thus well built, and carefully thatched, it will be impervious to the rain, and secure from high winds..

Oats and barley are very generally cut with the scythe, but wheat is for the most part reaped with the sickle. The corn is cut closer to the ground with the scythe than by the sickle, and it is less liable to be shed, if over-ripe; but the scythe cannot be used if the crop is laid or much tangled. A good mower, with an attendant, will cut, bind, and stook an acre and a half in a working day of ten hours, which is about twice as much as can be done with the sickle. The corn should be cut as close to the ground as possible, by which a larger quantity of straw, and consequently of manure, will be obtained.

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