THE BEAN CROP.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVII, Issue 88, 15 April 1896, Page 2

THE BEAN CROP.

The bean, as mosb of my readers no doubb ar*e aware, ia a plant of considerable im. porbance bo farmers in Great Britain, and I believe thab the crop ia one which ib would pay many of oar northern farmers bo cultivate. As a food for working horses and horses in training, nothing is superior to bhe bean. Ib must nob be fed solely, but should be mixed with two or three bimes its bulk of oats, which will give a food for pubbing on condition superior to any other mixture. A mixture of bean meal and linseed will form an excellent fattening food for cattle and sheep when fed in small quantities. The bean straw is also a good sheep feed, and will also be eaten by cattle after they have been started to ib and have learned bo like it. There iB a great deal of nutriment in bean sbraw —more, in fact, than in any kind of grain straw, and when Jed ib makeß rich manure. It must not bo fed exclusively, bub as a change of feed, and for that it is worth nearly as much as meadow hay. Bean straw also makes an excellent litter, and when decomposed possesses high value as manure. Ib will, however, be found thab the straw is slow in decomposing, and to overcome thia ib is better to mix ib with cereal straws. There are six varieties commonly in cultivation, viz., tho Scotch, or horse bean, the Tick bean, tho Heligoland bean, the winter or Russian bean, the Mazagan, and the long pod. The bean thrives beab on heavy land, rich in lime, hence ib does well on strong clays. In fact, any soil which will grow wheab well will produce a good bean crop. The variety best suited to light soils is the Tick boan.

The greatest difficulty in growing beana is the amount of labour in cultivating and harvesting they require. The best time to bow is towards the close of this month and during May. Thoy will do well following on a wheat or obher stubble. The soil doea not need very deep ploughing for beans, bub with a heavy soil a thorough preparation of the seed bed h important If the seed bed is nob moist and friable the seed will come np unevenly, and this will make a stand which ib ia difficult bo harvest without loss, because the beans will ripen in about the order of time they started to grow. The usual mebhod of planting ia to drill from two to three bushels of seed, according to bhe variety and general conditions, 2\ inches deep, in rows twelve bo eighteen inches aparb. Sometimes the seed is-broadcasted, and afterwards ploughed in. The General American practice is to sow in hills. The "American Cultivator" gives the following description and defence of this method. Ib gays : —«• Bean planters pub the seed in rows two and a-half feeb apart and with hills varying from twelve bo fifteen inches aparb. This with mo3b kinds makes a continuous row, and the beans being planted iv hills with three to four seeds in a place are more easily handled than where the seed is dropped singly with a drill. We think also that the beana growing in a bunch check the lQ&f/ growth sufficiently to fill better than the beans which are planted singly in rows'. In a wet season these single beans are apb to run to leaves, and do nob pod as well as those that are more crowded. 16 is impracbicable to cultivate beans more than one way. Thia is another reason for planting in hills. Ib makes it ea9y while the plants are small to give a brush with a hoe between the hills, thus destroying weeds thab will, if left alone, greatly injure the crop. It is not possible bo destroy these weeds by throwing up dirt against the bean planbs with tho cultivator. This is often done with corn and potatoes, but) the bean leaf ia easily ruafced if web earth is thrown againsb ib. As a rule ib is nob besb bo cultivate after the beans begin to blossom. A libble dirb on blossom or pod rusbs tho pod and injures the crop. For this reason bhe cultivation up to blossoming time should bo of the moßb thorough character. If there are weeds in the rows they should be cub out with the hoe."

A heavy dressing ot farm yard manure is the usual fertiliser used for beans. Ib will Sob pay to grow beans on very wet land or ■that ab any time liable bo overflow. Such land is full of vegetable matter and will make a large growth of vines. But the germs of rust are in such soil always, and as the bean leaves come in contact with them they aro rusted and the crop is injured. Ab already stated, bhe ground must be kepb well cultivated, and the weeds in check till the plants get too high. The harvesting may be done with an ordinary reaper and binder, cutting when the seeds aro hard, bhe stalks black and the leaves dropping off. Before stacking, however, the straw must be thoroughly dry.

; The Bdttkr Market, — Messrs W. Weddel and Co. in their weekly report dated February 28th state that the demand has been better, and though prices have nob advanced, except for the very choiceßt, there has been a general clearance of stocks. The situation ia, therefore, bo 'much to the good. The accumulations daring the month are being rapidly reduced, and in a week's time the market will be perfectly clear. Several causes have effected this change. The cold weather has brought « better demand. Grocers and bubtermen have exhausted their stocks, or, induced by the fall in prices mentioned last week, have again purchased fair quantities. Lastly the rise in Danish, though not appreciably checking thedemand for that butter, has turned the attention in Beveral quarters to the greater profit to be secured by purchasing Colonial instead of Danish and retailing aba shilling, which ie

always ft popular price. Of all these cauaeß the cold weather and low prices are the main reasons for the increased demand. Tne bulk of the best factory has realised 90a to 965. while choicest brands have brought 98s to 102s, and in some cases 1043 has been made, where the quantity was small and the quality extra choice. The Danish official quotabion is unchanged, and in refusing to raise the price which some firms expected the Danes have acted wisely. - The values of Danish and colonial are too for apart, 20s, and if the Copenhagen

Committee continue their present quotation for a week or two longer colonial may gradually rise, when they will be in a better position to consider the desirability of a further increase in the quotation. The quantity of butter arrived from New Zealand up to date is 29,142cwt, being only 300cwt less than last year, while the quantity afloat ia 662 tons, consisting of 323 tons on the Ruahine, 212 on the Gothic, and 127 on the Tongariro. From Australia up to date we have received 6,008 tons againab 3,822 tons laab year, while afloat there is only 1,000 tone. Last year ab this time thero was 2,400. The theory that the Lent season shortens the supply of European imports of butter into the United Kingdom does nob aeema borno oub by facts. The short supply of last week, which was supposed to be accidental, turns oub to be so. The shortage of 5,500cwb of last week has been more than made up during the preaenb week, France alone sending 12,360cwt instead of 4,722.

Changing Mutton.—"l really think we are very near seeing a change in bhe type of sheep thab will be found mosb profitable to breed," remarks a writer in tho Glasgow " Weekly Herald." "I am of opinion that the change will come slowly, as old opinions and cuabomß die slowly. I am especially referring bo »heep and particularly to those gross, overgrown specimens which I often see suspended outside various butchers' shops. The recent carcase competitions ab Smithfiold have only accentuated the facts brought out ab every week's markets, viz., that the small, neat sheep fetch fully one-third more per pound than tho large and coarse kinds. lam nob disposed to lay too much stress on the difference ab bhe late Smitbfield contest, aa all the sheep then shown were fed to the utmost limit, and prices ranged from 5s 4d down to 28 8d per 801b. This difference iR soarcely reached in the ordinary markets, bub every week there is a difference of about 3d per Ib. Now, the question is, ot what use is ib growing big, coarse, fat carcases, when such are of fully one-third less value 1 An outsider migbb at once come to the conclusion that it is downrieht folly. Undoubtedly there is a little folly, but nob co much as a cursory glance might guegest. To a certain extenb ib is the highesb wisdom to keep the largo varieties, as for thu production of fat lambß they have an immense advantage over the smaller sheep. Further, the large class of rama are by far the best for use iv producing cross-bred himbs, but after these purposes are served then the large breeds of sheep are aba decided diaadvantage. as they consume an immensely larger volume of food, only bo bo turned into a carcase of considerably less value per Ib. lam hoping to live long enough yet bo see, on every well-managed farm, two sets of breeding ewes—the larger- for breeding early lambs, and the smaller for the production of grazing stock. Alany flock-owners have an aversion to the smaller kindß, as individually they do not make so much money in many markets as the very large ones ; but this difference is more than made up by the larger numbers that can be fed on the same amount of food. It must be very galling to the breeders of the larger Downs, Lincolns, and the Leicestera, to see quoted weak after week Welsh mubton over ss, together with Southdown and Scotch, all heavier classes from 4s down to 2s 8d on the Smithfield market. The difference ia nob so pronounced in some ot-her of bhe English towns, from bhe simple facb that the smaller and finer class of mutton is practically unknown in any but tho very best of tho shops, consequently tho bulk of the buyers are quite accustomed to the lumps of fat and big bones, and buy thorn without a murmur : bub the boat markets are closed against such sheep.