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The time of sowing beans is as early as possible after theseverity of winter is overt In February if possible ; but notlater than the end of March, as otherwise the ripening of thecrop, and its safe harvesting, would be very precarious In thisclimate.
The large horse-bean is the kind almost universally cultiva-ted, though occasionally the tick procured from London hasbeen tried; but that variety has seldom produced good cropsin Scotland .
The quantity of seed, in the practice of the most ex-perienced cultivators of beans in Scotland , is four bushelsto the statute English acre, when sown in drills. Whensown broadcast, five bushels are thought necessary. Amuch smaller proportion of seed is allowed in England ;but in the experience of observant husbandmen in Scotland ,a thin crop of beans never turns out well, unless the soil isparticularly rich. Unless the rows of beans close effectuallyover the land, weeds will unavoidably grow and flourish afterthe cleaning process is finished; the land will become foul, soas to defeat the very object of the drill husbandry, the cropwill be proportionally injured by being robbed of its nourish-ment, and the land will be left in a bad condition.
Either in the broadcast or drill husbandry, it is very com-mon to mix a small quantity of the cold-seed pea, to be after-wards mentioned, along with the beans ; perhaps about halfa bushel to each acre; or, in other words, one bushel or moreof peas with every six bushels of beans. In the agriculturallanguage of Scotland , this is called a crop of beans with adropping pea; and it considerably improves both the quan-tity and quality of fodder, besides giving material assistancein harvest, as the peas generally serve to bind up the beansinto sheaves.
When sown broadcast, as with all other grain, the depthat which beans are deposited in the soil, by the operation ofharrowing, must be various and quite uncertain. When drill-