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wards, a small double mould-board plough, drawn likewise byone horse, split open the gathered soil between the rows, andearthed up the roots of the beans on each side. By somepeople the benefit of earthing up is disputed, alleging, thatany benefit gained in this way, is more than counterbalancedby the extraordinary trouble which it occasions in harvest,when the crop is reaped. In cutting beans, it is often diffi-cult to get the reapers to cut low enough ; without whichprecaution, much of the straw is not only lost, but the lowestpods are frequently left on the stubble, to the manifest injuryof the produce.
No diseases occur in beans, except wlnit is usually calledthe colliery or a multiplicity of small dark-coloured insects,which in some years infect the tender tops of the stems, andproduce injury by exhausting the juices of the plant. But as noremedy, either curative or preventive, has hitherto been pro-posed, it docs not seem necessary to eidarge on the subject.
§ 4. Harvest management .—Generally speaking, it is pro-per that beans should be well ripened before they are cut;because when cut green their quality is considerably impair-ed, and a long time is required before the straw is sufficientlydry, or brought into a proper condition for being ricked withsafety. It is not, however, either necessary or proper to waittill the outer skin of the bean has become dark-coloured orblack, as in that case their quality, or market value, will beconsiderably impaired. Neither is it at all necessary to waittill the pod has grown black and dry. After the eye of thebean is thoroughly blackened, and the skin has acquired ayellowish and leather-like colour and appearance, the crop isin a fit situation for being cut down. In an early harvest,and when the straw is not immoderately rank, the bean cropbecomes ripe in good time, nnd is easily K'j'm, and preparedfor the rick-yard. But in moist, warm seasons, when beansare apt to take on a second growth, the grain hardly ever ri-pens effectually, and it is exceedingly difficult to get the strawinto a proper condition for the stack. In such cases of sc-