Part 6

_Manuring._--In nothing relating to asparagus has there been a greater change than in the practice of manuring. Formerly it was thought necessary to place large quantities of manure in the bottom of the deep trenches in which the young plants were set out in order that sufficient fertility might be present for several years for the roots, as after the plants were once planted there would be no further opportunity to apply the manure in such an advantageous place; it was also considered necessary to use much manure every autumn to bank the beds in order that the crowns should not be injured by the winter's frost. These applications, especially that given prior to planting the young crowns, made the outlay so great, and that for so many years before any return would be received from the bed, that only small plantings were possible to those who were without considerable capital.

Although asparagus is still heavily manured, the amount now used is much less than was formerly supposed to be necessary, only about double the quantity ordinarily used upon root crops, such as potatoes, beets, etc. It is not a good practice to put manure in the bottom of the trenches or furrows when setting out the crowns, because it is demonstrated to be rather a waste of manure than otherwise, and besides the roots of asparagus thrive better when resting upon a more compact soil; nor is it necessary that the soil should contain great amounts of humus or be in an extremely fertile condition when the plants are first put out, since by the present system of top dressing a moderately fertile soil soon becomes exceedingly rich and equal to the demands which the plants make upon it. Considerable improvement is produced in the mechanical condition of the soil by the use of stable manure upon beds. By the addition of humus, porous sandy soil is made somewhat more binding and its ability to take up and retain moisture thereby increased; while, on the other hand, cold, heavy soils are made warmer and more porous.

All organic manures are suitable for use on the beds; but care must be exercised in the use of any of these lest they be too hot and injure the plants, especially if applied directly to the roots and immediately over the crowns. Where the young shoots come up through it, fresh, hot manure is likely to produce rust or to render the shoots unsightly and thus injure their sale. Especially is this true in light, sandy soils.

The time of applying manure on beds, and the position where it should be placed, are of some importance. In the use of stable manure, both writers upon the subject and growers actually engaged in producing asparagus for the market almost unanimously state that "in the autumn, after the stalks have matured and have been cut, manure should be applied on top of the rows." Some give the caution not to put it just over the crowns, lest the shoots next spring be injured by contact with it. This plan of top dressing beds during the autumn or early winter is gradually giving way to the more rational mode of top dressing in the spring and summer. It was believed that autumn dressing strengthened the roots and enabled them to throw up stronger shoots during the following spring. This is a mistake.

It is during the growth of the stalks after the cutting season is over that the crowns form the buds from which the spears of next season spring, and it is probable that it is principally during this period that the roots assimilate and store up the material which produce these spears. This being true, the plant food added to the soil and becoming available after the cessation of vegetation in the autumn can have little, if any, effect upon the spears which are cut for market the following spring; it first becomes of use to the plant after the crop has been cut and the stalks are allowed to grow. In the use of hot, or fresh, manure it may be that the winter season is none too long to permit the fertilizing elements to become available and well distributed throughout the soil, but if well-rotted manure is used there is danger of the fertility being leached out of the soils by the rains and melted snows of winter.

Those growers who apply a liberal dressing of stable manure or fertilizer immediately after the cutting season supply the required nourishment to the plants at the time they most need it and can most profitably utilize it in the production of spears. Manure thus applied will also act as a mulch, preventing the growth of weeds, keeping the soil light and cool, and preserving the moisture intact. It should not be made on top of the row. This suggestion the writer wishes to emphasize.

Manuring in November in many cases does more harm than good, as the mass of manure causes many roots to decay, and those which do survive are weak and only produce small spears. It would be much better to rely upon liberal supplies of food through the growing season than to give manure when the bushes are cut, as at the former period the roots can more readily absorb the food given. By feeding in spring and summer the crowns are built up for the next season's supply of grass. The roots of the asparagus are perhaps always active, but much less so in winter than at any other season, and they will obtain as much nutriment from the soil as they can then use. If heavily covered with manure sunshine is excluded, growth is checked, and the roots have to fight hard for existence at a time when they are none too strong.

In the culture of green spears the manure is best utilized by broadcasting, this application to be followed by a thorough harrowing of the field. When white asparagus has been cut, either manuring in the trench between the ridges before disturbing them or harrowing down the ridges and then manuring broadcast is perhaps the most rational way. As between manuring in the row and between the rows, the latter should be selected as the evidently advisable one by which the feeding roots of the plants are most easily reached. Placing the manure in the row only reaches those feeding roots which are to be found about midway between the crowns, as just around the crowns are nothing but storage roots, besides it is not desirable to place manure too close to the crowns, but manuring between the rows puts the manure right where the summer rains can carry the fertility directly down into the (as it were) open mouths of the feeding roots.

_Green Crop._--If green asparagus is desired, the stalks need be cut only so far beneath the surface as to furnish a 9 or 10 inch spear, the major part of which, say 6 inches or more, will be green, and of course above ground. If white asparagus is sought for, the rows will have been ridged from 10 to 15 inches above the crowns, and the spears must be cut as soon as they show at, and before they peep above, the surface. This means cutting 9 or 10 inches below the surface. To accomplish this, long chisel-like knives of various shapes are used.

Cutting should be done at least every day, and when vegetation is rapid twice each day will be necessary for white asparagus, and is often desirable when the green sort is being cut.

_Harvesting and Marketing._--Asparagus is one of the earliest vegetables, especially if the roots are near to the surface or the soil above them has been temporarily removed so that the rays of the sun can easily penetrate to them. Some varieties are earlier than others, and this difference in time of appearance varies from a day or two to several weeks. For instance, the Early Argenteuil is about ten days earlier than the ordinary asparagus grown in the same locality, and the Late Argenteuil at least ten days later; so that there would be nearly three weeks between the Early and Late Argenteuil. Among the ordinary varieties, however, there is only a short period between the earliest and the latest.--(F. B. 61, 255; U. Cal. 165; U. Mo. 43; U. Kans. 70; U. Miss. 1905.)

BEANS.

_Kinds._--For convenience in reference and for discussion, beans may be divided into two general groups--"field" and "garden" beans--which are by no means distinctly separate either in appearance or in characteristics. Each of these groups can again be divided into bush and pole beans. Bush beans of the field type are recognized, for commercial purposes, under three well-marked types, known as Kidney, Marrow, and Pea beans, each of which may be subdivided into two groups, colored and white. The garden beans, like the field beans, may be divided into bush and pole types; these again into Kidneys and Limas, the term "Kidney" in this case including all of the common garden beans whether of one type or another, and this group may again be divided into wax and green pod. The same subdivision may also be recorded under pole beans, as is suggested in the following classification:

{Kidney...........{Colored. { {White. {Bush.....{Marrow...........{Colored. { { {White. Field beans.........{ {Pea..............{Colored. { {White. {Pole or corn hill. White or colored.

{Kidney..........{Wax. {Bush......{Lima {Green pod. Garden beans........{ {Kidney..........{Wax. {Pole......{Lima {Green Pod. {Runner (Scarlet Runner).

_Soil._--While clay loams or soils overlying limestone are most desirable, sandy and even gravelly loams may be used, but these latter soils should contain more or less humus and the gravelly soil should not be too coarse. Beans may be grown on heavy clay soils but the surface or underground drainage, or both, must be good and special attention must also be given cultural methods to produce a fine, mellow seed bed. Muck soils or those with a superabundance of humus are not suitable as they tend to produce vines at the expense of the seed. It is also true that this crop will not thrive on low, wet, poorly drained soils. Beans seem to produce good crops on soils somewhat deficient in nitrogen when well supplied with potash and phosphorus. Contrary to a somewhat prevalent notion, beans will not produce well on very poor soils, but require a fair degree of fertility.

_Seed._--Care should be exercised in the selection of beans for seed. None but the best hand-picked beans should be used for planting, as the success of the crop is quite largely dependent on the vitality of the seed.

_Tilth._--Since the bean is a warm-season crop and can not safely be planted until after danger from killing frost has passed, the preparation of the soil for field beans should be deferred until the vegetation covering the area has made considerable growth, so that it may be as completely destroyed as possible during the operations of plowing, harrowing, and fitting the land for the reception of the seed. The short-season character of the bean crop enables the land to be occupied during the winter months by some cover crop, such as wheat or rye, and if the same land is used year after year for the production of beans, the turning under of winter cover crops furnishes an important means by which the store of organic matter in the soil can be maintained, a consideration of great moment in sections chiefly dependent upon commercial fertilizers as a source for available plant food.

After the land has attained proper dryness in the spring it should be plowed from 6 to 8 inches in depth, and immediately compacted and harrowed, so as to prevent the loss of moisture. The surface of the seed bed should be made smooth and fine, so that the drill or planter can be economically used upon it. If dry weather follows at this season of the year, a good practice is, immediately preceding the planting of the crop, to run a heavy land roller over the area, particularly if the planting is done with an ordinary grain drill. If the planting is done with a planter similar to the ordinary corn planter and the land has been rolled previously, it is advisable to go over it with a spike-tooth harrow or some other type of smoothing harrow after the crop has been planted, in order that the land may not possess a compacted condition from the substratum to the surface.

_Planting._--Growers have found that it is better to postpone planting the crop until as late in the season as is practicable and yet be able to safely harvest the crop before the vines are injured by fall frost. The late planted crop has the advantage of escaping the most serious attacks of the bean rust. While there are undoubtedly varieties which are more or less resistant to this trouble, yet the general practice of late planting has been found to be of decided advantage. In planting the field crop the distance between the rows varies from 28 to 36 inches, according to the implements used in harvesting the crop, 30 inches being a very satisfactory and not an unusual distance for placing the rows. The seeds are so scattered as to fall from 2 to 4 inches apart in the row. The ideal distance would be undoubtedly 6 inches, if it were possible to obtain a perfect stand of plants at this distance. For distributing the seed in the row at these distances a bean planter or a check row corn planter may be set to drop the seeds in drills. A common practice is to use an ordinary grain drill and stop a sufficient number of tubes to enable two or three rows of beans to be planted at the proper distance apart without the necessity of purchasing a special implement.

_Quantity of Seed._--The quantity required to plant an acre of beans varies with the size of the beans; that is, a half-bushel of small Pea beans is sufficient to plant an acre of ground, while a bushel of Red Kidney beans is hardly sufficient to plant an acre when the seed is distributed in the ordinary fashion in drills rather than in hills. In planting beans of the Pea and Marrow types the quantity of seed varies from one-half to a bushel per acre, depending upon the quality of the beans and upon the preferences of the planter. For Kidney beans the quantity varies from a bushel to as much as six pecks per acre. Ordinarily, with rows 30 inches apart, a bushel is a sufficient quantity for seeding an acre.

_Depth of Planting._--The depth at which beans should be planted is determined by the character of the soil and the season of the year at which they are planted. In heavy, retentive soils planting should be made comparatively shallow, as the peculiar habit of growth of the bean is such that it can not readily reach the surface if planted deep in such soils. Upon light soils and early in the season, planting can be made quite deep. Three inches is not too deep upon such soils, but an inch and a half or 2 inches is the maximum depth for planting upon retentive soils. All things considered, a satisfactory depth for planting beans is about 1-1/2 inches.

_Cultivation._--Like all other hoe crops field beans require frequent, shallow cultivation. The stirring of the soil for the purpose of holding the weeds in check and preserving a soil mulch over the area occupied by the growing crop, is the important factor to be considered in culture. At the last cultivation the plants may be slightly hilled; that is, the soil may be thrown toward the plants with small wings. This has the advantage of leaving the plants on a slight ridge, which facilitates the work of harvesting when such work is done by mechanical means. In the cultivation of beans it is traditional that they should not be cultivated when the dew is on the vines. This undoubtedly has a slight foundation for the reason that moisture is a conveyor of spores of disease and might have a tendency to distribute them more widely than would be the case if moisture were allowed to dry off the leaves without being disturbed.

_Harvesting._--For many years the handling of hoe crops, such as field beans, upon an extensive scale was impossible because of the great amount of hand labor necessary to gather the crop. Within recent years, however, labor-saving devices have been invented so that now the once laborious practice of hand-pulling individual plants can be done away with by the use of a bean harvester. After the plants are thrown together by the harvester it is customary for men with ordinary pitchforks, either 2 or 3 tined, to follow the harvester and place the beans in small heaps to cure for several days before storing them in barns or sheds for thrashing. In some instances, where the work is done upon a very extensive scale and where the loss from shelling is not considered sufficient to justify the employment of hand labor for bunching the beans with forks, an ordinary horserake is employed for the purpose. Where the beans are to remain for a longer period and to become more thoroughly cured in the field and where the work of harvesting is done entirely by hand, the crop is frequently placed in shocks which are built about a pole 4 or 5 feet in height, both ends of which have been sharpened and one end firmly placed in the ground. A small quantity of straw, grass, or other material is placed around the base of the stake, and the beans as they are pulled are piled around the pole until a compact miniature stack about 4 or 5 feet high is formed. The curing process in any case is carried far enough to prevent the vines molding after storing them in the barn prior to thrashing. If the vines are thoroughly ripened in the field before harvesting, they can be stored in from two to three days if the weather is satisfactory. If, however, the vines have some green leaves upon them and the pods are not thoroughly dry, the period for curing in the field is of necessity much longer than with thoroughly ripened plants.

_Storage._--After the crop has been properly cured in the field it is customary to store the beans in barn lofts or in sheds until the weather has become quite cool before the work of thrashing is done. In some instances, however, if the beans are thoroughly field cured they may be thrashed in the field; but ordinarily, in those regions where beans are extensively grown, weather conditions will not permit of their being cured and left in the field a sufficient period to enable the entire work of harvesting and thrashing to be carried on in the open.

_Care Necessary._--All operations connected with the harvesting and field management of beans should be done as carefully as possible, in order to avoid injury to the plants while in the growing condition and to prevent shelling the beans after they have ripened. Most varieties of beans shell more or less easily after the pods have become thoroughly matured. Most extensive growers of beans consider the loss by shelling resulting from the use of labor-saving machinery of less money value than the added cost of carrying on all operations by hand in the most careful way. In other words, the loss from the use of labor-saving machinery is not sufficient to justify the return to hand labor in the care and management of the crop.

_Threshing._--Beans are now threshed by a special machine or beaner which has been instrumental in materially increasing the acreage of beans grown. These machines are usually introduced into localities where beans are grown commercially and offered for hire on a plan similar to that used by grain threshers.

_Cleaning and Grading._--While the farm operations in connection with the preparation of field beans for market usually cease with the thrashing of the crop, the cleaning and grading of the product is a very important item and requires much hand work. Besides the removal of sticks and straws from the grain by the use of the fan, the beans are passed through a machine which is provided with a broad, slow-moving belt placed at such an angle that split beans and peas, dirt, and stones which are not removed by the fan adhere to the belt and are thrown out, while the smooth, perfect seeds fall back into another receptacle and are thus separated from the dirt and broken seeds. After this the beans are usually subjected to a third operation, which consists in removing by hand all broken and discolored seeds, as well as foreign matter, which were not removed in the other operations.

_Garden Beans._--The type as well as the variety of garden bean to be grown is determined by the purpose for which it is to be used. If it is to be used as a snap or string bean for early market, quick-maturing green or wax-podded varieties are selected. If for canning purposes, a different variety is selected, which may have either green or wax pods, while as a rule green beans which are required late in the season for table use belong to the pole type. For early beans, however, the bush type is the one most commonly used.

_Fertilizers._--While beans are quick-growing and early-maturing plants requiring an abundance of available plant food in the soil, yet, because of their family relations, being legumes, they make the soil better for having been grown upon it. They are nitrogen-gathering plants, and for this reason require only a small percentage of this element in any fertilizer used upon them. While heavy applications of fertilizers containing nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash are used by truck growers in the production of beans, as a rule such fertilizers should be relatively richer in phosphoric acid and potash than in nitrogen. The production of garden beans for snap or string beans, however, demands a larger percentage of immediately available nitrogen than does the production of field beans for the dry grain, as in the former case the crop occupies the land a shorter time and therefore gives it less opportunity to provide itself with a supply of nitrogen from the atmosphere. The fertilizer, if used in the form of commercial fertilizer, may be distributed broadcast over the area occupied by the crop with a grain drill or a fertilizer distributer, or it may be scattered along the row at the time the seeds are sown by one of the many types of seed drill having a fertilizer attachment.

_Planting._--Garden beans, like field beans, may be planted either in hills or in drills. The customary practice, however, is to plant the seeds in drills so that they shall fall 2 or 4 inches apart in rows far enough apart to admit of cultivation with either one or two horse implements. Because of their peculiar habit of germination--the elongation of the part between the root and the seed leaves, called the hypocotyl--the seed leaves or cotyledons are lifted out of the soil. A large expenditure of energy on the part of the plant is necessary to accomplish this, and the more compacted the soil and the deeper the seed is planted the more time and energy are required in accomplishing this result. It is evident, therefore, that the shallower the beans can be planted without retarding satisfactory germination, the better. Upon thoroughly fine and compacted soils the seeds are planted from 1-1/2 to 2 inches deep. Shallower planting does not as a rule give as satisfactory germination as planting within the range above mentioned. While garden beans are planted in extensive areas, they are, nevertheless, frequently used as a catch crop between other plants, such as squashes and cucumbers. The bean, being a quick-growing plant, matures its crop and is out of the way before the entire area is demanded by the companion crop.