PULSE CROPS.
Peas and beans are the pulse plants, and although they are cousins they
are widely different in their requirements. In this respect peas and
beans resemble children, who though in the same family, do not always
thrive under the same conditions or do best with the same treatment.
Both these crops are leguminous, and, therefore, capable of storing
the nitrogen from the air in their roots, and thus enriching the soil
where they grow, yet it is often necessary to apply nitrogen to secure
a quick start for early crops. This is especially true where the soil
has not before been used to grow leguminous crops. The more we study
plants the more we learn about children and the more likely are we to
recognize the close relation between all forms of life.
PEAS.
Peas are a partial season crop, and do not require very rich soil.
They are so hardy that the seed may be sown where it is to stand, even
before frosty weather is wholly gone. It is best to plant the seed
from three to five inches deep, which allows the roots always to be
in cool, moist soil. A very rich soil tends to make the crop run to
vines and leaves, so that a light soil is necessary, particularly where
the crop is to be an early one. Peas should be early or late, because
they like cool weather, and are apt to mildew if carried over into hot
summer days. The fall crop may be planted early in August even in the
Northern States. The plants should be from three to four inches apart
in the rows. It takes a pint of seed, of the small varieties, for 100
to 125 feet of row, or one to two bushels to an acre. Where peas are
grown in large quantities in a field, for canning, the seeds are sown
broadcast and then it requires from two to three bushels to an acre.
For early crops the dwarf varieties are preferred as they mature so
quickly, and the tall, climbing varieties are planted for late crops.
Planting and tillage for both kinds are the same. Peas should be
planted in double rows only six or eight inches apart, so that the
one row of supports, either brush or chicken-wire, preferably wire,
may serve both rows in tall peas, while the dwarf plants support each
other. Between each two pairs of rows the space should be wide enough
to admit of tillage.
Very few farmers understand the value of peas to the soil or as stock
feed. This is especially important for farmers of the Northern States,
for peas will grow where corn will not, because of the cold; they do
not need much soil preparation or after-tillage; they yield a good
crop of forage that is excellent for fattening; they take any place
in a good system of rotation of field crops, although it is most
satisfactory to follow them with wheat; they may be sown at intervals
of ten days, from very early in the season to very late, and when the
crop has been harvested the ground is in better condition than before
it was planted.
In Europe they grow peas with delicate pods, called edible-podded or
sugar peas, which are eaten as string beans are, but these are almost
unknown here. The two kinds of peas used here are the wrinkled-seed
pea and the smooth-seed pea. The wrinkled variety is the best, but it
is more likely to decay when planted very early. Both sorts of seed
are found in dwarf and tall varieties of pea. The most popular of the
very early peas are First-of-all, American Wonder, Philadelphia, McLean
Little Gem, Daniel O’Rourke, and Blue Peter. Among the late peas the
Marrowfat, Champion of England, Stratagem, Telegraph and Telephone are
leading favorites.
Peas start so early that they do not suffer much from weeds, unless
the land is infested with the annual wild mustard. This will choke the
peas, but it may be destroyed by a spray made of eight to twelve pounds
of copper sulphate dissolved in 50 gallons of water, when the plants
are only a few inches high. This solution will not materially injure
the peas.
The insect enemies are the “pea weevil” or “pea bug”; the pea moth,
and the pea louse. The pea weevil lays its eggs on the outside of the
pod, and the grub, on hatching, eats its way into the pea and while
hiding there changes into a beetle of a brownish-grey color, and about
one-fifth of an inch long. It does not come out until after the seed
has been sown in the spring. This beetle spoils the pea for seed and
even to a large extent for stock feed. Where the weevil has attacked
the peas, it is the custom to place the seed in air-tight vessels or
rooms and fumigate with bisulphide of carbon for several days. The
proportion is one pound of bisulphide for every hundred bushels of
peas. Great care must be exercised in using bisulphide, as it is highly
explosive and very poisonous. But only the careless or stupid need get
hurt; so there’s no danger for you. Get explicit directions from your
nearest Experiment Station, and follow them closely.
The pea moth attacks late varieties of peas most severely, and as
no remedy yet used has succeeded in destroying the pest, or even
in materially reducing its ravages, the best thing is to sow early
varieties of peas and so escape its worst effects. It is seldom seen
in moth form, but is common enough as a “worm,” or small, whitish,
somewhat hairy caterpillar, about a half-inch long. It lives inside the
green pods and eats ragged-edged holes in the peas, which it then fills
with excrement or waste matter.
The pea louse is pale-green in color, and clings in great numbers
to the tips of the shoots, and sometimes covers the whole plant. It
attacks whole areas of peas sometimes, and becomes a serious pest.
However, its hold is slight, so that it may be easily knocked off. In
small garden patches they are brushed off in pans and burned, while in
large fields of peas what is called a “brush-and-pan” device is used,
followed by the cultivator, which buries the lice or aphids.
To find out more about the culture of peas, get Farmer’s Bulletin
No. 224, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C., and for
the best methods of dealing with the crop’s enemies read Delaware
Experiment Station (Newark, Del.) Bulletin No. 49.
Pea cultivation was recorded two thousand years ago.
BEANS.
All the well-known varieties of garden beans are tender to frost,
needing a warm season and a sunny exposure. The seed is not sown until
the weather is thoroughly settled and the soil in excellent tilth;
then it is sown where the plants are to stand. The favorites in this
country are the dwarfs; the chief advantage of the dwarf types is the
saving of expense in supports, and the greater ease of cultivation. The
early crop is usually eaten as string beans, though the best “string”
bean is the kind that has no “strings to it.” This variety breaks off
with a clean snap and is often known as “snap” bean. Beans that are
well suited to be eaten as string beans have thick, fleshy pods and
very little fibrous tissue. In order that string beans may be of the
best quality, the crop must make a quick and uninterrupted growth. A
succession of beans may be had all summer by planting at intervals, and
late in the summer season a new crop may be planted for late fall use.
String beans are always in demand; and now, because of the southern
crops, the markets of large cities are seldom without them all the year
around.
Beans, like peas, are nitrogen gatherers, but if the ground where they
are to be planted has not been used for peas or beans within a year
or two, it is well to apply a little nitrogen at first to start the
growth. The land should really be prepared for beans the season before
you plant them, because new, fresh or coarse stable manure applied
when planted, will make the crop rank, without increasing the yield.
This is especially true of Lima beans. Spread the manure the fall
before, so that it will have done its work before the spring planting
begins; if more fertilizer is necessary, use some of the quickly
available commercial fertilizers, those rich in potash or phosphoric
acid being the best. The soil should be harrowed at least twice before
planting and thoroughly pulverized. This puts the soil in good tilth
and prevents the growth of weeds. Through the whole season tillage
should be frequent enough to prevent weeds getting a footing or a crust
forming about the roots, but the plants should not be cultivated while
wet with dew or rain, as that renders the crop liable to spore diseases.
LIMA BEANS.
Late Lima beans demand such a long season and such continuous growth,
that it is not always advisable to try to grow them in the Northern
States, especially not the true Lima beans. The Sieva or Carolina bean
is a Lima that may be successfully raised in the Northern States if due
attention is paid to soil and exposure. It is not so high a climber as
the large, true Lima, and therefore matures before the nights get too
cool. It is a comparatively early crop, quite hardy for a Lima bean,
truly annual, with thin, short, broad leaves, and a lot of papery pods
much curved on the back, which burst open when the beans are ripe.
These beans or seeds may be white, brown, or marked with red, but are
always small and flat. Challenger is the favorite brand of Sieva bean.
The true Lima is larger, whiter, and may be speckled with red, brown or
black. The pods are fewer, thicker, and do not split when the seeds are
ripe, and the vines are more easily injured by a touch of frost. Both
the true Lima and the Sieva Lima may now be had in dwarf varieties.
String and Lima beans are not the only sorts in common use. The others
are not picked until fully ripe, when the pods cannot be used. They are
known as “shell” beans, and there are several kinds, all in high favor.
These are mostly of the pole variety and mature late in the season. The
preparation of the soil and the general culture are the same as for
dwarf beans, the Scarlet Runner and White Dutch Runner.
There are more than 100 varieties of beans and no one book could give
in detail all that is of interest concerning them, but the gardener
who wants to know more of his bean crop may read Bailey, Bulletin 87
Cornell Experiment Station, and Cornell Bulletin 115.
Bush beans are sown in drills, 18 to 20 inches apart to admit of easy
and frequent tillage, which is necessary to preserve moisture and
destroy weeds; the plants stand from five to ten inches apart in each
row. One pint of seed will sow from 75 to 125 feet of drill, according
to the variety of bean used, or at the rate of one bushel up to five
pecks of seed to the acre, when sown in drills. Fall, or climbing
beans, and all Lima beans, are sown in hills, four or five seeds to a
hill, and the hills are three to four feet apart.
Pole and Lima beans need supports and when poles are scarce you may put
strong stakes in the ground at distances of 10 to 12 feet, and then run
two rows of wire from pole to pole, one row near the ground and one
near the top of the stake. Then from the top to the bottom wire, run
cords, up which the beans may climb. In small, home gardens, growers
often sow Lima beans in a semicircle of hills around one stake and
then run cords from each hill to the top of the stake; but this method
is not suitable for a large area.
But climbing beans, especially Lima and Scarlet Runner, can be
ornamental as well as useful, and the wise gardener looks out for all
such possibilities in his crops. If you have an old fence or unsightly
building, plant your climbing beans against it, feed them well, and
they will make a good growth of green vines, which will be a pleasure
to look upon, at the same time that they give a good yield. This is
true intensive farming, as you are getting all there is out of your
ground, and at the same time making your place more beautiful at no
added expense, save the use of additional intelligence.
There is still another point to remember in planting Lima beans, and
simple as it may seem, it is really one of those tricks of the trade
which make all the difference between profit and loss. Plant your
Lima beans _eye down_. Other beans will stand for anything in the way
of planting, but Limas are particular and insist upon having their
peculiarities considered. You have seen people just like that, and
you know that a little special attention brings its own reward. It is
the same with Lima beans—or indeed with any other crops—give them
what they want and they will give you what you want in return. That
is nothing more than a fair bargain, and the love of a bargain is
ingrained in the American nature.
Commercial bean growing is a comparatively recent business, dating back
only to 1839, although beans have been used for human food for many
centuries. This branch of farming in New York State alone means the
annual production of several millions of bushels of dried beans for
commercial distribution.
The Northern States, Canada and California, are the chief bean-growing
sections; in warmer sections the crop suffers severely from pests,
so that it is not profitable to raise it. Southern bean growers use
northern-grown seed to avoid the ravages of the weevil. Even in New
York State some sections suffer more from this pest than others; beans
grown in the northern counties being practically free from attacks.
If you mean to grow beans by the acre, you will do well to read up
more fully in Department of Agriculture Bulletins and in Bailey’s
“Cyclopedia of American Agriculture,” Vol. II.
The chief disease from which beans suffer is anthracnose, which even
the beginner may recognize when it has reached the stage where sunken
brown spots appear on the pods; and when these spots have a tiny pink
centre, you have seen the spore at work. The best known means of
fighting it, is to select clean healthy seed, carefully hand-picked; go
over the field as soon as the plants come up and weed out the affected
ones; spray thoroughly with Bordeaux mixture[8] to which has been added
resin soap. The compound should be as follows: Bordeaux mixture:—1½
pounds vitriol, 1 pound lime, 12 to 15 gallons of water. Resin soap:—½
pound resin, ¼ pound crystallized salsoda, 1 pint water (boil until
clear brown solution is secured, then add to Bordeaux mixture). Apply
first when the third leaf of the seedlings is opening, and repeat at
intervals of ten to twelve days or after rain has washed the mixture
off.
[Illustration: THE RENT PAYER.]
FOOTNOTES:
[8] NOTE.—Unless the under surfaces of the leaves as well as the
upper surfaces be kept coated with the spray, Bordeaux will be of
little avail. For the commercial grower of dry beans, spraying is not
advised.—Samuel Fraser.