Lima Beans as a Farm Crop.

Feilding Star, Volume IV, Issue 40, 6 September 1883, Page 3

Lima Beans as a Farm Crop.

The lima, the most popular bean among amateurs and market gardeners, is slow iii finding- its way into the gardens of farmers. Tho dry beans yell for several dollars a bushel, and the market has nover been adequately supplied. Lima beans are easily raised, and yield as bountifully as most other pole beans ; and they continue to blossom and bear until killed by the frost. We know of no reasou why they can not be made a specialty, like hops or tobacco, and grown ou a large scale. They would require better soil and treatment than the common field bean, but as the price is three times greater, these could well be afforded. A rich gravelly or sandy loam suits them best, and the phosphatic manures are well adapted to them. On this kind oi soil we have not found them to run too much to vines, eveu with heavy dressings of compost prepared from muck and stable -manure. The vine is a strong grower, and requires abundant nourishment. The p.>ds aro tormed quite thickly from the top to the bottom of the poles. '1 hey want the full bom. fit of the sun, and the rows running north and south, should be four feet apart, and the hills four feet apart in the row. In planting we pr-rfer to put the eye downwards, and not more than one inch deep. The first of Sept. is early enougo for this latitude, ihis bean needs frequent cultivation, unrtl the vines shade the ground This crop is well suited for farmers remote from ciiies*-and market?, 'lhe markei uardener will not grow Lima l-eam to sell dry, because they are wortl moj*e in the green state, and he cat Sill all he can raise. But the farmer however remote from the city, car market his whole crop in the winter »nd be well paid for his labour. — Exchange. ' •