The Pole Lima Beans. 371 



These are destroyed by using a horsepower weed knife, which 

 passes just under the surface of the ground, killing tlie weeds in one 

 or two rows at a time without disturbing the soil, which is by this 

 time perfectly dry on top. As the season advances the plants send 

 out their vines over the dry surf.ice, until the ground is finally 

 hidden from sight, and thus, all through the latter part of our rain- 

 less summers, thousands of acres may be seen covered with beauti- 

 ful light green foliage. 



'' In the latter part of September the beans are all cut loose from 

 the ground a little below the surface and are forked into piles con- 

 venient for pitching onto wagons. They are then allowed to dry 

 in the sun for about tw^o weeks before threshing. Formerly all 

 threshing was done in the following manner: A round space on 

 the ground sixty to eighty feet is made quite wet, then it is wagoned 

 over, packed and smoothed down and allowed to dry hard. Two 

 or three big wagon loads are placed in a ring on this floor during 

 very dry clear weather. Formerly horses attached to light wagons 

 were driven over the beans (usually two or three teams at a time)^ 

 till they were all shelled fi-om the pods. The vines are then thrown off 

 and more beans from the field placed on. This process is continued 

 until there are many tons of beans on the floor under those that are 

 being threshed out. After this the whole mass of chaff and beans 

 is run through winnowing and screening machines and the beans 

 placed in sacks of seventy-five to eighty pounds each and are ready 

 for market. Of late years the teams on the floor are attached to 

 disc machines instead of wagons, which greatly facilitates the work. 



" The process of threshing by large steam machines which clean 

 up from fifty to seventy five acres of beans per day, has more 

 recently been adopted by most of the large growers. It is a singular 

 fact, however, that while the expense to the farmer who employs 

 the steam thresher is usually five dollars per ton, the work is done 

 by the first named method at about four dollars per ton. The 

 machine threshed beans have also to be recleaned before they are 

 marketed, and are broken so much that they are never fit for the 

 seed trade. Yet there is one great advantage with the steam 

 thresher. The rainy season, so called, is approaching and a shower 

 is liable to fall in October while the threshing process is in full 

 blast, so that any beans that are caught on the floor are mined if 

 they do not manage to cover them in some way, while by the 

 machine process all beans are sacked as they are threshed. 



