54 CROP PRODUCTION 



Field beans are planted in rows two feet or more apart, 

 the plants being about four inches apart in the row. On 

 a large scale the seed is put in with seed drills, special 

 care being taken to have the soil in good tilth, so that 

 the tillage with hoe and cultivator may be easy and 

 effective. After the plants are well grown, shallow 

 cultivation only must be given to avoid disturbing the 

 b§an roots which grow near the soil surface. 



The crop may be harvested by hand and tied in 

 '^shooks," but those who grow many acres generally 

 use a two-wheeled bean harvester which does the work 

 very rapidly, cutting off the stems close to the ground 

 and leaving the vines in windrows. The pods were 

 formerly shelled by hand flails, but in the more important 

 bean-growing regions* they are now threshed by special 

 machines called ''beaners." A yield of twenty-five 

 bushels of shelled beans per' acre is a good crop. 



As the Bush Beans have largely taken the place of the 

 Pole Beans for garden and field growth, so the Bush 

 Lima Beans have taken the place of the Pole Limas in 

 our gardens. There are three types of these Bush 

 Limas, corresponding to the three types of Pole Limas: 

 the large flat-seeded type, represented by Burpee's Bush 

 Lima; the medium, thick, or potato-seeded type, 

 represented by Dreer's Bush Lima, and the small seeded 

 type, represented by Henderson's Bush Lima. The 

 last named is the best for northern regions as it is earher 

 and hardier than the others. 



All the beans belong to the great Legume Family and 

 have the power of fixing nitrogen from the air by means 

 of bacterial nodules on their roots. In most gardens 

 where beans are grown the necessary germs are likely to 



