382 FIELD CROPS 



the navy or pea beans, while as much as a bushel of some of 

 the larger kinds is required. 



When the beans are ripe, they are harvested with the 

 bean harvester, an implement which runs just beneath the 

 surface and cuts the stems and roots, so that the plants may 

 be gathered readily, free from earth and roots. If the vines 

 are practically dead when harvested, they may be placed at 

 once in well-built cocks, but if there are some green pods and 

 leaves, they should be dried for a few hours before bunching. 

 These cocks are usually built around a pole about 5 feet high, 

 sharpened at both ends. One end is stuck firmly in the 

 ground and a bunch of grass or weeds is fastened to the 

 other after the cock is completed, to serve as protection from 

 rains. As soon as the vines are dry, they should be removed 

 carefully to the barn, where the beans may be flailed or 

 threshed out. The modern bean thresher removes the beans 

 much more quickly and cheaply than the flail. After the 

 beans are threshed, they should be cleaned and graded, and 

 the good beans placed in sacks for marketing. The cull 

 beans may then be used as feed for stock, while the market- 

 able beans are an important article of human diet. 



SWEET CLOVER 



513. Description. The white sweet clover, Melilotus 

 alba, is a common roadside plant growing quite generally 

 over the United States. It is a native of Europe, but is 

 widely naturalized in America. It closely resembles alfalfa 

 in habit of growth, but is biennial, and the flowers are small, 

 numerous, and produced in long spikes. 



514. Importance. Sweet clover is not generally culti- 

 vated, though in some sections it is grown as a forage crop 

 and soil renovator. Its principal use is for the latter pur- 

 pose, as stock do not usually eat it readily, and unless cut 

 early for hay the stems are coarse and woody. The feeding 

 value of sweet clover is nearly the same as that of alfalfa, 



