CHAPTER IX 

 HARVESTING THE CROP 



Time of harvesting. Ordinarily beans are ready 

 for harvesting the latter part of August. However, 

 the season, time of planting, variety of seed and con- 

 dition and care of soil are modifying agents. It is 

 desirable to have the crop ripen evenly, which will 

 usually be the case provided the soil and methods of 

 culture are uniform. Some growers harvest early, 

 when the pods reach the wilting stage, others advise 

 waiting until the plants are dead ripe when the proc- 

 ess of curing will be much simplified. In my ex- 

 perience and observation the best time to harvest will 

 depend very much on the season and as in many 

 other things, each grower must use his own judg- 

 ment, and weigh evidence carefully as it presents it- 

 self each year. Obviously it would be poor policy 

 to start the bean puller during a week of rain, even 

 though the beans were ripe, and on the other hand, 

 fine curing weather for the crop might justify pull- 

 ing a few days earlier than would otherwise be ad- 

 visable. All other conditions being equal, allow the 

 crop to gain full maturity. 



Methods of pulling. In no branch of agriculture 

 have twentieth century methods been attended with a 

 more marked revolution than in harvesting the bean 

 crop. Instead of the old back breaking process of 

 pulling every hill of beans by hand, we now have 

 improved horse pullers which gather two rows of 

 beans as fast as a good team of horses will walk. 



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