HARVESTING THE CROP 83 



to a bean puller, the teeth are removed, and the two 

 knives substituted. Some farmers recommend this 

 combination very highly. The bean puller is pro- 

 vided with two shares or knives, which are 1 set ob- 

 liquely, so the front of each knife will run just out- 

 side the row of beans, and the rear of the knife will 

 extend into the center of the row. The two knives 

 set to run just below the surface of the soil will thus 

 cut off the roots of the plant and draw two growing 

 rows of beans into one pulled row, as shown in Fig. 

 3. The iron guard rods above the shoes are pro- 

 vided to aid in collecting vines and freeing them 

 from earth. The next operation is for men to follow 

 with ordinary forks and shake the vines free of soil, 

 which would color the beans, in case of storm, if 

 left half buried in the ground. It usually requires 

 five to six men with forks, to keep up with the puller 

 and a good team of horses. The men also pull out 

 any stalks which by reason of stones, extremely hard 

 soil or long surface roots were missed by the puller. 

 While in the large growing centers of Michigan 

 recently I learned another alleged improvement in 

 the operation of harvesting beans. A side delivery 

 hay rake was used with considerable success to fol- 

 low the bean puller and get the vines out of the 

 earth. This, of course, dispensed with the services 

 of the men with forks. There are objections to this 

 method, but it means a great saving in labor. The 

 illustration (Fig. 27) shows a little girl manipulating 

 one of these side delivery rakes in a bean field. The 

 rake separates two rows as left by the puller, takes 

 them out of the ground, and lays them over on clean 

 land. Each bout throws four rows as left by the 



