MARKETS AND MARKETIK' I03 



expense attending harvesting and marketing, how- 

 ever, than is the case with certain other crops which 

 may go direct from the thrashing machine to the 

 distributing or consuming market. 



Preparing beans for market. — The crop is by no 

 means ready for distributing and consuming mar- 

 kets as it leaves the thrashing machine. Whether 

 stored for a time to await a more favorable market, 

 or promptly sold in the fall, the beans require intel- 

 ligent care in handling. Judgment must be used to 

 prevent the beans from molding, provided the cli- 

 matic conditions are favorable to the undesirable 

 state of things, and there is necessary work in as- 

 sorting, removing foreign substances, throwing out 

 discolored and damaged beans. Machinery is em- 

 ployed to a large extent, supplemented by hand 

 labor in picking over the beans. As a result most 

 of the offerings on the wholesale markets are known 

 as hand picked beans. Years ago this class sold 

 at a premium, but now seconds and otherwise less 

 desirable beans are utilized in some other way. 



The various steps in the disposition of a crop of 

 beans include thrashing and harvesting, cleaning, 

 assorting, shipping to large distributing markets, 

 whence they go into usual consumptive channels. 

 The first requisite to be observed by the grower is 

 to see that the beans are dry enough when drawn 

 to the barn or the stack so as not to mold before 

 thrashing. Many successful growers leave them to 

 cure in the pods until the bean will not easily dent 

 with the thumb nail, this being regarded as proof 

 that they will keep indefinitely in a good dry bin. 



Ordinarily, growers dispose of their crops just as 

 the beans come from the machine, leaving the as- 



