194 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



est and handsomest quality, even though pulled before the 

 beans are fully grown, as the sap in the stalk will fill out and 

 perfect them. 



When you pull the beans lay several rows together so as to 

 leave room to drive between with the wagon to gather them up; 

 lay them roots up, as lightly as possible, so that the air can circu- 

 late through them, and in a day or two carefully turn them with 

 a four-tined fork. As soon as dry enough, mow them, and if 

 they can be put on temporary scaffolds, with rail or pole floors, 

 it is better, as this gives a circulation of air, and enables you to 

 safely put a larger bulk together. I think it will pay on farms 

 where beans are grown regularly, to provide some stakes for stack- 

 ing the beans, so as to cure them in this way, as it is much safer 

 than to leave them on the ground. The stakes should be smooth 

 and sharpened at both ends, the lower end so as to set them in 

 the ground, and the upper end so that the beans can be slipped 

 down from the top, and they should not, when set, be over six 

 feet high, or it will be difficult to reach the top to put the beans 

 on. Four sticks of stove wood laid across each other on the 

 ground will keep the vines from the damp, and a large amount 

 of beans can be crowded into a stack two feet in diameter and 

 six feet high, and by a little care in arranging the top no 

 water can penetrate it. I think there is no way in which beans 

 can be cured so safely in a wet season. The stakes must be set 

 deeply, with a good crowbar. 



The best way to thresh beans is to tramp with horses, and 

 the best time is in very cold weather, as they then become very 

 dry, and a few minutes will tramp out a flooring. The one 

 point to be carefully guarded against is thin places, or bare spots 

 on the floor, or the horses will split some of the beans, injuring 

 their appearance and sale. 



Broom-corn. To the farmer who has a soil well suited to 

 the crop, who understands how to manage it, and who grows it 

 regularly, broom-corn Avill generally prove profitable, particularly 

 if he is " fore-handed " so that he can hold the crop over in 

 years of low prices; but the man with a heavy clay soil, or foul 

 land, and without experience in handling the crop, who is tempted 



