260 FIELD AND GARDES PRODUCTS 



Depth of Planting. The depth at which beans should be 

 planted is determined by the character of the soil and the season of 

 the year at which they are planted. In heavy, retentive soils planting 

 should be made comparatively shallow, as the peculiar habit of growth 

 of the bean is such that it can not readily reach the surface if planted 

 deep in such soils. Upon light soils and early in the season, planting 

 can be made quite deep. Three inches is not too deep upon such soils, 

 but an inch and a half or 2 inches is the maximum depth for planting 

 upon retentive soils. All things considered, a satisfactory depth for 

 planting beans is about 1% inches. 



Cultivation. Like all other hoe crops field beans require fre- 

 quent, shallow cultivation. The stirring of the soil for the purpose of 

 holding the weeds in check and preserving a soil mulch over the area 

 occupied by the growing crop, is the important factor to be considered 

 in culture. At the last cultivation the plants may be slightly hilled ; 

 that is, the soil may be thrown toward the plants with small wings. 

 This has the advantage of leaving the plants on a slight ridge, which 

 facilitates the work of harvesting when such work is done by median^ 

 ical means. In the cultivation of beans it is traditional that they 

 should not be cultivated when the dew is on the vines. This undoubt- 

 edly has a slight foundation for the reason that moisture is a conveyor 

 of spores of disease and might have a tendency to distribute them 

 more widely than would be the case if moisture were allowed to dry 

 off the leaves without being disturbed. 



Harvesting. For many years the handling of hoe crops, such 

 as field beans, upon an extensive scale was impossible because of the 

 great amount of hand labor necessary to gather the crop. Within 

 recent years, however, labor-saving devices have been invented so 

 that now the once laborious practice of hand-pulling individual 

 plants can be done away with by the use of a bean harvester. After 

 the plants are thrown together by the harvester it is customary for 

 men with ordinary pitchforks, either 2 or 3 tined, to follow the har- 

 vester and place the beans in small heaps to cure for several days 

 before storing them in barns or sheds for thrashing. In some in- 

 stances, where the work is done upon a very extensive scale and where 

 the loss from shelling is not considered sufficient to justify the em- 

 ployment of hand labor for bunching the beans with forks, an 

 ordinary horserake is employed for the purpose. Where the beans 

 are to remain for a longer period and to become more thoroughly 

 cured in the field and where the work of harvesting is done entirely 

 by hand, the crop is frequently placed in shocks which are built 

 about a pole 4 or 5 feet in height, both ends of which have been 

 sharpened and one end firmly placed in the ground. A small 

 quantity of straw, grass, or other material is placed around the base 

 of the stake, and the beans as they are pulled are piled around the 

 pole until a compact miniature stack about 4 or 5 feet high is 

 formed. The curing process in any case is carried far enough to 

 prevent the vines molding after storing them in the barn prior to 

 thrashing. If the vines are thoroughly ripened in the field before 

 harvesting, they can be stored in from two to three days if the 



