HARVESTING BEANS 139 



are much more capable in handling heavier growth of vines such 

 as are made by ''black-eyes." Growers of large bean acreages should 

 study carefully to determine what devices are locally used with 

 greatest economy and success. 



The beans are allowed to be in the field in small piles for two 

 to four weeks, according to the curing quality of the local climate, 

 until the vines are well dried. This not only facilitates the opening 

 of the pods but saves the beans from staining by contact with green 

 leaves or by the damp dust they gather. 



Threshing-floors. The early method of threshing was by the 

 of the threshing-floor, and it is still practiced or held in view to 

 prevent excessive charges by machine owners. It is tedious work, 

 requires many animals and exposes the beans to greater injury by 

 early rains. A threshing-floor is made by wetting down a circular 

 piece of ground about sixty or eighty feet across, tramp it with 

 horses and wagons until smooth and hard ; then cover the floor with 

 straw for a few days until it is dry, when it is ready for the beans. 

 The first flooring of beans is put on deep, so the horses' hoofs do 

 not cut the floor. Care should be taken all the time during threshing 

 not to cut the floor. Two or three big wagon loads of beans are 

 placed in a ring on this floor during very dry, clear weather. For- 

 merly horses attached to light wagons were driven over the beans 

 (usually two or three teams at a time), till they were all shelled 

 from the pods. The vines are then thrown of! and more beans from 

 the field brought on. This process is continued until there are many 

 tons of beans on the floor under those that are being threshed out. 

 After this the whole mass of chaff and beans is run through win- 

 nowing and screening machines and the beans placed in sacks of 

 seventy-five to eighty pounds each and are ready for market. Of 

 late years the teams on the floor are attached to disc machines in- 

 stead of wagons, which greatly facilitates the work. The use of 

 a large roller on the threshing floor is preferred by some growers. 



In suitable weather tramping is a less expensive method than 

 threshing by machinery, but there is far greater danger from sud- 

 den storms of rain, as beans on the tramping-floor are in the worst 

 possible shape in wet weather. Beans in the field can stand an inch 

 or two of rain without much injury, if allowed to thoroughly dry 

 before threshing. But beans wet on a tramping-floor while mixed 

 with pulverized leaves are irreparably damaged, being stained and 

 heated before it is possible to clean them. Every farmer who tramps 

 out his beans should be provided with sheets of canvas sufficient to 

 cover all unwinnowed or sacked beans liable to be left out during a 

 shower. During extreme dry weather beans can be tramped well, 

 the pods being dry and brittle while the vines are still green and 

 tough, a condition in which a machine cannot work in them at all. 

 Machine Threshing. For many years attempts were made to 

 use modified grain threshers for separating beans. At first there 

 was too great a percentage of cracked beans, but latterly machine 



