ANNUAL LEGUMES 



157 



Harvesting. The ripe beans are harvested with a bean harvester. 

 This implement cuts two rows at a time, leaving the vines in a single 

 windrow. If the vines are practically dead when harvested they may be 

 placed at once hi small piles, and later built into large cocks around poles 

 five feet or more in height. 



Threshing and Cleaning. Beans grown commercially are threshed 

 with a machine especially adapted to the purpose. It is operated in a 

 manner similar to the ordinary threshing machine. If only a few beans 



HARVESTING FIELD BEANS WITH A HARVESTER. 1 



are grown an ordinary threshing machine may be used. All except four 

 teeth should be removed from the concaves and the speed of the machine 

 should be such as not to break the beans. Most satisfactory results will be 

 secured by having all the beans uniformly dry. 



Beans fresh from the thresher generally contain fragments of straw, 

 stones and particles of earth which must be removed before being placed 

 upon the market. This calls for the use of a special cleaning machine, 

 which removes most of the foreign matter. After this the remaining 

 broken and discolored seeds must be removed by hand, 



1 Courtesy of U. S, Dept. of Agriculture, Bulletin 89. 



