CULTURAL DIRECTIONS 



241 



ginia. The pickers of snap or string beans are generally 

 paid a definite amount a basket. 



Field beans were formerly harvested by pulling, but 

 the special harvesters now employed materially reduce 

 the cost of this operation. L. C. Corbett (United States 

 Department of Agriculture, Farmers' Bulletin 289, p. 

 14) describes it as follows: "This implement is built on 

 the principle of a pair of shears, and consists of two long 

 steel blades mounted upon a strong framework carried 

 upon wheels. The long shearlike blades are set to cut 

 the roots of the plants just beneath the surface of the 



FIG. 6l. PICKING STRING BEANS AT NORFOLK, VIRGINIA 



ground. Above these blades guard rods or guide rods 

 are so arranged as to move from their original positions 

 the plants whose roots have been severed and, since the 

 implement is designed to cut two rows of beans across 

 the field, the plants of two rows are thrown together in 

 a single windrow. This clears space for the passage of 

 one of the animals in the team, so that it is necessary for 

 only one to pass through the standing crop, thus de- 

 creasing the amount of loss by shelling which would result 

 from both animals being driven through the standing crop." 



