BEAN. 195 



ble where the supply is limited. Under such a plan, 

 the two rows on a bed are made only eighteen or 

 twenty inches apart, while the distance between them 

 on separate beds is correspondingly greater. 



All cultivating in a bean-field should be shallow un- 

 less they are planted- in a heavy soil, but it should be 

 frequent, especially in rainy weather (this, of course, 

 does not refer to clay soil). As soon as the bloom ap- 

 pears abundantly, it is time to stop cultivating, at 

 least near the plants. 



PREPARING FOR MARKET. 



Snaps are picked any time during the day when the 

 dew is off and they are not wet from rains. As soon 

 as the beans in the pod are about half grown, or be- 

 fore the pods begin to be hard, is the time they 

 should be picked. 



They are taken to the packing-house and allowed to 

 stand free to the air for an hour or so to loose their 

 brittleness. The packing is simple. The pile is worked 

 over more or less closely and all culls removed, at the 

 same time they are straitened more or less and placed 

 in an ordinary vegetable crate. The crates are pressed 

 down just enough to keep the product from shaking 

 about. 



HARVESTING. 



If the crop is to ripen, it will be found more con- 

 venient to plant them in hills, but these should be 

 proportionately farther apart in the row. As soon as 

 nearly all the pods are ripe, the plants may be cut off 

 with a scythe or a grass- mower. The gathering is 

 usually best accomplished by collecting the vines on 

 forks and placing them in small piles at convenient 

 distances. When thoroughly dry, they are stacked, 

 and later threshed either by machine or by hand. 

 The hand threshed bean usually contains fewer broken 



