82 How THE FARM PAY.S. 



apart in the rows. They do not require much manure, or they will 

 grow too much to vines. We cover very lightly, never allowing them 

 to be cultivated or hoed in damp weather. If worked in damp 

 weather they will rust or "damp off"; but in dry weather weekly 

 cultivation for the first month should be given. No more work is 

 then required until the beans are ready to be harvested. The usual 

 way is to pull them up by hand and stack them around a pole eight 

 or nine feet high, which is stuck in the ground. In this way they 

 may be left until taken to the barn and threshed and cleaned. Har- 

 vesting beans by hand is a slow work and may do very well for small 

 plantations. But when they are grown largely, as they are in some 

 localities, where forty or fifty acre fields of them are not unusual, a 

 machine is used for gathering them. This ingenious invention, 

 which is the work of a farmer in New York State, is shown in the 

 accompanying engraving. It pulls the beans, shakes the soil from 



BEAN HARVESTER. 



the roots and leaves the beans in rows behind it. It is drawn by one 

 horse, which walks between the rows. Two-horse machines are 

 made, which pull two rows at once. Beans usually bring in market 

 from $2 to $3 per bushel. I have taken forty bushels per acre off 

 such land as above described. I may say, however, that there is 

 considerable labor attendant upon the raising of this crop, both in 

 the cultivating and threshing and cleaning for market, as, being used 

 for human consumption, the sample requires to be perfect. But in 

 the winter season, if they can be hand-picked at idle times, they are 

 quite a profitable crop. There is always a good demand for the 

 Marrowfat Bean. The "Pea Bean," as it is called, is smaller, but 

 similar to the Marrowfat, is a better yielder and brings a better price, 



