226 THE BEAN CROP. 



valuable portion of the bean crop; consequently, in order 

 to secure this in its best condition, it is the practice to 

 cut as soon as any indications of maturity are noticed 

 in many cases, indeed, while the straw is quite green, 

 and before the seed has attained its maximum state of 

 development as a feeding substance. In the south the 

 fodder value of the straw seems to be totally unheeded, 

 as the cutting is usually deferred until the beans are 

 dead ripe and the stems denuded of leaves, blackened 

 by exposure after the circulation has ceased, and so dry 

 as to be not only unpalatable to cattle, but indigesti- 

 ble, like ligneous tissue, when forced upon them in the 

 straw-yard in winter, where it is usually trodden down 

 as litter and formed into dung. Probably we should 

 find the most advantageous period for cutting, taking 

 both straw and seed into consideration, to exist between 

 these two extreme practices, and to decide upon com- 

 mencing harvest operations as soon as the stems and 

 leaves have acquired a brown or blackish patchy appear- 

 ance, indications that a change is taking place in their 

 structure and functions, and that the process of maturity 

 has commenced. At this time the pod will be found to 

 open more readily to the pressure of the thumb, and the 

 beans or seed to have acquired a black colour at the 

 hilum, or eye, and to be more easily detached from their 

 bed. 



Beans are more commonly cut with a sickle or hook 

 than by either of the other methods already described. 

 Both the scythe and the reaping-machine make excel- 

 lent work, especially where the drills have been sown 

 pretty close together. About the same amount of work 

 can be done in the day as with the wheat crop: the 

 price paid per acre is, however, generally less, as it forms 

 the last of the harvest operations, and labour is more 

 abundant. After cutting, if the weather be wet or if the 



