GEO WING FIELD CROPS Itf SUGAR-BEET DISTRICTS. 35 



at the side of the machine. On the return across the field another 

 row of plants is thrown in this same row center, so that two rows 

 of beans are together. These plants are usually just matured, and 

 with few dry pods on the plants there is no loss of beans from shelling- 

 (Figs. 28 and 29.) 



The beans are not allowed to stand in the windrow, but are 

 bunched with a dump rake or shocked by hand the same day they 

 are cut. The labor is lessened by shocking with a rake, but more 

 beans are lost by shattering than where they are shocked with a 

 fork. 



Approximately half the growers thrashed' the beans from the 

 field shocks without stacking. The best practice is to stack the 

 beans unless one is able to have them thrashed early in the fall. 



Fig. 29.— Shocking beans. 



Where beans were stacked it was done in September with wagons 

 and fork or with sleds, slings, and the derrick type of hay-stacking 

 machinery. Some farmers found it necessary to turn the bean shocks 

 before stacking or thrashing, so as to prevent discoloration of the 

 beans. This slightly increased the shattering. Bean thrashing 

 begins about September 1 and may continue into the winter months. 

 The thrashers do not completely clean the beans for market, but 

 the grower has this done at the warehouse. One man and two 

 horses will cut 6 to 7 acres of beans in a day, and one man can shock 

 about 2 acres in a 10-hour day. 



Approximately 90 per cent of the horse labor required in the 

 production of the alfalfa crop is used in harvesting, and from 60 to 

 80 per cent of the man labor. 



Three cuttings of alfalfa are usually made during the season. A 

 very small percentage of the growers varied from this practice. 

 The first cutting is made from June 15 to 20 at Greeley, the second 



