16 THE SEED-GROWER. 
the seed used for planting must be pure and true to 
variety. Planting is usually made in northern latitudes 
about June 1st, at the rate of one bushel per acre, in 
single rows three feet apart, beans being dropped two 
to three inches apart in the row. Some few growers 
plant in hills ten inches apart, two or three beans in a 
hill; but the former is the preferable way. 
Cultivation should be begun two or three days after 
seeding, and should be kept up continuously through- 
out the season. The early cultivation destroys the 
weeds that first start before the seeds are up. A drag- 
tooth cultivator with five teeth is generally used for 
this purpose, so that the earth is thrown against the 
rows. Sometimes, when grass is starting in the crop, 
a point that presents a cutting edge in front, is attached 
to the cultivator, but this is only used in case the grass 
has obtained quite a start. 
In the Middle West harvest begins about September 
1st, varying, according to the season, from September 
Ist to 15th. A bean crop is expected to mature in 
about one hundred days. Except that a rain, which 
may damage the color or brightness of the seed, must 
be avoided on the crop after it is gathered, there is no 
waiting for favorable weather; when the crop is suffi- 
ciently matured it must be takenin. This is known 
when the bulk of the pods are ripe. If it is awaited 
until all are ripe, loss by shelling in handling would be 
too great. The method of taking out the crop is to pull up 
the plants with a machine called a bean puller. Several 
such machines are on the market; one that is, perhaps, 
the most popular is the Bidwell, made at Batavia, N. Y. 
When the bean-puller has pulled several rows, the 
beans are forked into one row and allowed to lie in the 
large row until quite dry, when they are hauled to the 
