BEANS 



BEANS 



209 



Red Kidney) ; Improved Yellow-eye, White Kidney, 

 Red Kidney and Black Turtle-soup. The four 

 varieties constituting the bulk of the beans pro- 

 duced in New York are the Pea beans, the Mediums, 

 the Red Kidney and the White Marrows, and 

 in the order named. The others are grown 

 in limited quantities. The White Marrow, 

 Yellow-eye, and Red and White Kidney va- 

 rieties seem to require a stronger and more 

 fertile soil to produce a satisfactory crop 

 than do the Pea or Medium varieties. Data 

 secured by the Cornell Station indicate 

 that in their present state of fertility most 

 New York soils will produce larger yields 

 of the smaller white varieties than of the 

 larger ones. 



Harvesting. 



Formerly beans were harvested by hand- 

 labor, but now this work is done chiefly by 

 machinery. The bean harvester or cutter 

 (Fig. 302) is a two-wheeled machine, hav- 

 ing two steel blades so adjusted that as the 

 machine passes over the ground they sweep 

 along just at or below the surface and cut 

 the bean-stalks or pull them up. The blades 

 are set obliquely, sloping backward and to- 

 ward one another, so that the two rows of beans 

 which are pulled at one time are moved toward one 

 another and left in a single row. Soon after the 

 beans are pulled, men pass along with forks, throw- 

 ing them into small bunches ; or they are made into 

 bunches by the use of a horse-rake. After drying, 

 perhaps for one day, the bunches are turned and so 



weather is unfavorable, the ounches must be 

 turned frequently to prevent the beans in those 

 pods resting on the ground becoming damaged. 

 Wet weather does not injure the crop seriously 



Fie. 298. Types of beans. Left, Bed Kidney; center. 

 Medium Bean; riglit, Wiiite Marrow. (Bednced.) 



moved that three rows, as left by the puller, are 

 made into one, leaving space between rows to drive 

 through with wagons. If drying weather prevails, 

 they will become fit for drawing and storing in 

 the barns without further turning; but if the 



B14 



. 299. A garden bean at various stages of derelopment. A, first 

 picking (for " string " beans) ; B, about half grown; 0, about three, 

 fourths grown; D, fully-grown pods. 



providing the beans are not allowed to rest on the 

 wet ground long at a time ; but the frequent 

 turning necessary to prevent their taking harm 

 involves considerable labor. When dry, they are 

 stored in barns like hay and may be threshed 

 at convenience. The threshing is done by specially 

 constructed machines much like the ordinary 

 grain-thresher. Some growers prefer to thresh 

 with the old-fashioned flail, maintaining that the 

 saving in beans that otherwise would be split, 

 compensates for the slower work. 



Cleaning. — As the beans come from the threshers, 

 there are among them more or less that are discol- 

 ored and damaged, and also gravel and dirt of vari- 

 ous sorts. This refuse must be removed before the 

 beans are ready for market. Much of this work 

 can be done by machinery, but some of it must be 

 accomplished by hand-picking. Usually, 

 beans going into market are "hand-picked," 

 which means that practically every bean is 

 perfect. The work of preparing the crop 

 for market is now almost exclusively in the 

 hands of the bean dealers. At many of the 

 railway stations in the bean-growing sec- 

 tions are " bean-houses," usually the prop- 

 erty of a local produce dealer who buys the 

 crops of the locality. The farmer delivers 

 his crop at the bean-house. It is sampled. 

 The sample is weighed, picked and weighed 

 again to determine the loss by picking. The 

 farmer is usually paid for the estimated 

 amount of picked beans which he de- 

 livers. 

 At the bean-houses the beans are run through 

 special machines that remove much of the refuse 

 and sometimes grade the beans according to size. 

 The hand-picking is usually performed by women 

 and girls. The work is much facilitated by a 



