242 
VEGETABLE GARDENING 
After cutting, the rows may be thrown together into 
small piles for curing, or they may be moved into wind- 
rows by side-delivery rakes. The crop is allowed to 
ripen fully in the field, so that only a few days after 
cutting are required for curing. If the weather is wet, 
the piles must be turned frequently to prevent damage 
to the beans. After thorough curing the crop is stored 
in barns after the manner in which hay is handled, and 
threshed whenever it is convenient, but not until cool 
weather. The old method was to flail, while now bean 
threshers are generally employed. These machines are 
moved from farm to farm, just as grain threshers or sep- 
arators are used. 
314. Marketing. — In the districts producing large 
amounts of field beans the threshed product is delivered 
by the farmers at elevators or special bean houses man- 
aged by dealers who attend to the work of cleaning, 
grading and picking. In Michigan there are over 200 
bean elevators provided with the best machinery for 
preparing the crop for market. While the machines re- 
move most of the dirt and broken beans, some hand 
picking is necessary to get the crop thoroughly cleaned. 
To facilitate this tedious work a machine spreads the 
beans thinly on a revolving broad belt, which passes 
slowly before the picker. The speed of the belt is con- 
trolled by the person removing the defective beans. 
Girls and women are employed extensively to do this 
work, some houses maintaining a force throughout the 
year. Dealers who contract for the crop, generally fur- 
nish bags to the farmers free of charge. 
String or snap beans are often sorted before market- 
ing to remove broken or damaged pods. They are gen- 
erally carried in bushel hampers and shipped by express 
and refrigerated freight, a car holding about 600 ham- 
pers. The hampers should be well filled and the pods 
