American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1917-09-21
HARVESTING PINTO BEAN CROP.
'easOnable Suggestions for Bean
Growers by Prof. Alvin Kezer.

festlng is usually done by either pull
ing the vines or cutting them off just
lnder the surface of the ground with
sharp shovel. The vines thus pulled
or cut off are shocked by means Of
oitchforks.
The best machines for harvesting
BEANS are the regular bean harvest
9rs. These machines cut the bean
plants off just below the surface Of
he ground and by means of fingers
push two rows together into one har-
vested row. The most up-to-date ma
chimes have punching devices on the
machine which bunch the cut vines
into small, neat punches. These
punches can be dressed up a little by
a man with a ~pitchfork for curing.
Many of the machines, however. have
no punching device. In this case, the
punching must be done by hand. Men
follow the machine with pitchforks
putting the cut beans into neat shocks.
While a regular bean harvester is
desirable and should always be used
if there is any considerable acreage
of beans grown, they may be harvested
by using q breaking pillow of the rod
type or by using a common sod plow
with the m%Oldboard removed. Such
~expedients are much better than hand
work on patches an acre or more in
size, but should only be used on small
patches where the size of the patch
is not large enough to justify the pur-
chase of a regular harvester.
Harvesting Period.-Opinions differ
as to the proper time of harvesting.
But experience and experimental work
both show that if the beans are al
lowed to become completely ripe on
the vine heavy loss occurs from shat
tering. A good rule to follow is to
harvest when the pods are turning
yellow, but have not yet dried out; at
this stage there will usually be about
half of the pods yellow ripe and a few
still showing some green, providing
the beans are ripening uniformly.
When cut at this yellow ripe stage, the
beans will ripen up in the shock dur
ing the curing process and the loss in
weight by drying out is very much less
than the loss in weight through shat
tering if the beans are allowed to be-
come too ripe.
Care of Harvested Beans.-The
beans that are cut with the harvester
should be made into small shocks.
The height of the shock will be just as
high as possible and have the shock
stay erect. In windy plains sections
small round shocks are less likely to
be blown away or threshed out by
blowing. In drying weather the
shocked beans will cure rapidly. If it
is impossible to thrash them when
cured. it would be far better to stack
them in neat stacks so as to pre-
vent loss by blowing, discoloration
from weather conditions, and also to
leave the land free for cultivation. If
the beans have been properly shocked
there will be very little SCATTERING in
stacking, as the stacking can be done
early in the day, or loss may be pre-
vented by covering the hay rack or
bean rack with canvas. In building a
stack a bottom should be made with
straw and the stack should be topped
out with straw and weighted. II
used for this purpose, a stack cover of
canvas or corrugated iron will be adj
visable if any considerable time is to
elapse before threshing.
The harvesting process, together
with summer cultivation, leaves the
land in excellent shape for fall plant
ed crops such as wheat, or even for
spring planted crops, as blowing is not
necessary after the tillage given the
beans.
luItoHluEs
Beans split very easily unless ham
died with care. Split beans are locked
on the market. Consequently, tools
should be used which split the mini
mum of beans. 1t is for this reason
that the regular bean hullers or bean
threshers should be used for threshing
the crop.
There are a number of manufacture
IL one k,ysr- han hr.ITorr ~ ~, . ~fro&
1t is possible by using some Of the
modern attachments to thresh beans
with the regular grain separator. This
should not be done unless a bean hull
Ter is so expensive, acreage consid-
cred, as to make it inadvisable. Where
the grain separator is used to thrash
beans special attachments are put in
and the cylinder is run at a very slow
speed. Usually all the concave teeth
with the exception of one row are
removed.
Where a grower has only one-hali
an acre. or one acre, it is sometimes
easiest and cheapest to thrash out his
beans with a fail. Fifteen to eighteen
hundred pounds a day can be thresheC
out in this way by a single man.
Very few of the threshing machine:
} on the market will properly clear
beans for the market. Consequently
machines called bean cleaners have
been devised to clean up the beans
ready for marketing. If any consid.
cradle acreage is grown, it would pay
to have a bean cleaner to clean tbs
thrashed beans before they are put OF
the market. Where only small acre
ages are grown, neighbors might vel
cooperate in the purchase of a cleaner
IS one cleaner would do the work FOL
several small growers.
The Santa Cruz mountains in Cali