For operating a self propelling harvester provided with a cutterbar and a chopping and distributing device located in a discharge region and supplying a crop stream to at least one ejecting blower, a discharge direction of the crop stream from the ejecting blower is adjusted by a breaking edge which is longitudinally displaceable by a drive, wherein the drive for adjusting the at least one breaking edge is regulated depending on the working width of the cutterbar and/or depending on the distribution of the crop stream on the ground, to adapt the scattering width automatically to the working width of the cutterbar and to distribute in a uniform layer density on the ground.