16 



received equals 4.67 acres of corn which can be cut per day })y two 

 men and one horse using the sled harvester. 



In reply to the (piestion as to cost per acre for harvestinj^ corn, 

 the minimum price reported was 55 cents per acre and the maximum 

 $2. Takint^ the average of all the replies received, the cost of har- 

 vesting corn with a sled harvester is $1 .18 per acre. This is estimated 

 on a basis of 18 cents per acre, or 84 cents per daj^ for the use of the 

 machine and repairs; 4 cents per acre, or 19 cents per day for twine; 

 58.5 cents per acre, or $2.75 per day for one horse and a man who does 

 part of the shocking; and 37.5 cents per acre, or $1.75 per day for the 

 other shocker. Comparing this cost per acre with that of hand cut- 

 ting (p. 46), it will be noted that there is a saving of 82 cents per 

 ■Bcre in favor of the machines. It will also be noticed that two men 

 and a horse, with a sled harvester, can cut and shock 4.67 acres per 

 day as against 1.47 acres per day for one man with a knife, which 

 gives a credit of 1.73 acres per day for the work of the horse, or a con- 

 siderable saving in favor of the machine. The work may thus be 

 done quicker than by hand, which is of importance, as the corn plant 

 should be cut promptly just w^hen it is ripe in order to obtain full 

 benefit of all its nutrients. 



CORN BINDERS. 



HISTORICAL. 



The credit of inventing corn-harvesting machinery belongs to 

 Edmund W. Quincy, of Illinois, as he obtained the first patent on a 

 corn-harvesting machine in October, 1850. "Old Father Quincy," 

 as he became well known thruout the country, spent more than forty 

 years of his life in efforts to produce a machine to pick corn, and dur- 

 ing most of that time he lived in abject j)overty, wandering from 

 ])lace to place pursuing the will-o'-the-wisp of promised assistance, 

 using the money tossed to him as alms to construct his crude machines 

 or to remedy their defects, going for days without food or shelter, 

 faithful to his cherished plan until the end. His machine was essen- 

 tially a field picker. Many other inventors worked like Quincy, on 

 the idea of a machine to pass over the row and pick the ears from 

 the stalks. 



Another form of corn harvester (fig. 10) was invented in the 

 "eighties."' This machine cut the cornstalks and elevated them into 

 a wagon, which w^as very convenient when the fodder was to be used 

 for ensilage. The elevator could be removed and a binder attach- 

 ment put on by wliich the corn w^as bound into bundles, these being 

 left in the field to cure. 



One of the earliest forms of corn harvesters and binders -was con- 

 structed as a modified form of the grain binder. This machine also 



