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then projects them beyond the next swath to be cut. This arrangement 
saves from two to four hands in the harvest-field, or from $5 to $10 per 
day in harvesting grain, a consideration of special importance, in view 
of the high prices of labor in the grain-raising regions. A gentleman 
at the Centennial once saw an old-fashioned harvest-gang of 43 men 
accomplishing but little more than what this machine claims to average. 
The mechanical constructions by which these results are secured are 
various and interesting, but the subject is too extensive for a brief report. 
In this branch of constructive enterprise the men of brains, of nerve, of 
untiring energy, all over our land, are contending for the prizes and 
awards to be distributed in the sight of the whole world, gathered by rep- 
resentatives at the Centennial. No more interesting contest is presented 
at this memorable Exposition than that between the exhibitors of har- 
vest-machines. Hach of these represents an imposing array of intellectual 
and physical forces, and a history in which the higher qualities of manhood 
are conspicuously pre-eminent. Other classes of machinery likewise 
represent a powerful combination of capital, intelligence, and experience, 
but the most animated and interesting struggle for supremacy will be 
between the rival harvesters. 
Among harvesting-machines the official Centennial catalogue includes 
hay-rakes, tedders, and loaders. The contrivances represented at the 
Exhibition represent a wonderful labor-saving economy. In some rakes 
the dropping of the hay is effected by an automatic arrangement ; in 
other cases it is regulated by the will of the operator, whose hand or 
foot elevates the tines and allows the hay to fall into the winrow. In 
some cases both these methods are secured, the automatic arrangement 
being capable of re-adjustment at the will of the operator. For the 
handling of hay in larger masses, several contrivances, called hay-loaders 
or hay-elevators, are presented. One of these is designed to facilitate 
the gathering of hay upon the wagon. It is a truck of two wheels, to be 
attached to the hinder part of the hay-wagon. Between the wheels, 
and revolving with them, is a skeleton cylinder, the bars of which are 
armed with metallic bent fingers which, on being driven lengthwise over 
a winrow, gather up the hay and carry it along a revolving flexible 
frame to the bed of the wagon. It claims to gather up a ton within five 
minutes as cleanly as average hay-pitchers could perform the same work. 
Other contrivances, representing nearly the same principles of move- 
ment and accomplishing substantially the same result, exhibit some 
minor modifications and adaptations, the value of which can be tested 
only by practical results, but they seem to have relieved the hay-har- 
vest of its heaviest remaining labor, that of transferring the hay from 
the ground to the wagon. If the efficiency of these machines is but half 
as great as claimed; if a ton of hay can be loaded in ten minutes in- 
stead of five, it is easy to see that a moderate crop can be disposed of 
within the limits of a day and can be readily saved from an approach- 
ing storm. A third class of hay-harvesting machinery is that of hay- 
elevators. These can be adapted either to stacking the hay in the open 
field or to elevating it into the mow. In the former case, derricks of 
simple construction give the required fulcrum; in the latter, the barn- 
rafters afford a convenient attachment. The grappling apparatus may 
consist of merely a large hay-fork, which being thrust into the hay 
automatically gathers it in a wide and strong embrace upon being 
drawn upward, and when arrived at its proper position is made to drop 
its burden by simply pulling a small rope; or it may consist of a har- 
poon-fork, which being driven through a mass of hay thrusts out iron 
fingers at the bottom on pulling a rope attached {to the top. When the 
