430 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



Bcsp. and on small farms will continue to hold a place for some time. On large 

 farm? the sulky wire-tooth rake is fast replaciug all others. "With it a boy 

 and horse will rake and bunch twenty acres a day. The bunching is a great 

 saving of hand labor, as with it the windrow is thrown into heaps or bunches 

 of eighty to one hundred pouiid.-^, ready to be placed in cocks or loaded. The 

 latter mode is now employed, as with this kind of r;J-ce the hay is very much 

 compressed, and can be pitched nearly as well as from the cocks that have 

 Btood one or two days to settle. The sulky rakes cost thirty-five to forty dol- 

 lars. The difference between the amount of work that can be done with this 

 kind of rake and the old hand rake is but another index to the progress of the 

 age. 



The hay fork, or patent pitching fork, is now largely used, both in the ham 

 and by a temporary frame or gin to unload at the stack. By the use of this 

 fork barns can be built higher than formerly, and stacks are made larger and 

 higher, receiving the hay in much better condition. 



BALING AND SHIPPING. 



A large part of the hay now used in cities is baled on the farms or at the 

 depots near the place of growth. Before the war large quantities were sent 

 south to the cotton States, and now the supplies for the a*'my are also large, 

 requiring all the surplus gi-own. By the use of an improved press eight to ten 

 tons of baled hay can be put into a common box-car. As the baling costs less 

 than a dollar a ton, and the rate of transportation by the car load is low, the 

 hay trade has assumed important dimensions, and has become a prominent 

 item in rural economy. The cotton and the sugar States cannot grow the 

 tame grasses to advantage, and for all time to come must draw a large portion 

 of their winter forage from the north. 



HARVESTING GRAIN. 



The cutting of grain with reapers became common in the west about eighteen 

 years ago. A few years previous the old strap plough had given place to the 

 steel clipper; and this, with the reaper, stimulated the productions of the 

 cereals to a wonderful extent. Railroads soon came to the aid of marketing 

 the crop, thus giving the farmer most of his time to grow and prepare it. The 

 average distance to the depots may be assumed at eight miles, or an average 

 of sixty bushels of wheat per day for one team to deliver at the place of ship- 

 ment. The harvesting of grain has not been so much cheapened as it has 

 been facilitated by these substitutes for animal labor and capital. In absence 

 of animal labor to the extent demanded, this has been important ; for, without 

 it, much smaller amounts woiild have been groAvn. 



The first attempt to harvest with machinery was to draw the heads within a 

 cylinder filled with teeth, so as to thresh it as the machine moved forward into 

 tne solid array of spikelets ; but this was found to waste the gi'ain, nor would 

 it answer except on fully ripened grain that stood up well ; hence it was aban- 

 doned, and the reaper and header both entered the field at nearly the same 

 time. While the former has made great progress, and is found in all grain- 

 growing districts, the latter has made little progress. Self-rakers have been 

 added to the reapers, and binders are beginning to be used to some extent ; 

 but for want of skill in their use, or for some defect of manufacture, they have 

 not given as good satisfaction as we had hoped. That they will yet succeed 

 we have no doubt. 



Some years since, Messrs. Sylla & Adams, of Elgin, in this State, made 

 several reapers with platfonns so constructed that three binders and the raker 

 could ride. About eight acres a day could be cut and shocked by this mode. 

 The bundles were placed on a false platfoim as fsist as bound, and when suffi- 

 cient had accumulated for a cheek, a spring Was drawn back, and the whole 



