AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY. 431 



was slid off, the weiglit of the phatform bringing it back to its place. We used 

 one of these for several years, and regretted that the manufacture was sus- 

 pended. Attempts are now teing made in one direction to combine the auto- 

 matic rake and binders so that the former will deliver the gavels to the latter ; 

 and, by the aid of the driver and one hand, a six-foot swath can be cut and 

 bound at one operation. As this will cut twelve acres a day, the cost of cut- 

 ting and binding would be greatly reduced. One of the drawbacks to this 

 mode is the cost of wire, amounting in heavy grain to about twenty-five cents 

 an acre. 



The heading machines have their friends, and, on large forms, have in many 

 instances given good satisfaction ; but as the great majority of farmers grow 

 less than a hundred acres of the same grain a year, the large outlay for these 

 machines is so great that they can never become popular with that class of 

 farmers. It has also been found in practice that if the grain is not fully ripe 

 when the heads are cut off, the grain will shrivel up, and, when placed in 

 stacks, is liable to mould. To remedy this to some extent, the heads have 

 been cut off with straw attached from twenty inches to two feet long. This, 

 of course, is adding seriously to the bulk, and to the labor of threshing. In 

 these headers an endless apron is so arranged as to carry the cut grain to a 

 wagon that is drawn alongside. It is now proposed to lower the cutting bar, 

 and so arrange the apron that the cut grain shall be carried by this endless 

 apron and deposited on a form on the platform, where two men alternately bind 

 these bundles as they come to hand. The great labor of binding is in the 

 walking from one gavel to another, and in stooping down to take it from the 

 ground. In this case there is no stooping, and as the gavel is on an open form, 

 it is easily clasped and bound. It can be thrown on to a false platform, as 

 before mentioned, thus saving a large amount of labor in shocking up. 



This plan we think practicable, and it must prove a great saving of labor. 

 Four horses will cut twenty acres a day, requiring one driver, two binders, and 

 two more to shock up. Thus we have : 



Two span of horses per day $2 00 



Five men, at $1 50 7 50 



Oil and grease 50 



Use of machine 8 00 



Total 18 00 



Or a net cost of ninety cents an acre. As now harvested with self-raking 

 reapers we have for twenty acres : 



Two span of horses, two days $4 00 



One driver, two days, at $1 50 3 00 



Ten days' binding and shocking 15 00 



Oil and grease 25 



Use of machine ^ 5 00 



Total 27 25 



Or, at the rate of one dollar and thirty-six cents an acre, a difference of nearly 

 half a dollar an acre. This to a farmer growing a hundred acres is of no little 

 importance, and in the aggregate amounts to a large sum. 



BINDING WITH WIRE TWENTY ACRES. 



One span of horses, two days $i 00 



One driver, two days 3 00 



One binder, two days 3 00 



Shocking np, four days 6 00 



Wire, at 25 cents per acre 5 00 



Oil , 25 



Use of machine 6 00 



Total .* 27 25 



