358 THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 



tliem, and the lock will never separate when binding, 

 if it is well made. 



Bixdixg Gavels of Graen t . 



I know of but few little things that are more perplex- 

 ing and trying to the patience of an ambitious farmer, 

 than poorly bound sheaves of grain. Sheaves that are 

 poorly bound, will fall apart when one is making stooks. 

 They unbind when the pitcher is heaving them on the 

 load. The bands loosen when the loader is placing the 

 sheaves, and from the time of binding, till the grain is 

 laid down to be thrashed, poor binding is an intolerable 

 nuisance ; and every good man whose ambition has not 

 been paralyzed by pitching half-bound sheaves will 

 breathe out grumbling and muttering, and sometimes 

 denunciation without measure, at such perfunctory and 

 miserable work. 



I was always accustomed to tell men and boys, 

 who bound grain for me, If you do not bind one hun- 

 dred sheaves in a day, do put the bands in the middle 

 and bind the sheaves tight. In order to have employes 

 work advantageously, I always would spend an hour 

 with an awkward laborer, instructing him how to make 

 his band ; how to put it around the gavel ; how to take 

 hold of the ends ; and how to form the lock and to make 

 the tuck. 



Now, in order to bind a gavel quickly, take the band 

 in one hand, throw it forward of, and around the gavel, 

 while the left hand is passed beneath the opposite side, 

 palm upward, as shown by figure 56, grasping the band 

 in such a manner that its hold need not be relinquished 

 until the sheaf is bound. When the hand grasps the 



