CHAPTER IV 

 HARFESTING 



The Methods of Harvesting. - The harvest 

 consists of cutting the wheat as it stands in the 

 field and bringing it together as bundles, shocks, 

 or stacks. This still requires both hand and 

 machine work, although the amount of hand 

 work has been very greatly reduced by the use of 

 modern machinery. There has been a gradual 

 development in the methods of harvesting until 

 at present it involves the use of the most complex 

 agricultural implements made. Primitive meth- 

 ods, however, are still followed in some places. 

 Because of this fact, the following machines are 

 all now used in the harvest of the world's wheat 

 crop : sickle, cradle, reaper, binder, header, and 

 harvester-thresher or " combine." 



The Sickle and the Cradle. - The sickle is used 

 in the small fields of parts of Palestine, northern 

 Spain, Norway, on some of the small islands bor- 

 dering Great Britain, and in other isolated dis- 

 tricts. It consists of a curved knife fastened to a 

 short handle and resembles the small sickles used 



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