84 THE BOOK OF WHEAT 



and may stack-burn if stacked. This confines the use of the 

 header largely to the western part of the United States, where 

 peculiar conditions exist which make it possible to let wheat 

 ripen completely without much danger of loss, though the ma- 

 chine is used to some extent in the Mississippi valley. Some 

 wheat growers cut with binders until the grain is ripe, and 

 then use the header. It cuts from 12 to 20 feet in width, and 

 from 15 to 50 acres a day. In Washington three headers and 

 one threshing machine usually work together. From 50 to 75 

 acres a day are thus harvested. Three header-boxes, or barges, 

 are usually used with one header. These are often unloaded 

 at the stack or machine by horse power. A peculiarly arranged 

 netting is laid in the box, and by means of ropes and a derrick 

 the whole load is hoisted to the stack or feeder. 



The header was used very extensively on the Pacific coast 

 before the combined harvester came in use. Sixteen-foot 

 headers drawn by six mules were used. The grain was usually 

 threshed as fast as it was headed. The ordinary crew for a 

 44-inch cylinder thresher and 26-horse-power engine was as 

 follows: Seven headers operated by 42 animals and 14 men; 

 21 header-boxes, requiring 42 animals and 21 men ; and at the 

 machine there were 11 animals and 32 men; this made a total of 

 95 animals and 67 men. In 1880 such an outfit averaged 3,800 

 bushels per day in California. Many headers are in use in 

 South America, and a machine similar to an American header 

 is also being used in Russia. The stripping header is still used 

 in Australia. About 20 per cent of the headers manufactured 

 in the United States are sold in foreign countries. 



The Reaper. Under the reaper are included all machines 

 designed to cut the grain and gather it in bunches, gavels, or 

 rows. While the header was the first harvesting machine that 

 was invented, it was not the subject of so many improvements, 

 nor did it have, in modern times, such wide and early practical 

 utility as the reaper. The ingenuity of man is well shown by 

 the numerous devices that were invented to accomplish the two 

 objects of the reaper. Nearly all of these inventions were made 

 in England. Two forms of motion were utilized in cutting the 

 grain, circular and rectilinear. Both forms shared the contin- 

 uous advancing motion of the machine to which they were fas- 

 tened. The type now universally used, except in stripping 



