HARVESTING 



87 



the present time, especially in Russia and France, and nearly 

 all machines of this kind manufactured in the United States are 

 sold abroad. A reaping attachment is often used with a binder 

 to drop the grain in bunches, and it is also widely used with a 

 mower by small farmers in Europe. 



The Self-Binding Harvester. All machines which deliver the 

 grain bound in sheaves, whether it is bound automatically or 

 otherwise, are considered as binders. The reaper cut and col- 

 lected the grain. This is only a part of the harvesting prob- 

 lem, and before this part was fairly solved, inventions began 

 to appear seeking by means of an automatic binder to do away 



A MODERN SELF-BINDING HARVESTER 



with the slow and laborious process of hand binding. In the 

 case of the binder, discovery and invention must both be 

 credited to the United States. Better economic and social con- 

 ditions, dearer and scarcer labor, and more level and extensive 

 grain fields were the conditions that made all agricultural ma- 

 chinery very profitable in the United States, and caused this 

 country to outstrip England in the development of harvesting 

 machinery. 



Binders have been divided into two classes : Those in which 

 the binding device is attached to a machine of the self-rake 

 pattern, called the "low-down" class; and those in which the 

 grain is elevated to the binder. Straw, metal strips, wire and 



