HARVESTING 89 



The standard binder combines the cutter and draft of the 

 reaper with the reel and traveling canvases of the header, and 

 adds the automatic device for binding the grain in sheaves, and 

 the bundle carrier for collecting them in piles. The operator 

 can adjust the reel at will while the machine is in motion. An 

 endless canvas on the platform of the machine conveys the cut 

 grain to two similar canvases, between which the grain is ele- 

 vated to the opposite side of the drive wheel. It is there re- 

 ceived and packed into a bundle by the binding device. As the 

 size of the bundle increases, the resulting pressure trips the 

 binder, which binds automatically as often as it is tripped. The 

 pressure required for this, an I consequently the size of the 

 bundle, can be regulated. While in operation, the entire ma- 

 chine can be adjusted to variations in the grain and in the 

 levelness of the field. The most usual width of cut is 6 feet, but 

 machines cutting different widths are made. One man with 

 three horses will harvest from 10 to 20 acres per day with the 

 binder, and it requires two other men to shock what is cut. A 

 bonanza farmer expects such an outfit to cut 250 acres in a 

 reason. On the Dalrymple farms of Dakota, binders with 7-foot 

 cut are used, and about 15 are run in one crew. Each crew or 

 gang has its overseer. A wagon follows with water, twine and 

 other articles, while a gang of shockers set up the wheat as fast 

 as it is cut. In the United States the binder is used in every 

 state which raises wheat, while abroad it is used quite extensive- 

 ly in England, Russia, Germany, France and parts of South 

 America, and to a less extent in other countries where wheat 

 is grown. 



The Header-Binder is the most recent development in binders, 

 and is, as the name suggests, merely a binder attached to the 

 header. It has the wide cut of the header and the grain can 

 be cut in the same condition as with a binder or reaper. These 

 machines ha TT e found quite extensive favor in the Dakotas, Kan- 

 sas, Oklahoma, on the Pacific coast, and in Argentina. 



In binding wheat, a 10,000-acre farm uses two carloads of 

 twine in a single harvest, an amount that would lay a line 

 around the whole coast of England, Ireland and Scotland. It is 

 estimated that the United States consumes annually from 

 110,000 to 120,000 tons of binder twine. 



