302 THE farmers' handbook. 



C— The Combined Harvester. 



The advent of the combined harvester caused a revolution in the then 



current methods of harvesting, and the machine quickly superseded the old 



methods. While still entirely satisfactory for the harvesting of a good 



u: standing crop, its popularity has been considerably reduced by the 



reaper-threshers. The machine combines the operations of the stripper 



and the winnower, the grain being harvested, separated from the 



chaff and bagged, all by means of the horse-power that draws the machine 



through the crop. The saving in labour so effected has been one of the most 



important factors in the extension of our wheat areas. Indeed it is hard 



to see how the area devoted to wheat in this State could have reached even 



half its present dimensions without the combined harvester. 



i 



Manufacturers have perfected the machine with much ingenuity, and at 

 the same time have maintained stability, so that the heaviest crops can be 

 dealt with. During the harvest of 1915, when the work was so heavy that 

 farmers from other lands might easily have supposed the use of some 

 apparently simpler machine was imperative, combined harvesters were em- 

 ployed on probably quite 90 per cent, of our wheat fields. Crops that were 

 as much as 7 feet high, and that yielded up to 40 bushels and more per acre, 

 seemed to present no difficulties, provided the teams were heavy enough. 



A machine so generally used requires nothing in the way of description 

 here nor of suggestions for its most effective use. 



D. — Harvesting with the Reaper-Thresher. 



The reaper-thresher, better known perhaps as, and most commonly termed, 

 the " header," is a comparatively new harvesting machine, which prior to 

 the year 1910 was practically unknown in the wheat-growing districts of 

 this State. In that year a number of the machines were distributed through- 

 out the main wheat districts, and although farmers appeared to favour the 

 principle on which the machine worked, the opinion seemed general that 

 many alterations and improvements were necessary. Each year alteration- 

 have been made, and the excellent manner in which the machine handled 

 1 adly-lodged crops during the 1920-21 harvest has firmly established it in 

 farmers' favour, and it is practically superseding the combined harvester. 



Perhaps the first main difference between these machines and the harvester 

 is that the heads, instead of being stripped or combed off as with a harvester, 

 are cut off by means of a knife, which is worked at the rear of the comb. 

 This knife is worked on a similar principle to the knife on an ordinary 

 reaper and binder. The straw is drawn through the comb until the heads, 

 assisted by the reel (which revolves at about the same speed as the machine 

 moves through the crop), comes in contact with the knife. The fact of the 

 heads being cut off greatly lessens the draught, as the crop cannot pull 

 heavily upon the comb. Should the ground be soft, or the straw at all weak, 

 the wheat is not pulled up by the roots and choked in the comb. When the 

 crop is dirty with thistles or other weeds, there is not the choking in the 

 comb that takes place when the heads are stripped or combed off. 



When the heads are cut they are thrown by means of the reel on to the 

 conveyors at the rear of the comb. These conveyors take the heads along to 

 a feeder, where they are evenly forced into the threshing drum. The drum 

 on the reaper-thresher is very large, and by means of pinions can be altered 



