CHAPTER X. 

 HARVESTING OPERATIONS. 



VARIOUS METHODS OF HARVESTING HAY AND GRAIN, STACKING, 

 THRASHING, CHAFF-CUTTING. 



If the crop is to be cut for hay it should be harvested well on 

 the green side. Buyers for the goldfields' markets insist upon having 

 a green sample, and as they are the largest purchasers, their wishes 

 must be considered. The crop can be cut in many ways ; by the 

 antiquated hand-hook or sickle ; by the scythe ; by the mower ; or 

 by the reaper and binder. If the area under crop is sufficiently 

 great it will pay the selector to purchase a reaper and binder at once. 

 It is quite possible that he may be able to get his first crop harvested 

 by contract, but there is always the possibility of the contractor 

 having his own crop to harvest first, and thus delaying and de- 

 preciating the value of the settler's crop he has agreed to cut. The 

 reaper and binder, of which there are many makes in the market, 

 and all more or less excellent, is cheaper in the end than the mower 

 and rake. Every season sees these machines improved, simplified, 

 and made more in accordance with the necessities of Australian 

 agricultural practice, and better able to withstand the \vear and tear 

 of roughly cultivated paddocks, unskilled workmen, and the 

 extremes of our climate. Soft wood, so largely used in the con- 

 struction of these machines a few years ago, is now giving place to 

 iron and steel, wherever it is possible to substitute these metals for 

 wood. 



If it is decided to purchase a reaper and binder, and the 

 selector has had no previous experience of these machines, it will pay 

 him to spend a little time in ascertaining the merits and demerits 

 of the different makes that have been worked in the district. The 

 very gentlemanly agent for this make will probably wait upon the 

 farmer with a bland smile and persuasive eloquence sufficient to stop 

 a chaffcutter, and while nursing the youngest child with one hand, 

 will produce with the other enough documentary evidence to con- 

 clusively prove, to any ostensibly sane person, that his particular 

 brand of reaper and binder is absolutely the acme of perfection, 

 and the people who use any other are either suffering from a 

 temporary hallucination, which must be dispelled when they 

 see his machine at work, or else are wilfully blind. Hardly 



