SECTION LXIV. FARM IMPLEMENTS AND 

 MACHINERY 



MACHINERY now does much of the work on the farm 

 once performed by human hands. Especially in grain 

 growing the work has been lightened and the cost of 

 production greatly decreased. 



Machinery for the grain-grower. The seeds and fer- 

 tilizers are sown with a grain drill. The self-binder cuts 

 and binds as much in a day as many men with cradles could 

 have done fifty years ago. While the grain cradle is still 

 used on farms where only a few acres of grain are grown, 

 or where the fields are too rolling for the use of labor- 

 saving machinery, yet the cost of producing grain by this 

 system is greatly increased. 



On some of the extensive grain fields of the West even 

 a self-binder is displaced, and its work is done by still 

 more powerful and effective machinery. The grain 

 header, drawn by steam or many horses, cuts the heads 

 from many acres in a day, and as it moves along threshes 

 and sacks the cut grain. 



Haymaking machinery. In hay growing also inven- 

 tion has made the labor much less burdensome than it 

 was in earlier years. There are horse-rakes for collecting 

 the hay into windrows, tedders for lifting and more rapidly 

 drying it, and sweep rakes (Fig. 213), drawn or pushed by 



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