5« 



OFi-iciAi ri:trospectivh exhibition 



-Vo. 35. 



from the receiving;!; platform to the grouiul in suitable condition., anil 

 such machines were being put upon the market l)y a number of manufac- 

 turers. Palmer iS: Williams' (see No. 19), Seymour's (No. 21), and a 

 few other self-rake reapers had been proved worthy of adoption, but the 

 majority of reapers at that time required two operators, and from si.x to 

 eight more to bind after them. Eight men could thus cut and bintl from 

 ten to twelve acres of grain per day. 



Two young farmers, living on the then wild prairies of Illinois, 

 U. S. A., conceived the idea of giving men a place upon a machine, suit- 

 able tables upon which they could bind the grain, elevating devices, a 

 receptacle in which the grain for bundles might be permitted to accumu- 

 late, and a supporting platform upon which they might stand. Experi- 

 ments were made in the harvest of 1857, and the foundation principles fully 

 established. For the harvest of 1858 a new machine was constructed, 

 and much grain cut. At the time there were many large manufac- 

 turers of reaping machines, and while at first the Marsh harvester did 

 not seem sufficiently important to warrant makers of reapers in attempt- 

 ing to imitate it, it soon became formidable enough to inake it necessary 

 for them to combat it or go out of business. 



A little company (of which the Deering Harvester Comi)any, of 

 Chicago, is the lineal descendant) was organized in a little prairie town 

 near the home of the Marsh brothers, and machines put on the market. 

 Farmers, when once convinced that two men, having the grain brought 

 to them and delivered in a receptacle, could bind all that a machine 

 could cut, needed little urging to jiurchase such a machine. 



By the year 1874, when the Marsh harvester was being put out at 

 the rate of many thousands per year, makers of reaping maciiines found 

 the harvester had made such inroads into their trade that it became an 

 important factor for them to consider. 



Attempts to produce automatic binders had been made before the 

 Marsh harvester was invented, but some time passed before any 

 attempts were made to apply such devices to the Marsh harvester. (To 

 bind grain automatically upon a reaper was so difficult that it had never 

 been accomplished.) The continuous swath of grain was delivered into 

 a suitable receptacle outside of the main supi)orting wheel. Upon a 



