16 THE EQUIPMENT OF THE FARM. 



Self-raker reapers are now made with controllable rakes, 

 so as to make the sheaves of any size required at the plea- 

 sure of the driver. They have one driving wheel and a 

 grain wheel, the platform and finger bar being between. 

 The data given as to mowers apply to self-rakers. There 

 are three plans of controlling the rakes. The first and 

 second are nearly alike, the third is different in principle. 

 In the first, all the rake-arms are independent. Four 

 rakes are a good number, but three, four, five, or six may 

 be used. Normally all the rakes sweep the platform, 

 leaving a broken swathe behind; but by means of a foot-tread 

 and connecting gear the driver can convert the whole into 

 mere beaters for bending the crop in on the machine, or he 

 can retain every second, third, or fourth rake to throw 

 off a sheaf, the others acting as mere beaters. 



Sheaf-Uncling harvesters are superseding self-rakers, 

 the sheaf being bound with twine. They are made in two 

 forms, viz., high platform and low platform machines. In 

 the former the grain is reeled on to the platform by a reel, 

 and carried over the wheel by an elevator on to the binder 

 platform, where it is bound by twine and discharged at 

 the side. In the latter the binder platform is a continua- 

 tion of the reel platform in the rear of the supporting 

 wheel. In another plan a binder-platform is attached to a 

 self-raker. There are several plans of tying the knot, 

 known as Fisken's, Burgess', Woods', and Appleby's. 



Barn Machinery. Threshing machines are either fixed 

 or portable. The former work in the barn. The latter is 

 shifted from stack to stack in the stackyard ; and from one 

 stack-yard to another in the case of a contractor's machine. 



