3IO 



The Review of Reviews. 



Septembtr I, 190S. 



livering it in bags ready to be taken to the railway 



station. The " Sunshine " " C " Harvester has a 



width of cut of 6 ft., and is in general use all over 



_ .- -- ' - Australia. For 



the treatment 

 of crops e.x- 

 tending over a 

 large area, Mr. 

 M'Kay intro- 

 duced during 

 the season of 

 1905 a ma- 

 chine with a 



Ridley's Stripper. j.u r . r 



Width of cut of 

 II ft. 6 in. This he called the "Sunshine Push" 

 Har\iester. In this machine side draught has been 

 neutralised by having the horses to the rear, yoked 

 to a long shaft projecting from the centre. The 

 horses push the machine along, and the driver is 

 seated at the end of the pole, and can with ease 

 control its operations. The levers for manipulating 

 the stripper comb and steering the machine are con- 

 veniently at hand. Another man is needed to attend 

 to the sacks, eight of which can be carried on the 

 platform and put off at convenient intervals. This 

 large machine is built on the same principle as the 

 ordinary "Sunshine' stripper, every part having 

 been nearly doubled in size to cope with the in- 

 creased inflow of grain. At work this season, both 

 in New South Wales and Victoria, it has proved 

 itself capable of handling any class of crop and 

 doing the same excellent work as the smaller har- 

 vester. It has been " stripping in " as much as 40 

 acres a day, and its average is said to be 35 acres. 

 This enormous machine is only another indication 

 of Mr. McKay's anxiety to keep the Australian far- 

 mer well in the forefront of present-day require- 

 ments. 



Another feature in Mr. McKay's policy is his de- 

 termination to, as far as possible, use Australian 

 products in the manufacture of his goods. Fully 

 70 per cent, of the material used in the making of 

 the "Sunshine" Harvester is grown and prepared 

 in Australia. Locally-made belting, paint, varnish, 

 malleable iron, steel castings, bolts, tyres, and a 

 considerable portion of the other iron and steel 

 parts. New Zealand kauri. Tasmanian blackwood, 

 and other Australian woods, enter into the construc- 

 tion of a "Sunshine" Harvester. It is an Austra- 

 lian invention, made almost entirely of Australian 

 material, and apart from those directly associated 

 with its manufacture, a large number of workers in 

 the complementary trades are sure of constant em- 

 ployment. Mr. McKay has succeeded, but his suc- 

 cess, unlike that of many other less scrupulous cao- 

 tains of industry, has hurt nobody, and has in- 

 creased the well-being and prosperity of many hun- 

 dreds of his fellow-countrymen. 



The saving to the country in hard cash is shown 

 in the following table, which covers a period of 



twenty years. The low estimate of ten years is set 

 down as the effective life of a Harvester, and it is 

 calculated that one Harvester treats annually 200 

 acres, or 2000 acres during the ten years of its life : — 



This shows a net gain to the country by using the 

 " Sunshine " Harvester, when compared with the 

 best harvesting appliances manufactured abroad, of 

 /^9, 540, 000 for the twenty years. These figures are 

 big, but the possibilities are greater still. 



In view of these figures, there is no cause for 

 wonder that such advantages are eagerly sought by 

 other grain-producing countries, and a large num- 

 ber of " Sunshine " Harvesters are now annually ex- 

 ported to South America, Africa, and the continent 

 of Europe. 



A few w ords about the " Sunshine " Harvester 

 Works will not he amiss. The original works at 

 Ballarat are in full swing, and we picture at the 

 head of this article a group of men employed there. 

 At Bra\ brook there are about 6 acres of ground 

 co\ered in, with room to spreaid to 20 acres. There 

 is always in stock 1.500,000 feet of Australian 

 timber, seasoning and maturing before being used ; 

 there are innumerable smiths kept employed, besides 

 wheel builders, comb makers and others. Some idea 

 of the immensity of the plant may be gathered when 

 we state that the head of a man standing beside one 

 of the fl\-wheels would not reach to the top of the 

 ajfle. and there is a stamping-machine which has a 

 smiting power of 650 tons. At one blow the latter 

 cuts out of the solid steel a Harvester tyre, at the 

 same time punching any number of holes that may 

 be required for spokes. 



