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864 



THE ILLINOIS FARMER/ 



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easy. A platform could be attac^e<i so 

 as to carry a dozen sheaves to be dump- 

 ed at will for shocking, that would make 

 a further saving of labor. Another tri- 

 al was made in rye that would turn 

 about twenty bushels to the acre, one 

 man doing the binding without any ex 

 traeffbrt. v ^ 



The great saving in the labor of 

 binding is the -travel from sheaf to 

 sheaf in the field, but, in this case, the 

 binder has no traveling, as the sheaf is 

 placed on a form at a convenient hight 

 just before him ready for binding. 



The saving of labor is very great, as 

 well as the saving of grain. "When we 

 compare this work with that of the 

 hand raking, we must conclude that it 

 is a stride in the right direction. 



Burson's binder was sent here for 

 trial, but from some unexplained cause 

 was not put in the field. 



The system of raking off by Sand 

 and binding the old way will soon have 

 its day. "What with this binder. Bur- 

 son's, and the header we may count the 

 old mode nearly played out. The 

 Messrs. Marsh Bros, have made fifty- 

 one of these machines for the present 

 harvest, with the view of giving them 

 a thorough test. We fancy that in 

 building another lot they will have a 

 greater care for strength and durabili- 

 ty. "We see no reason why this ma- 

 chine will not prove a success, and shall 

 look forward with high hopes of its tak- 

 ing a permanent place in the list of use- 

 ful farm machines. The machine 

 weighs complete one thousand and ten 

 pounds, and cost at the shop $200. 



-«•► 



Haying Hade Hasy. ' I 

 The improvements in haying imple 

 ments of late years has been very great, 

 in fact, radical. Years ago the sound 



of the little hammer tapping on the 

 edge' of the mower's scythe ceased in 

 the meadow, when the hardened edge 

 of the cast-steel scythe took the place 

 of the short wide heeled implements 

 that had been made in the common 

 blacksmith shop of the country. Scythe 

 making was then transferred to the. 

 ponderous trip hammer, tor no com- 

 mon hand forge could make them.— 

 Then we thought mowing was made- 

 easy indeed, and great rejoicing went 

 through the land. The man who could 

 mow his acre and a half a day was a 

 man of mark. Kow two horses and a 

 boy with a mower, cut six to eight 

 acres a day, without more exertion than 

 to work the com with a sulky cultiva- 

 :t(»r: In the old time we spread out 

 the hay, and the boy who can now run 

 the mower would then have found work 

 spreading and turning the hay after a 

 good mower ; or would have spent four 

 days to each six acres; more than four 

 times the time now required to mow 

 and spread it in the most perfect manner 

 Thus it will be seen that when we 

 thought mowing had reached its easy 

 stage we were only hugging a delusion. 

 "When a boy, we have spread and 

 pitched hay many a day with a wood- 

 en fork, cut from some sapling having 

 the natural prongs. These were dress- 

 ed out and sometimes steamed and 

 bent in a rude manner, but these die-- 

 appeared on the appearance of the cast 

 steel fork of three tines as now made. 



"We are putting up eighty acres of 

 meadow, mostly wild prairie. "We have 

 a "Wood's Prize Mower, drawn by the 

 lightest team on the farm and driven 

 by a boy not able to walk, to do the 

 cutting of more than an acre a day, yet 

 he averages six acres a day, working 

 less than ten hours each. "With a sul- 



