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268 



THE ILLINOIS FAEMEK. 



September 



ky rake (Furst & Bradley's,) a boy in 

 his eleventh and one in his thirteenth 

 year have done the raking, the larger 

 part done by the younger boy. The 

 next work in order is the bunching, re- 

 quiring a man, but which is rapidly 

 done. The hay is hauled from these 

 bunches, though if the grass is very 

 heavy it must be put in cock, to thor- 

 oughly cure before stacking. The con- 

 trast in haying between our boyhood 

 and our boys may well be considered 

 rather radical. 



"While copperheads and traitors are 

 groaning over the prospective loss of 

 slave labor, the intelligent, loyal men 

 of the North are encouraging mechani- 

 cal genius to substitute animal labor by 

 the use of new implements for the pur- 

 pose. With all the cry of short of 

 help, every acre of old land is under 

 the plow, while thousands of acres of 

 new prairie have been broken this sea- 

 son to add to the area of farm crops. 

 Crops have never been better tended, 

 nor the farm work done up in better 

 season than now, in the palmiest days 

 of cheap and abundant farm labor. So 

 much for the new implements that gen- 

 ius has sent to the farm. This is but 

 half the story, for some of our large 

 hay growers are ahead of us, in which 

 wagons are dispensed with and the hay 

 (placed in stack with horse power. Yer- 

 ■ily haying is made easy and taught in 

 one lesson. 



Burson's|Grain Binder. 



"We have used this binder the pres- 

 ent season and are much pleased with 

 it Last year Mr. Burson sent us one of 

 these machines, but we could not make 

 it work. About the 1st of July Mr. B. 

 came here and upon examination found 



the machine defective. Asmall piece had 

 been nicked off the casting that held 

 the wire, and the wire cutter had not 

 been properly put in place. This ac- 

 counted for our failure last year. But 

 there is another difficulty : we doubt if 

 one man out of fifty can work the ma- 

 rine and keep it in order unless he has 

 had oral instruction. The machine is 

 complicated and must bo adjusted in 

 the most perfect manner, or it will not 

 work. To draw the wire around differ- 

 ent sized bundles, twist the ends firmly, 

 cut off these ends and then hold the 

 end of the cut wire for another bundle, 

 is a feat of mechanism not so easily at- 

 tained ; yet this machine will do all 

 this when well made, properly adjusted 

 and in the hands of a man who knows 

 just how to handle it. 



Necessarily the machine is complica- 

 ted, yet it is strong, certain in its opera- 

 tions and very durable. Any person 

 can be taught to use it ; it is easily ad- 

 justed and kept in order. Every part 

 must work with exactness, yet when 

 once put in order it is not liable to de- 

 rangement. 



It has two very important advanta- 

 ges over hand raking and binding : — 

 Ist. The cheapness of the work; one 

 man on an average will bind ten acres 

 a day. For this he will use, say in 

 heavy grain, twenty pounds of wire 

 costing, say five dollars. The figures 

 on labor will stand thus : 



One binder one day $2 00 



" " board 50 



20 lbs. wire 5 00 



$7 50 



BY HAND. 



Five binders, one day each.. $10 00 

 Board, one day each 2 60 



: $12 50 

 Profits per day $5 00 



