198 SOUTHERN FIELD CROPS 



tMs cutter made at home from a long scythe blade may be as 

 low as $10.00 (Fig. 96), while the cutters on wheels, with every 

 facility for better work, cost about twice as much. 



The sled cutter is drawn by one animal or by two, hitched 

 tandem. If it be equipped with a blade on each side, so as to cut 

 two. rows at once, two men catch and shock the cut corn. For 

 the convenient use of such two-row cutters, corn rows should be 

 of a uniform width, suited to the width of the cutter. This is 

 one of the cheapest methods of cutting corn. 



184. The corn binder or harvester (Fig. 97). — This ma- 

 ciiine cuts the com and binds it into large bundles. It is 

 usually drawn by three horses or mules. The ordinary 

 cost is about $125. This limits its use to those farmers 

 or groups of cooperating farmers who can use it each year 

 to cut a considerable acreage, say 30 acres or more. It 

 cuts a single row at a time and may cut 6 or 8 acres in a 

 day. If a charge is made for the team, the cost of cutting 

 and shocking and of twine is often about equal to the cost 

 of cutting by hand and shocking. But the machine per- 

 mits prompt work and economizes human labor. Where 

 the height of the corn is excessive or the rows short, hand 

 cutting is preferable. 



The bundles from the machine must usually be stacked by hand. 

 Some binders have a bundle-carrying attachment, which reduces 

 the labor of shocking. In any case, it is easier and more satisfac- 

 tory to shock bundles than to shock unbound corn cut by hand. 

 The corn binder usually breaks off a sufflcient number of ears to 

 require that these be picked up by hand. 



A shocker is a machine more complicated and costly than the 

 corn binder. It carries on a platform all of the unbound corn 

 plants, until it gathers enough for a shock, when the team is 

 stopped and the driver, by means of a hoisting device or frame, 

 transfers the corn from the machine to the ground, where it forms 



