HARVESTING AND STORAGE 



479 



among the firms in the market are : Marshalls of Gainsborough ; chap. 

 Clayton & Shuttleworth, Ruston Proctor & Co., and Robey & XI - 

 Co., all of Lincoln ; Ransomes Sims & Jefferies of Ipswich, and ■ 

 Garrett & Sons of Leiston. Some of these machines will shell, 

 on an average, two muids per minute, or where they husk 

 as well, one muid a minute. The price in South Africa is 

 about £200 to £250 according to capacity. They are usually 

 driven by portable engines of 6 to 7 nominal horse-power 

 or 10 effective horse-power. In this case the sheller remains 



Fig. 179. — Steam traction sheller (Fowler engine and Ransomes sheller). 



stationary and the ears are carted from the fields to the machine. 

 At Vereeniging Mr. McLaren has attached a Fowler traction 

 engine to a Ransomes sheller ; this pushes the sheller before it 

 at walking pace, through the field of standing maize ; the machine 

 is fed by fifty boys who walk ahead, each pulling the ears from 

 two rows of maize, and carrying them in sacks or buckets to 

 the hopper of the machine; a strip of 100 yards wide is thus 

 cleared at each trip down the field. In this way the machine 

 has been found by actual tally to average 60 muid bags of 

 shelled maize per hour, in a ten-hour day. 



