56 WHEAT PRODUCTION IN NEW ZEALAND 
except sewing up the sacks is mechanically and automatically 
performed by the application of horse or steam power. In 
economy, in capacity and thoroughness of work, in perfection 
of mechanical construction and in ease of operation, there is 
apparently little more to be attained. The machine is used only 
in dry climates where there is little fear of rain and no heavy 
dews. 
The machine commences by heading the crop, after which 
the grain is threshed out in a type of drum not unlike that used 
in a threshing mill. The wheat is then cleaned and sacked, all 
these operations being performed by machinery. 
There are two types of harvesters; one driven by horse power 
and the other by steam. The former requires from 24 to 40 
horses with 4 men to operate it. It cuts a swath of from 16 to 
20 feet wide, and harvests from 25 to 45 acres per day. 
The steam harvester cuts a swath of from 24 to 42 feet wide, 
requires 8 men to work it, and cuts from 75 to 125 acres per 
day. This machine is much more complicated than the horse 
power one. It has an engine to drive the machinery of the 
harvester independent of the traction engine or motive power. 
The manufacturers of the machine claim for it that ‘‘the steam 
harvester can handle grain in almost any condition, whether it 
is standing, lodged, tangled or overgrown with weeds.’’ 
7. Marketing. 
Here, again, New Zealand is wanting in organisation. 
What place the market for wheat in this country has in 
the evolution of markets it is hard to imagine. In the 
modern view as prevalent in most advanced countries, 
we in New Zealand have no systematised wheat market. 
Bargaining between isolated individuals functions in its 
place. A farmer, with no accurate knowledge of wheat 
prices, probably wholly ignorant of prices in the great 
wheat markets—arrives at a commercial centre with 
samples of his wheat. The only method open to him is 
to proceed to different millers or grain merchants in the 
town and endeavour to drive a bargain. 
It is a very easy matter for the merchants to fix prices 
which they will give throughout the day for different 
kinds of wheat, and unless something unprecedented 
happens, that is the beginning and end of competition. 
Of course the farmer who is financially secure can wait 
