the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. 
5 
Headers. — Those peculiar machines are constructed to cut the 
corn at varying heights, though they are generally set so as to 
sever it midway. A large reel working above, and in a line 
with the knife, brings the corn upon a transverse revolving web, 
which carries it up an incline sufficiently high from the ground 
and clear of the machine to allow the severed heads to fall into 
a low waggon or roily, which is driven alongside the machine 
and receives the corn, without any manual assistance in loading, 
the skill of the driver alone being necessary to alter the position 
of the waggon as required. The corn is taken to the barn, 
and either stored or immediately threshed out. Sometimes it is 
simply made into a large heap, and it is not uncommon in the 
great wheat district of California to see the produce of large 
areas thus collected without any protection from weather. The 
machine is propelled from behind, as in the Crosskills reaper, by 
four horses. The driver's seat at the end of the pole helps to 
balance the frame. The only machine of this kind in the Exhi- 
bition was shown by Walter A. Wood, of Hoosich Falls, New 
Fig. Mr. W. A. Wood's Header at worh 
York. The width of cut varies from 10 to 16 feet. The knife- 
bar and connecting rod are both of wood. Width of apron, 4 feet 
'2 inches. In a country where the corn stands up well, and 
where the climate is so fine that the grain is ready for threshing 
as soon as it is cut, such machines are of great value, on account 
of the celerity with which the work can be accomplished. The 
largest-sized machines can clear 45 to 50 acres a day. Straw 
in these favoured localities is rather an incumbrance to be got 
rid of, than a valuable product to be saved. Hence it is a great 
advantage to leave so large a proportion behind either to be 
burnt or buried. I can imagine much waste in case of wind, but 
probably this is seldom experienced ; anyhow, I understand that 
Mr. Wood sells a large number both for California and Oregon, 
