Trials of Self -binding Reapers at Aiglurth. 129 
condition. There were no stoppages to speak of beyond the 
tying of a wire, and the work was completed in 35J minutes. 
The sheaves were more proportionate than those made by the 
previous machine, inasmuch as the stubble was cut much shorter 
and the straw left longer in the sheaf. This saving of straw at 
the present time, when the price is so high, is an important 
point in estimating the claims of a self-binding reaper to the 
notice of a practical farmer. I need not enter into any calcula- 
tions as to the quantity of straw gained per acre by the close 
cut of W. A. VVood's machine, the stubble being one inch 
shorter than either of its two opponents, and two inches shorter 
in many instances than that left by McCormick's machine. The 
binding process was quite perfect, and the sheaves when put 
into stook would have shown to advantage against any work 
done by the sickle, and those portions in the same field which 
had been cut by the scythe looked very slovenly in comparison 
with Wood's work. 
D. M. Osborne was less fortunate than his neighbours, and 
was put to work in another portion of the field, in which the 
crop was certainly heavier than those cut in the foregoing trials. 
Nor was the straw all with one inclination : still the work was 
completed in fair time, including a few stoppages due to the 
clogging of the cutting-knife by twisted grain. Sheafing and 
tying, as in all other instances with this machine, were perfectly 
accomplished, and the stubble left was an average between that 
of the other two. Thirty-seven minutes were absorbed in the 
work, of which 4^ minutes were wasted in stoppages. 
No further trials or dynamometer tests being made, I have 
only to refer to the results patent in the trial-field to the ordinary 
observer. The special points of merit and other individual 
features in each were similar to those exhibited by the work on 
the wheat crop on the previous day. All the machines failed in 
showing themselves capable of dealing with a heavy crop without 
extra manual assistance beyond that of the driver and conductor, 
or indeed with a crop of the ordinary length and bulk of straw 
grown in this country. The delivery, which was defective in 
Wood's implement, was bad in Osborne's, and worse in McCor- 
mick's. The cutting powers in the oats were precisely similar 
to those exhibited in the wheat trials, and quite equal to those 
possessed by an ordinary reaper. 
The deficiency in collecting or gathering the heavy corn, as 
soon as it was cut, upon the lower table, from whence it ascends 
up the inclined plane to the sheafing platform, was very marked 
in Osborne's and McCormick's machines. Both in wheat and 
oats, the delivery of the sheaves from Wood's machine was 
superior to that of both his competitors. The swan-neck motion 
VOL. XIV. — S. S. K 
