Trials of Self-binding Reapers at Aigburth. 131 
sheaf with the straws as straight as the arrows in the quiver, 
and with the heads uniformly at one end. The tying process 
is so perfect, that in two days' work I never discovered a knot 
that had slipped, the wire, in fact, breaking on the application 
of severe tension in any part but in the knot. 
One feature common to all the machines is the tying with 
wire ; and it is proper to note here, that when great interest had 
been excited throughout the country at the announcement that 
American manufacturers of agricultural implements, at their 
Philadelphia Exhibition, had exhibited machines capable of 
doing the cutting work of an ordinary reaper, and at the same 
time completing the operation by sheafing and binding the straw, 
— the competition for the Royal Agricultural Society of England's 
Gold Medal was looked forward to with great interest, owing to 
the announcement of several entries of English machines which 
were said to be much superior in this point of tying by using 
other substances than wire for that purpose. I must confess to 
having held the strongest opinion antagonistic to the use of wire 
as a binding material, and I have every reason to believe that 
the impressions of the Judges were somewhat in the same direc- 
tion. A minute examination of the American wire- binders and 
the two English machines which used ordinary string for that 
purpose — and with it the models exhibited in the Yard certainly 
could tie securely a sheaf — served to show me that my opinions 
were to a considerable extent based on prejudice, and the public 
trials fully converted me to the opinion that the practical objec- 
tion to wire was groundless. Taking into account the small 
cost of the wire. Is. per acre, the effectiveness of the mode, and 
the saleability of the wire at half price, after use, I am induced 
to think that it will be necessary to make very particular inves- 
tigation into the capabilities of other substances as tying mate- 
rials before assigning to wire any disadvantage for that purpose. 
With ordinary care, which ought to be a thing natural to people 
engaged in the working of complicated machinery, there is only 
a very slight risk of bits of wire getting mixed with the straw 
used as fodder or bedding. If the risk of this were great, con- 
sidering the large number of animals that eat straw in the winter 
in this country, the objection to it would be fatal ; but the risk, 
which I have said is ordinarily trifling, has become reduced to 
the minimum point by the introduction of a new patented clipper 
or scissors, by which the wire is severed and retained in the 
jaws of the machine until it is removed by the hand, for the pur- 
pose of being put into a basket or box provided for that special 
purpose. A piece of wire, therefore, cannot get amongst the 
straw, except by design, or with the knowledge of the attendant, 
and such a circumstance is an act of volition of that person as 
K 2 
