58 Report on Sheaf-Binding MacUinery at Shretcshury. 
The work done was very good. The cuts were low and even : 
every sheaf was tied, and the plot was cut in 30 minutes, with- 
out any person ever being in attendance but the driver. 
A sheaf-carrier was attached and worked, which delivered 
the sheaves in straight rows ready for storing, the distance 
between the rows was made at the discretion of the driver. 
This machine entirely differs in its binding mechanism from Nos. 4568 and 
4569, the knotter having a rotary action instead of a reciprocating motion, as 
in the case of the Appleby knotter. This arrangement simplifies the parts, 
and renders the swinging bracket for feeding up the string unnecessary. The 
raising and reel attachments are similar to No. 4568. On this machine 
(Fig. 21) a large sheaf cradle was fixed, capable of carrj-ing up to 5 sheaves, 
and depositing them in wind-rows at the wiU of the driver. The mechanism 
of this is shown in the woodcut given on p. 57 ; and in the trials it was 
found to work very efiBciently. 
Plot 6. Messrs. Samuelson, Xo. 256. — This "Low Delivery" 
machine differs entirely in principle from all its competitors. 
The cutter-bar is on the right of the horses, and the sheaves 
are delivered on to their track. The driver is seated on the 
outside, on the left of the machine, the furthest point from the 
line of the uncut grain, and therefore the worst possible place 
for a driver to be placed. The stubble was left rather high, 
but the sheaves were good, only a little fault occasionally in 
the separation. The sheaf was often dragged until another 
was nearly ready to be delivered, which made a ragged side to 
these sheaves, but there were none left untied. The horses were 
very hot, so we concluded that the draught was heavy. Time 
occupied, 38 minutes. 
The ctmibersome form of sheaf-binding harvesters has undoubtedly mili- 
tated against their popularity with the English farmers, and Messrs. 
Samuelson & Co., fully alive to this objection to the employment of binders, 
have devoted their energies to the perfection of a machine which ^vould 
modify the objections to the use of what is known as the " overhead " binder. 
In the present machine the elevating aprons arc entirely dispensed with, the 
grain is taken direct from the platform to the knotter, and the sheaves are 
discharged close to the ground. This arrangement shortens the "travel" 
of the cut com, and there is no rubbing out of the grain between canvases. 
The formation of the sheaf and the binding are directly in view of the 
driver ; and in fact from the time the crop is cut until the sheaf is delivered 
he does not lose sight of the grain, and the exceeding accessibility of the 
various working parts, none of which are hid from view or covered up, 
■will at once strike the attention of the visitor. The packing and tjdng 
apparatus is suspended upon rollers, and by means of a lever the whole 
apparatus is moved backwards and forwards, from which the ease and rapidity 
for altering the position of the band round the sheaf will be understood ; the 
advantage of this instantaneous " shifting '' of the binding apparatus will be 
ajiparent in irregular or uneven crops. The gathering reel in this machine i^ 
ingeniously designed, and enables the driver, by simply turning the handle, to 
raise or lower, or throw it forward or back, as the necessities of the crop may 
require. One of the serious objections to the overhead binder is the inequality 
