710 
The Trials of Self-binding Harvesters at Chester. 
after several stops the machine was tried in a fresh plot, with a light straight 
crop, hut still the work was inferior. Two stops, broken string; nine loose 
sheaves. Time, 35 minutes. 
The results with Oats of each of the competing machines are 
shown in the upper half of Table B, on page 712. 
As a further test for the machines, a plot of oats where the 
crop was heavy, laid, and much tangled, had been reserved in 
which it was proposed to give each machine a short trial. It 
was found after a few rounds had been cut — and in a very un- 
satisfactory manner — that the crop was in such a condition, and 
the ground so covered by mole hills, that no farmer would 
attempt to deal with it in its then state with a reaping-machine. 
For this reason this part of the programme was abandoned, and 
thus brought Wednesday’s work to a conclusion. 
Heavy rain during the night made cutting impossible on 
Thursday morning, and there is no doubt that the day was more 
usefully spent in weighing the machines on the weighbridge 
kindly placed at our disposal by Mr. Robert Podmore, to whose 
farm at Deeside (about four miles from Chester) we had now 
adjourned for the barley and wheat trials, and also in testing 
the time required to change each machine from work to trans- 
port and vice versa. (See Table A, page 70G.) 
Trials with Barley. 
Whilst Thursday’s work of weighing and testing was in pro- 
gress the land dried considerably, and on Friday morning, at 
8 o’clock, it was in fairly good condition for work. The barley 
was a crop of medium length and weight, and very even all over, 
leaning very slightly all one way, but none laid or twisted. The 
land, clean and flat, and a medium heavy loam, was sown down 
with seeds. 
(1) No. 4032 (Massey-Harris). Neither the land nor the corn was as 
dry during the cutting of this plot as a little later. Good work was made, 
however, and with the exception of oue sheaf all were well tied. There 
was a little waste from the rear of the binding-platform, showing that the 
sheafing was not perfect. No stops. Time, 24J minutes. 
(2) No. 4031 (Massey-Harris). Little or no waste and no stops ; ends 
of knot pulled through. Very good work, a share of which is probably due 
to a travelling buttor. Time, 21 minutes. 
(3) No. 2403 (Keyworth). Several stops to clear finger-bar and alter. 
Cut, or rather missed cutting, an open furrow, in consequence to some extent 
of the distance from centre to centre of the driving and divider wheels being 
greater by more than a foot than some of the other machines, and therefore, 
when the open furrow was central between these points, the finger-bar 
was necessarily carried higher. There is some tendency to wrap the straw, 
and, after finishing the plot, this was found to be the case with the packer- 
shaft. Separation fairly good. Time, 29| minutes. 
