The EvoluUon of Agricultural ImjAernents. Go 
by tbe action of a recipi’ocating rake. This machine, im- 
proved by Morgan, was patented by Seymour and Morgan in 
England in 1858, and made a favourable appearance in light 
crops. 
In 1862, Samuelson & Co., of Banbury, introduced from 
America the “ Dorsey ” reaper, which sheafed by means of re- 
volving rakes, a device rudely anticipated by Salmon in 1806. 
The “ Dorsey ” machine soon set the fashion for sheaf-delivery, 
and, while greatly improved at the hands of various English 
makers, it remains the type of all modern self-rakers. 
These, in the first instance, did not size the sheaf, but threw 
off the grain at regular intervals, without reference to variations 
in the weight of the crop. It was not until 1869 that Johnston, 
Huntley, & Co., afterwards the Johnston Harvester Co., of 
Brockport, U.S.A., first introduced into this country a “control- 
lable” self-raker, in which machine the driver could determine, 
by a movement of his foot, whether any given rake should clear 
the platform of grain or pass over it. This reaper, which, being 
at that time unsuitable for English crops, took no prominent 
position at the Royal Agricultural Society’s trials at Manchester 
in 1869, was, nevertheless, so great an advance on all existing 
sheafers, that, in the course of very few years, every English 
manufacturer was compelled to adopt either the Joliuston 
“ switch ” or some equivalent device for placing the rake^ under 
the control of the driver. 
Although England, as has been shown, was the parent of 
the reaping-machine, America has proved its more solicitous 
nursing mother: Scarcely had English makers settled down 
to the manufiicture of the “ Dorsey ” sheafer than America 
showed them Ihow to size the bundles of grain, and while 
the English mechanic was still busied in following this new 
lead, his Yankee rival stepped again to the front with the 
self- binding reaper, whose evolution may be summarised as 
follows : — 
In 1811, Common first invented, and, in 1826, the Rev. 
Patrick Bell re-invented, a reaper which delivered the corn in 
swathe at the side of the machine, discharging it from a travelling 
apron. 
In 1849, Mann, of Clinton, Ohio, added a second delivery 
apron to that of Bell, and by means of this carried the cut 
grain over the drive wheel, discharging it into a receptacle, 
whence it was delivered at intervals iir sheaves. 
In 1851, Watson and Renwick, of Chicago, adopting the 
Bell and Mann aprons, added a mechanical binding device 
which, using string for the band, was, in effect, the string- 
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