TRIAL OP THE McCORMIOJL BEAPEB AND BINDER.

Press, Volume XXIX, Issue 3895, 16 January 1878, Page 3

TRIAL OP THE McCORMIOJL BEAPEB AND BINDER.

At the invitation of Mr E. C. Beardsley, the agent in New Zealand of Messrs C. H. and jL J. McCormick, several gentlemen - proceeded yesterday to Mr Hack's farm, on the North road, where a McCormick reaper and hinder was at work. The party was an > -—fl— ftwwV »nwi«»lljli: TwwnJ . x*m* ' coasatng as it did two aldermen of the ot^f , ii'prominent boldface, a representative -of finance, a theatrical star, end several representatives of the Bonrth Estate. The Jehu of the oeeasicm being no less a personage than the Loafer in the Street, added piquancy, if not respectability, to the turn eat. A short but pleac&Qt drive along the Papanni road and up a l&ae, along 'which, the coachman contrived to ran so dose to the gone hedge as to endanger the head-gear of some of the party, brought us to the rendezvous. The crop, which was one of oats, . -was of a kind which would give any machine a very severe trial, there being all kinds in the one paddock, viz., light, medium, and heavy. Besides this, the undergrowth of docks and other weeds was very great, and the land uneven to a degree. It will thus be seen that the trial was not seen under the most advantageous circumstances that could be. After a vain endeavour to persuade our charioteer to pilot the machine once round, a start was made in a remarkably bad puce of ground. In this not only was the crop thin and straggling, and intermixed largely with docks, but the ground was most uneven. Despite these points against the success of the trial the machine worked admirably, cutting and binding the grain with remarkable precision and celerity. "When it got into the heavier and more regular crop the work done was truly excellent. The gentlemen representing the various it,threats referred, to, afttr going several rounds with the machine in the field, were loud in their praieee of the way in which it did ita work, and the ingenious method by which the wire binding is managed. Indeed so much in Jove with it was our Jehu that it was with the utmost difficulty we got him to leare. Diving deep into the. intricate mysteries of spools twisters, arms, and binder 'frames, as fluently and eloquently described fey Mr Beardsley, Jthere seemed jto be no chance of his leaving it that evening. Fortunately for us, however, the gentleman whose duty it was en this particular occasion to superintend the distribution of the liquid refreshments arrived in his immediate vicinity. Even his thirst for knowledge as to tile intricacies and innermost recesses of reapers and binders piled before that for the produce of Auld Scotlind, and he tore himself reluctantly away. As the operation of the machine is new to many of oar readers, we may give a brief description of its working. The horses walking alongside of the standing grain drew the machine after them, and he grain is cut by coming in contact with a vibrating, serrated edged ►i-kle, and a revolving reel casts it backward upon an endless canvass carrying apron, which, moving along, carries the grain with it until it reaches the ineide of the machine, where it passes between two endless elevating aprons, and is thus carried upwards (over the drive wheel) at an angle of about forty-five degrees, until it reaches a point about eighteen ir ches higher than a table on which the grain falls, and a •curved arm (for carrying the wire uround the bundle), which is attached to the end of a castiron overhanging arm; both of these arms overhang the table, and are controlled by ■machinery which works beneath it, so that they move backward and forward across said table, when the machine is in operation. The «ire is wound on two ep o!->, one of which is placed on the top of the harvester apron box from which the wire runs to the point of the curved wire-carryine arm ; from whence it descends almost to the table, where it meets and is twisted together with ihe wire coming from the other spool; this other spool v situated on the binder frame, to one side of, and beneath, the table, the wire from which runs aloi g beneath! said table to where it upward, through the twister wheel, to connect with with the first-named wire. At the point where the grain (having been cut and elevated) passes away from the aprons and descends toward the table, the curved wire-carrying arm moving forward acrofs the table, de ecenda, carrying the wire with it, until it presses this wire tightly around the bundle, and into the twister wheel, just beneath the platform; then the overhanging arm begin* to move backwards neroee the table, thus r> rawing the bundle in the same direction, a*d the twister wheel, revolving, twists the wire tight and «ot» it off. when, the bundle being completed, it pushes the previous one from tbe table to the ground, and the curved arm raising up, leaves the sheaf just made on the outer edge of the table, andagaiu moves forward for * new one. The cut of the machine, it msy be said, is five

feet wide. Aβ we have said the trial of the machine yesterday was conducted underTerydieadvantageous circumstances, but those practical men who witnessed it were decidedly of opinion that the machine is capable of doing excellent work, and will be a very great boon to the farmers of the district. It may be said that the machine will be at work in the game paddock during to-day for the purpose of enabling those who may wish to do so to inspect it. The trial of the various machines has been fixed for Monday next in the paddock of Mr Deans, Eiccarton.