THE REAPER AND BINDER IN ENGLAND.

Lyttelton Times, Volume L, Issue 5531, 13 November 1878, Page 3

THE REAPER AND BINDER IN ENGLAND.

An interesting trial of reapers and binders has recently taken place at Sir Philip Miles’ farm, Clifton, the competition being for a gold medal offered by the Royal Agricultural Society for “ an efficient sheaf-binding machine attached to a reaper or otherwise.” All the binders were attached to reapers, and the following were the competing machines: — Wood’s, M’Cormaek’s, Osborne’s, J. and F. Howard’s, and Johnston Harvester Company’s. The trial took place in a field of heavy, flaggy, and rather green oats. The details of the trial, as taken from our exchanges, show that the Wood’s machine was expected to take first rank, but that improvements in the M'Cormack’a led to a different result. Both of these machines appear to have done their work well, and the heavy wet oats were more difficult to cut than to bind. M'Cormack’s machine, entered by Waite, Burnell, Huggins and Co., took the lead from the first. It cuts a breadth of five feet, the out corn falling upon a horizontal platform of endless web canvas. This carries the corn towards the near side, where it passes upward at an acute angle almost perpendicularly between two endless webs, to a height of nearly five feet, thus rising over the main wheel, framing, and driving gear; and the stuff, delivered in a continuous stream, falls over 'upon a horizontal table, where it is bound with wire. The sheaf remains upon the table until the next sheaf pushes it off, with a deliberate quiet motion. Nothing can exceed the smoothness and unerring perfection of this arrangement for binding except that in very thick and grass-encumbered crops a few of the sheaves are “ twinned ” —that is, though properly tied, the straws entangle so that the. sheaves stick together until pulled asunder by hand—which is not done on the machine, but on the ground before being picked up for shocking. The sheaves are dropped with the greatest regularity, lying in line longitudinally or in the direction of the machine’s course, with the butt ends foremost; and they are some feet clear of the horse track. The special merit of the work was in its perfect collection of all the corn, scarcely an ear being dropped; thus absolutely the whole of the crop is bound up in the sheaves, leaving nothing at all to be raked up, and perhaps not more than a handful per acre for gleaners. About 2Jlb of No. 20 gauge annealed wire is used per acre, at a cost of Is 3d to Is 7d ; and the saving in corn from the clean collecting would seem far more than enough to pay for this, considering that the old bands are alleged to be saleable at about half-price. The labour of five or six men in manual tying is dispensed with, and that work done instead by one man; while the little additional labour for the horses may perhaps necessitate changing the pair three times instead of twice in a long day’s work. The cutting was not a point for consideration : for though a six-inch stubble was left on account of the profusion of big stones, tho machine can out os low as any ordinary reaping machine can do. In the greenish oats Mr M'Oormaok’s machine cut and tied half an acre in twentyfour ininutos without a single stoppage of any kind; and in the four feet stvawod wheat it finished one acre and twenty-six perches in fifty minutes, including two stoppages, once snapping tho wire. In light, verv short barley, and also in heavy lain oats, the work was equally good and satisfactory. In Walter A. Wood’s machine tho out corn falls upon a web, which carries it to tho side, where it is elevated by belts with clips passing continuously up over on inclined board, a light frame of slats and wirowork lying upon tho stream of corn, supporting it on the stoop incline and preventing its being blown off. The corn falls over upon a concave table, and the binding arm, revolving upon a fixed centre, separates one portion at a time, passes round the wire, and outs and twists it. A compressing arm upon the binding arm tosses'off the sheaf, passing a couple I °* springs which in their rebound catch the stream of untied corn and hold it from falling off. with tho sheaf. This, however, is one imperfection in tho machine—the sheaf goes off with a jerking motion of the binding arm, 'and is thrown farther than seems necessary, loose straws are let drop occasionally, and the wire slips out of the needle or Is broken ofteuer than in the M'Cormack machine. The

halt-aoro of light oats waswcll out and bound in 88 minutes with four breakages of wire. The plot, however, was very much shelter than M’Oormack’s, and go«>fiad many more turnings. Wood’s machcrae cut 1 acre 26 perches of wheat in 51 minutes, andl bad seven stoppages. In ligtit' barley it worked exceedingly well, but imWokify broke ai small casting owing to the loss of, a.pin in, the main wheel axle. The binder of D. M. Osborne and Co. Wasunfavfcunafce on the-first day in breaking a small chain'i wheel by which the gathering reel is driven j but on the second it cut and bound with wire very well indeed in the light barlayt. failing,,however, m the long strawed oats. This was mainly because ot the narrow endielevator ; aad we do not know by what untoward 'circumstance Osborne was prevented fro muse tiding his large machine, in which the dimeusions-of these parts allow six inches more-room.. Messrs James and Frederick Howard having, onfy just completed their new machine in time- Jbr the present harvest, had no opportunity of working it in various descriptions of crops before the date of the British trials, and indeed it may be said to have been, ordered out for trial in conformity with, a rule- of the Society rather than voluntarily entered for competition. Nevertheless, the firm did not resort to any occidental breakages to binder their being pub, to tests for which they were not prepared,, and upon breaking one of the working parts-on Monday a duplicate piece was telegraphed! for, and arrived at the trial field on the- Tuesday morning. As far as could be seem in, the attempt made in the barley the binding, appliances appear completely successful., The efcief cause. of non-success in the working was in the placing of.the horizontal platform webrather too far back from the finger-bar, the consequence being that while- long straw can be elevated very well the very short barley rested its butt ends upon the wood beam behind tho - knife bar, and; was thus detained, while the ear ends were moved by the web, and the-cot stuff in this angular position would not, run properly ,up the elevator. The, Jbhnston Harvester Company’s string-knotting binder made some fair Work in the wheat,-the jut? yarn knots or double hitches being perfectly fast. _ Hetherington string binder could not be tried at allowing to a breakage. King’s machine', also, a string-binder, - fastening by twisting the ends of .the string, and tucking them under;, made an attempt in the wheat, ■but came to a premature stop. The invention, ingenious as it is; wants a good practical schooling in the field before the weak points can be tested and put right. But both of these string binders are at present too complicated and like clockwork for farmers’ use, •though il is certainly to be wished that string 'may be practicable 'in preference to wise. The judges awarded the gold medal to the M'Cormack machine, exhibited by Messrs Waite, Burnell, Huggins; and Co., and highly commended the machines of Mr Walter A. Wood. The opinion of the spectators who watched the trial was evidently in accordance with the decision of the judges—Mr John Coleman, Mr J. W. Kimber, and Mr H, Cantrell.