HARVESTERS, PAST AND PRESENT.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 2926, 3 February 1899, Page 3

HARVESTERS, PAST AND PRESENT.

, — -• ( The Press has a reminiscent article on j the progressive improvement of harvest- • ing machines, as seen m thes-tmplPß imported into Canterbury. Mr G. A. Stnilh, the oldest settler m the Lincoln district, has the proud distinction of having owned the first reaping machine : that whirred and clattered m that part of • Canterbury. It was a Burgess and Key, { a fearfully heavy thing. Three men were ' needed to work it. One drove the team, another rode and pulled the corn down with a rake ; the third walked and pulled the cut grain off the platform with a rake —a manual " Bide delivery." The next i invention (the Press forgot this) was a ( piece of furniture added to each side of , the platform, so that two men could ride, ] and take turns at making bands and tying Bh eaves as the machine cut the stufF. and side deliveries were next imported by John Anderson, 27 years ago. Five years later he brought out • wire binders.which were a great advance ' on anything m the field before. Their success set ingenious people all over the ' world to inventing machines to make bands oufrof the straw and to tie knots m string, and at last the mechanical - string kuotter was produced. As the Press says, within a generation the cost of harvesting has been reduced by more . than one-half, and this has been accompanied'by improvements m machinery until the modern reaper and binder is capable of doing at least double the work m a given space of time that its predecessor of the late sixties could do, and at much leßg cost of labour. The farmers of to-day have still reason to be nervous about the weather during harvest, but they are well offin this respect compared with their fathers, for they can cut a crop m a good deal less than half the time it used to take.

Difficulties m the Scotch whisky trade have been by no .means surmounted. Much uneasiness exists with regard to the extent to which several banks are involved. Though they hold as security warrants for immense stocks it would be impossible to realise them suddenly. Everything points to the necessity of an immediate reconstruction of Paltisons, Limited, m order to prevent other firms bpcoming involved m what iq undoub'edly a grave crisis. It is stated, however, by the Press Association that Patlisons will pay 20s m the £, and that the threatened crisis m the trade has been averted. A very cuiious development of Edison's famous phonograph is found m the speaking clocks and watches now being manufactured m Switzerland, time-pieces which altogether throw into the shade. the old, •' repeaters," which on the pressure of a stud would strike, or " repeat " the last hour. In the new form of watch a button is pressed ; but instead of the stroke of a bell, the owner is informed of the time m articulate speech. Alarm clocks are also made ; but instead of the usual vibratory bell, they call out, " It's six o'clock. Up you get, and don't go to sleep again." These talking clocks and watches are due to the ingenuity of n French manufacturer who bus settled m Geneva. In order to make his wares talkative, he introduces into the works a disc of india-rubber, which on its edge bpars the ivcpusary phonographic ''record"— in connection with 4 vibrating diaphragm*