REAPERS AND BINDERS. Technically the °reaper* is a grain harvesting machine which, in addition to cutting down the grain, gathers it into bunches ready for tying into sheaves. Speaking generally, however, the mowing machine is classed as a reaper, along with the sidcle and scythe and other such simple implements. The scythe, when provided with a cradle, may be regarded as the earliest type of reaper. The first machine for reaping which actually accomplished the task was that of Henry Ogle, invented in 1826. It consisted of a straight scythe blade which ran back and forth at the rear angles of a series of triangular fingers. The cut grain fell upon a collecting board and was raked off at intervals by a work man walking beside the machine. In 1826 the Rev. Patrick Bell constructed a machine in which a number of blades on the cutting bar worked with a scissors action. At a slow speed this machine was quite effective. The first machine of the type, which is now universal, was invented in America by C. H. McCormick, who patented it in 1834. Another patent had been issued in 1833 to Obed Hussey, but the manufacture of these machines in quantity did not begin until 1845, when 150 were built a Cincinnati firm. As many mare were built in the following year. From this time onward inventors busied themselves with varying models, so that in 1852, at a contest held at Geneva, N. Y., nine different machines were entered by as many manufacturers. Com pared with the highly refined reapers of the present day these machines were all exceed ingly clumsy and required an excessive amount of power to operate them. Not one of them could be started in standing grain; the machine had to be backed up on clear ground to get the mechanism under way before the knives entered the grain. However, improvement was rapid and production increasingly large, and by 1855 nearly 10,000 of these machines were in use on the farms of the country. It is a matter of much interest to note that the Ameri can °mower and reaper)) as it was called, at the French Exposition of 1855, in contest with French and English machines, cut three times the area in the same time as the French ma chine and three and one-fourth times the area cut by the English machine. A number of new models were brought out, and in 1857 at the New York State Fair at Syracuse 19 dif ferent machines were entered for competition, and of these only three were unable to start in standing grain.
These mowers and reapers were fitted with a revolving real or rack of °wipers" which swept the grain firmly against the advance of the cutter, gathered the cut grain on a table and shoved it off automatically when enough had been gathered to make a sheaf of the de sired size. The tying was done by laborers
following the machine. The next development was the Marsh °harvester,» having a platform on which two men rode and tied the bundles of grain as they accumulated. In 1870 the self-binding reaper was in vented, in which the bundles of grain were tied with wire.
This machine fell into great disfavor after bits of the wire amongst the grain had de stroyed valuable mill-stones.
The twine binder came into use in 1875, through the adap tation of a tying device in vented in 1859 by John F.
Appleby, who later went into the army and forgot all about it until he had invented a new rifle. The Appleby binder on the Marsh ma chine offered the first perfect reaper.
i Reaping machines include three classes manual delivery, self-raking and self-binding machines. The manual deliveiy is but little used now except on small holdings or when a mowing machine is converted into a reaper by being fitted with a sheafing attachment. In very hilly districts the light draught of the manual delivery machine makes it a convenient machine to work, and as at high altitudes it is often injudicious to bind the sheaf at once, as drying is impeded thereby, it may be the most profitable machine to use. On the large farm it has its place for cutting out badly storm-broken patches where bigger and heavier machines cannot be conveniently used. The or dinary manual-delivery reaper differs little from the grass mower, except that it is not necessary for it to be so highly geared and that it is pro vided with a sheafing rack. The operator keeps up a continuous sweeping motion, pulling the crop on to the knives and loading it on the sheafing rack, which during the time it is being loaded is brought to a somewhat vertical po sition, being held there by a lever controlled by the operator's foot; when loaded, the rack is allowed to fall and the sheaf slips off, The self-raking machine has a platform in the form of a quarter circle, to which the grain is reeled by the rakes, as well as removed to one side far enough to clear a fresh horse walk for the next round. The cutting bar and knives are like those of the harvester. Like the manual delivery machine this type has but a limited use because of the fact that the grain remains unbound. For buckwheat and peas it is a favorite in some regions. It cuts usually a swath of five-foot width, requires two horses and harvests from six to eight acres per day.