The Original (pl. 5s, fig.12) had about fifteen teeth so set in a piece of strong scantling that they would run flat on the ground under the hay. It was held by the handles, by which it was kept steady, and by which it was also tipped when the load was to be emptied. The draught-ropes were attached to short teeth at the end of the rake, as seen in the illustration.
The Revolving (fig. 13), which was next generally adopted, could be uploaded without lifting the rake or stopping the horse, as a slight motion of the handle induced at each windrow a semi-revolution, by which the load was discharged and the opposite teeth were brought into work.
The (fig. 14) has a solid revolving iron axle, which by ratchets in the hubs of the wheels furnishes the power for dis charging the load and is actuated by the onward movement of the horse. The framework is united securely to the axle and the steel teeth are fastened into the rake-bead, which for discharging the load is thrown into gear by means of a divided lever that remains stationary when the load is dumped. The rake is held by a centre latch, which when disengaged allows the teeth readily to fall back.
The side-delivery rake, recently introduced, will gather and turn into a windrow two mowing-machine swaths, and in this way answers the pur pose of both a rake and a tedder. This may be followed by the hay loader, an ingenious device which gathers up and rolls the hay upon a wagon, to whose rear it is attached and by whose forward movement it is actuated.
and former laborious method of unload ing hay and grain has been superseded by the use of the horse-fork and carrier; the operation is performed by horse-power in one-sixth the time required by hand. Among the various forms in use the harpoon-fork (Jigs. 15, 16) is the simplest. It consists mainly of a single iron bar hav ing at the lower end a point, just above which are two concealed spurs. This bar is plunged into the hay, and as the horse starts to draw it up by the rope which is attached to its upper end the spurs are thrown out and bear up from Too to zoo pounds of the hay into which the bar has been thrust. This fork is fitted only for hay which has long fibre and will hang well together. For short or light hay or for barley-straw the double or grappling-fork (fig. r7) must be employed. This has two sets of arms pivoted together at the top, each set composed of three long tapering spring-steel tines; the anus when spread stand nearly 5 feet apart and the tines enter the material about 2 feet; it closes and holds the load by its own weight and can be worked successfully on all kinds of hay, straw, etc. It is opened easily and works rapidly, taking off with each forkful about 400 pounds, averaging half a ton a minute. The illustration shows the method of moving each forkful by means of the hay-conveyer, with which is connected a car that runs on two rails of wood 5 inches apart hung close to the peak of the barn. For stacking hay or grain there is used
another form of car, with the parts so modified in form and adjustment as to adapt them to work satisfactorily on a rope stretched between two pole tripods set far enough apart to give room for the stack and the wagon.
the use of the mower the cutter-blade passes through the grass, which immediately falls over the finger-bar and lies on the ground in a swath; but in the reaper a platform is required back of the finger-bar, to collect the falling grain. In one of the earliest devices, when enough grain had accumulated for a bundle, it was swept off by a hand-rake and was subsequently bound (p1. 59, Jig. 6). In the self-raker (fig. 7), which is of more recent construction, the grain is cast off in neat gavels by the machine. In the self-binder (fig-. 8) the sheaves, by an automatic arrangement, are bound and dropped from the machine. For hands self binders originally employed wire, which was reeled from a large spool as it was passed round the bundle, and was then twisted together and cut off by automatic shears. Cord is now in general use.
No agricultural machine requires more care and skill in its make than the harvester and binder. It must cut crops varying from wheat i foot high to rye whose barbed heads wave 6 feet from the ground; it must cut tangled and lodged grain, arrange it in good order, and convey it to the binder-deck, where it must be seized by the sensitive packers and formed into shcavesT which must be securely bound and discharged in exact time. This must be done on side-hills and over rough and uneven ground. The machine must be strong, and yet sufficiently light for an ordinary team. It must tilt by the touch of a finger, and its levers must be so adjusted as to require no effort on the part of the driver. It must reap with equal facility clover and flax, oats and barley, wheat and rye.
In California are found not only the largest wheat-fields in the world, but also the most elaborate and efficient machines for harvesting (Jig. 9). On the borders of the San Fernando ranch there is a single wheat-field containing one hundred and forty-four square miles, to plough which there must be turned a furrow twelve miles long. In time of harvest the San Joaquin Valley presents a sea of grain as wide as the visible hori zon and as long as a day's journey by rail. If to these there be added the Valley of the Sacramento and a multitude of valleys of like productive ness, though of lesser area, which help to make up the three and a half million acres of California's grain-fields, we shall have some idea of the amount of labor required to secure the crops. To plough these extended tracts by the old methods would be a tedious operation, but to harvest the grain in the proper time by the use only of ordinary machiues would be an impossible task.