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AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY cord holder is of the sliding jaw type instead of the rotary the needle retreats, the trip latch is lowered into position form. to strike the trip dog, thus releasing it from the lug on On small farms, the sweep-rake reaper shown in Fig. 40 the packer shaft and stopping the binder until the next is frequently used. bundle is formed, when the action is repeated. The cutting apparatus of this machine is similar to that in all harvesting machines, but is attached to the front of a quadrantal platform upon which the grain falls as it is cut. At the stubbleward end of the frame, just inside the master wheel, is a pedestal having upon its top a cam. A rotating shaft carrying a number of rake arms, hinged thereto, is mounted in the pedestal, and the rake arms are guided by the cam in such a manner that they bring the grain to the cutter bar, sweep it back over the platform, depositing it in a gavel on the ground, and are then raised abruptly to clear the driver. These cams can generally be set by a switch, so that every rake, or every second, third, or fourth rake, may deposit the gavel. On the Pacific coast of America the wheat farms are of immense size, sometimes as large as 20,000 acres in a single field, and the climate is very dry, so that the grain is allowed to ripen in the field. These conditions have enabled Fig. 39.—Holmes binder. American farmers to make use of headers and combined As the bundles are discharged from the binder, they heading and threshing machines. are received by a bundle carrier and retained until it contains the number necessary to form a shock, when the carrier is tripped by the operator and the sheaves are deposited upon the ground. The bundle carrier is an important addition to the binder, and the cost of labour in setting the sheaves in shocks is lessened, as they are deposited in a single spot instead of being gathered from a considerable area. The only binder built in the United States differing from the Appleby type is the Holmes binder, illustrated by Figs. 38 and 39. This binder differs in its general organization from the Appleby, the packers being of the toothed disk type and carried above the Fig. 41.—Header. binder table, as is also the starting clutch. The discharger is similar in construction to The header frame is mounted upon two wheels and has the forks of a tedder. The knotter is composed of two a pole extending to the rear, at the end of which is a parts carried by a rotary spindle, one of them being sleeved swivelled steering wheel operated by a suitable tiller (Fig. 41). An evener is pivoted forward of the steering wheel, and to this the horses are attached and push the machine in advance. At the forward end of the frame a platform is hinged and can be adjusted vertically by means of a long lever extending back to the driver. This platform carries the cutting apparatus and the platform apron, which delivers at one side to an elevator. The cutting apparatus is adjusted to cut the heads from the grain, leaving the straw, and the heads are discharged into a waggon which moves along with the header. The header cuts a much wider swathe than the selfbinder, and therefore, under the conditions to which it is adapted, is capable of doing more work. The next step in decreasing the cost of harvesting was to combine with the header a threshing machine, the former being attached to the side of the latter, and delivering the grain thereto. The grain Fig. 40.—Sweep-rake reaper. is then threshed out and bagged at the in the other, and having an independent movement in | rate of 25 to 45 acres per day, according to the stand of opening and closing the jaws to receive the loop. The I Grain and other varying conditions, thus reducing the cost