FIO, 1.-ELEVATOR BINDER, with open back, shown harvesting extra long grain, which projects beyond the rear of the machine. This type of machine is the best for Colonial requirements, as it will out, elevate, and bind the shortest as well as the tallest grain, so that it can be used for every kind of crop in good or bad seasons.

In the whole range of the agricultural machinery exhibits, the most prominent machine was the reaper and binder.

All the more important makers of the United States were represented, and a specially fine exhibit was sent from Canada. Although there was no distinct departure from the types of reapers and binders with which most Australian farmers are familiar, yet there were many changes and improvements on the machines shown, which adapt them for greater range of work, simplifying construction, and reducing draft.

Reapers and Binders.

The reaper and binder, or, as the Americans more correctly call it, the harvester and binder, is distinguished under two general classes, viz., the elevator, and the low-down.

Each maker's differs in some points from every other, but the elevator binders can be further divided into the closed back and the open back, whilst the low-down binders differ materially in their mechanism and mode of gathering and discharging the sheaf.

The elevator binder, with the closed back, is the best known type in New South Wales, having been introduced in 1878 as a wire binder, and in 1880 as a string binder. The improvements consist mainly in a decreased height of elevators, greater rigidity in the machine as a whole, a more perfect and accurate knotter mechanism, the preference for chain gear over cog gear, and the substitution of a steel framing in place of wood.

The elevator binder, with open back (Fig. 1), has been in use in New South Wales for the past three years, so its general principles are familiar to our farmers.

Its name, "open back," indicates its main feature, which is the removal of what was known as the rear elevator side, thus allowing the crop, if extra long, to project beyond the elevator canvases and be elevated without twisting, choking, or shelling.

In our tall hay crops it is often a great advantage, and where a grain crop is being harvested the open-end principle allows the crop to be elevated without the heads rubbing, there being no rear elevator side to thrash out the grain.

In other respects both machines are very much the same, and for allround work the open-end type is certainly the better.

The "low-down" binder, Fig. 2, may now be said to be " on the market," and some of those on exhibition possessed most of the merits of a successful reaper and binder.

There is probably no harvesting machine on which so much ingenuity has been exercised as the "low-down" type of binder, and the clever way in which the cut crop is carried to the binding mechanism, and then bound and discharged, is the outcome of many years of patient work and a large expenditure of money.

The illustration shows a rear view of the Low-down binder.

The crop is cut in the usual way, and reeled on to the platform canvas by which it is conveyed to the packers, which in turn force or pack sufficient of the cut crop to make a sheaf, when the needle, being automatically set in motion, moves forward, passes the string round the sheaf, and at the right moment the knot is tied, the string cut, and the discharging arms, shaped like two hooks, shown in the illustration in line with the driver's right arm, receive and discharge the sheaf.

One objection to this machine is the mode of delivery, as the discharging arm carries the sheaf to the rear of the machines, and tosses it in such a manner as would certainly shake out our ripe grain when the sheaf struck the ground. The objection would not be so great when binding hay, but as our farmers require a general purpose binder, they must weigh the disadvantages of "delivery of sheaf" as well as the advantages of the low-down principle. This machine illustrates the most advanced of the "low-downs," but there were a number of others exhibited which show great ingenuity in design and construction.

Of these it is unnecessary to go into detail, as, until they are tested and proved in actual field work, our farmers should reserve their opinion, for a harvesting machine may work very well in an exhibition and be a total failure in the field.

Headers.

The American header has been tried to a limited extent in Australia, but it has not made many friends amongst our colonial farmers.

The very earliest header was that patented by Esterley, in 1844, Fig. 3, which was an adaptation of the old Gallic Stripper, previously described. It was fitted with a stationary knife in front of the box or waggon against which the grain was forced by the revolving reel, and the cut heads were deposited in the box or waggon.

In 1849, Jonathan Haines of Illinois, patented his header, which is the foundation on which all other headers have since been built.

In the Eastern States of America, and in California, it is extensively used, and where the crop and climate favour it and straw is of little value, it will harvest grain as cheaply, if not more cheaply, than can be done with any any other class of machine except the Californian Harvester.

In general appearance it resembles a reaper and binder Fig. 4, on a very large scale, but with the binder left off.

The ordinary widths of cuts are 10, 12, and 14 feet, and they are worked on an average by four to six horses. To work the header to the best advantage, it requires four to six horses to propel it; one man to operate it; three teams, with a driver to each, (boys can drive as well), to haul the grain to the stack as fast as cut; one man to load; one man to stack, and one man to rake down the stack and pitch up the scatterings from the ground to prevent any waste of grain-making, in all, seven men and ten to twelve horses. This force ought to cut and put in stack, every fair day, from 25 to 40 acres.

The horses, instead of pulling the machine, walk behind the cutter-bar and push, the operator standing on a platform and with a lever controls the steering wheel and corrects any errors in driving.

The cutter-bar is set so that the grain head is harvested with from 15 inches to 24 inches of straw, and the reel and cutter bar are so arranged that their height can be raised or lowered whilst the machine is in motion.

The process of harvesting is of the simplest character, as the grain, when cut, falls, or rather is reeled, on to the platform apron, then carried to the elevator canvasses, by which it is elevated and deposited in the waggon, which travels alongside of the machine.

When the waggon is full the header stops long enough to allow an empty waggon to replace the full one, and work is resumed.

FIG. 5.-THE GIANT BINDER is a combination of the Header and the Binder,