Combine harvester

“ Of these seven wonders, the harvester and the cotton-gin will only be described in this chapter. “Harvester” has sometimes been used as a broad term to cover both mowers and reapers. In a recent and more restricted sense, it is applied to a machine that cuts grain, separates it into gavels, and binds it. ”

“ Where the climate is dry and the grain is ready for threshing as soon as it is cut, there is in general use a type of machine known as a combined harvester and [Pg 42] thresher in which a thresher and a harvester machine of the header type are mounted on a single platform, and the heads of grain are carried directly from the harvester by elevators into the threshing machine, from which the threshed grain is delivered into bags and is then ready for shipment. ”

“ Another development was the combination harvester and thresher used on the larger farms of the West. This machine does not cut the wheat close to the ground, but the cutter-bar, over twenty-five feet in length, takes off the heads. The wheat is separated from the chaff and automatically weighed into sacks, which are dumped as fast as two expert sewers can work. The motive power is a traction engine or else twenty to thirty horses, and seventy-five acres a day can be reaped and threshed. ”

“ Marquis L. Gorham, working for McCormick, and John F. Appleby, whose invention was purchased by William Deering, one of McCormick's chief competitors, invented binders which used twine. By 1880 the self-binding harvester was complete. No distinctive improvement has been made since, except to add strength and simplification. The machine now needed the services of only two men, one to drive and the other to shock the bundles, and could reap twenty acres or more a day, tie the grain into bundles of uniform size, and dump them in piles of five ready to be shocked. ”

“ The horizontal belt carrying the grain over the harvester platform is described as traveling faster than the main elevator, so as to operate to straighten the grain, or bring the stalks parallel to each other before beginning their ascent. The auxiliary belt, however, is not arranged on vertical rollers, as in the Olin patent, but upon the same rollers as those carrying the main belt; neither is it pivoted at its lower end, nor capable of being shifted at its upper end, and hence is incapable of moving the grain endwise to even the butts. ”

“ As [96] this giant reaper travels over the field one sees on one side the cutting bar 15 to 25 feet in length slicing its way through the wheat, while on the other side of the machine streams of grain run into sacks which, as fast as they are filled, are hauled to the barn or to the nearest railway station. The complete harvester is either drawn by horses—30 or 40 in number—or by a powerful engine. It cuts and threshes 100 acres of wheat in a day and the cost is less than 50 cents an acre. It does as much work in a day as could have been done by a hundred men before the days of McCormick. ”

“ Hence the harvesters are naturally reluctant to give the last cut at reaping or the last stroke at threshing or to bind the last sheaf, and towards the close of the work this reluctance produces an emulation among the labourers, each striving to finish his task as fast as possible, in order that he may escape the invidious distinction of being last. For example, in the Mittelmark district of Prussia, when the rye has been reaped, and the last sheaves are about to be tied up, the binders stand in two rows facing each other, every woman with her sheaf and her straw rope before her. ”

“ Instead of a salt-box, these, when in search of their favourite bait, always carry a kind of harpoon, formed of a piece of iron rod, the end of which is sharpened to a point.
Having witnessed the Solen throw up his jet of water, and retire beneath the soil, the fisherman suddenly plunges his instrument into the orifice. Should the action have been skilfully performed, the rod will have pierced the animal between its valves, which instantly retract upon the intruding object. To draw the fish to the surface is then a comparatively easy task. ”

“ The shaping of the hull may now be completed, using a gouge, spokeshave, and rasp, keeping the midship section for a guide, and running the curved surfaces smoothly and evenly into the sides of the keel, stern, and stem, the latter tapering to five-sixteenths of an inch forward.
The hole for the rudder-stock is next bored, one-fourth of an inch in diameter, and burned out with a moderately hot iron to five-sixteenths of an inch; then, should the stock swell when wet, it will not stick in the charred wood, but will still turn freely. ”

“ Dick felt his nerves tingle when he put the helm over and the hawser tightened as the lighter began to swing. If she took too wide a sweep, he might be unable to check her before she struck the reef, and there seemed to be a current flowing through the gap. Glancing astern for a moment, he saw her dark hull swing through a wide curve while the strain on the hawser dragged the launch’s stern down, but she came round and the tension slackened as he steered up the channel. ”

“ When large hawsers have to work through small pipes, good security may be obtained either by passing ten or twelve taut racking turns with a suitable strand and securing each end to a standing part of the hawser, or by taking half as many round turns taut, crossing the ends between the hawsers over the seizing and reef-knotting the ends. ”

“ The art of becoming a good feeder will not be learned in a day. The bundles should be tipped well up against the cylinder cap, and flat bundles turned on edge, so that cylinder will take them from the top. It is not hard to spread a bundle, and in fast threshing a bundle may be fed on each side, each bundle being kept pretty well to its own side, while the cylinder is kept full the entire width. A good feeder will keep the straw carrier evenly covered with straw, and will watch the stacker, tailings and grain elevator and know the moment anything goes wrong. ”

“ For dry-fly fishing however, and general use, and for almost unending wear, a split-cane rod by one of the first-class makers will probably best suit the requirements of the average man; only in selecting the rod, of whatever pattern, great care should be devoted to getting one which, with reel and line attached, will make a harmonious whole. ”

“ The making of rods is not very economical, since nowadays factories turn out really good ones at prices little above what one must pay for reliable rod-wood. Roughly speaking, there are two kinds of rods, bait-rods and fly-rods. Bait-rods are nearly always stiffer than fly-rods; the latter must have sufficient flexibility and elasticity to throw a line quite a distance, often several times the length of the rod. But in choosing a bait-rod a different selection will be made according to the particular sort of fishing within reach. ”

“ With a strong rod indeed you can, at the chance of tearing out the hook, keep him by main force on the top of the water, till you have run past him and below him, shortening your line anyhow in loops—there is no time to wind it up with the reel—and then do what you might have done comfortably at first had you been fishing up—viz., bring him down-stream, and let the water run through his gills, and drown him. ”

“ A heavy iron hand-pike was transformed by a blacksmith into a large hook, which was fixed to an iron chain belonging to the anchor of a small-boat, and as that extraordinary fishing-tackle was not of a sufficient length, they added to it a hawser, forty fathoms in length and of the size of a woman’s wrist. The hook was baited with a lamb a few days old, and thrown into a deep hole ten yards from the shore, where Captain Finn knew that one of the monsters was located; the extremity of the hawser was made fast to an old cotton-tree. ”

“ Suppose a prospector does strike a vein of ore: what is the common result? By the time he has sunk a shaft ten feet deep he must have a windlass and a man to work it, and being in most cases too poor to hire a miner, his only way of getting help is to take in a partner. The two go on sinking, until presently the hole is too deep to use a windlass any more—a horse-whim is needed and then a hoisting engine. ”

“ An engine now gives her power, so{67} that she can make fast time to and from the fishing grounds, and her sails are used mostly to steady her in the sea while the men work. The engine also helps with the heavy work of handling the nets.
Each kind of fish has its own habits, and the fishermen know them well. Some fish, such as cod and flounder, live down near the floor of the sea. They are caught in drag nets which are towed at the right speed behind{68} the vessel. Men haul the net in, dump the catch into ice-cooled bins in the hold, then drag the net again. ”

“ The loose straw is more frequently the means of firing than the stack itself. Have a pond close to the rickyard, although there may be a bad supply of water. When a steam thrashing machine is to be used, place it on the lee-side of the stack or barn, so that the wind may blow the sparks away from the stacks. Let the engine be placed as far from the machine as the length of the strap will allow. Have the loose straw continually cleared away from the engine; see that two or three pails of water are kept close to the ashpan, and that the pan itself is kept constantly full of water. ”

“ Every slightest movement of the fish is carried to the left hand of the angler holding the line, and the least lessening or increase of tension between the rod-tip and the quarry is instantly sensed and line taken or given accordingly. Moreover, the method insures against forcing the fish too strenuously because one knows to a practical certainty when there is too much pull—a thing far more difficult to estimate when killing the fish on the reel. ”

“ Casting the menhaden bait is similar to casting the float and sinker, only the power is enormously increased and deficiencies proportionally magnified. The line is wound up till the bait, if a single one, is almost two feet from the tip, the rod is extended behind the fisherman, who turns his body for the purpose, and then brought forward with a steady but vigorous swing that discharges it without a jerk, like an apple thrown from a stick by rustic youths. ”

“ To give the utmost satisfaction, the rod should fit its owner, and several rods should be tried until one is found that most fully meets the angler's idea of what a rod should be. If one happens to have a good fly reel, by all means take it along and attach it to the rod while making the tests. It is practically impossible to gauge the balance of a rod without affixing the reel, and many a finely balanced tool will appear badly balanced until the proper-weight reel is affixed to it. ”

“ The American fly-caster for trout need not concern himself other than theoretically, as a matter of general angling information, with octagonal, double-built, or steel-centered split-cane rods. Eight-strip rods are commonly produced in this country—at a considerably higher figure than the rod of six strips—but it is generally and wholly agreed among those who know that there is nothing to recommend the octagonal over the hexagonal rod. ”

“ Planters began to inquire for shells. Farmers began to bring loads of stakes with which to mark the oyster-beds afresh. Boats were overhauled. Propellers were removed from power craft or boxed in such a way as to render them useless, for the law prohibited any power boats from going on the natural oyster-beds. Nothing but sails could be used in dredging seed-oysters.
Then at last came the planting season itself, the great event in the oysterman's year. From far and wide a huge fleet assembled. Every boat that could still carry a sail and drag a dredge joined the assembly. ”

“ In the northern part of the Corn Belt the hemp usually does not grow so tall and therefore can be handled more easily with machines. During the first World War hemp-harvesting machinery was developed. These harvesters (see above) in one operation cut an 8- or 9-foot swath and elevate the stalks to a quarter-circle platform where they are turned automatically and dropped or spread on the ground for retting. The butts of the stems all lie in the same direction and are relatively even. The thickness of the layer of stalks in the swath influences the speed and uniformity of the dew retting. ”

“ The naturalist, however, is as much interested in the small fish as the large ones, and, even for beach fishing, a rod and line, fitted with one or two hooks only, and a lead no heavier than is absolutely essential, will be preferable. A little practice will of course be necessary in order that one may become expert in the casting of the rod line, but with large rings on the rod, and a reel without a check, or a check that can be thrown off when desired, the necessary proficiency in casting ought to be acquired without much difficulty. ”

“ The anchor is dropped by the tug and the hawser carried back to the capstan, where it is attached to one of the rope drums, and the boat with the barges attached to it towed along by the horse gears described above winding on the hawser. The advance continues without interruption day and night, the launch taking a second anchor and hawser forward and dropping the anchor in advance of the first by a hawser's length, so that when the capstan has wound up the first hawser it finds a second one ready for attachment to the rope drum. ”

“ A rope’s-end, to which the other end of the hawser was attached, was then promptly hove from the boat alongside and smartly hauled inboard over the ship’s bows, and several turns of the hawser were taken round the windlass-bitts. Then, by carefully manipulating the canvas, the Flying Cloud was brought head to wind, or with her bows towards the derelict, until, dropping to leeward all the time, the hawser was tautened out and a strain brought upon it. ”