The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1878-08-01

hUiSkcr, but this. Ike the steam
plow, the world still waits for.
Considerable space j. devoted to
corn-shcllcr>. With "A shovel 81
frylng-pan, IN Use II few years ago.
one man could shell about live
bushels in ten hours. The first
invention was Il cylinder turne By
Il crank By which IA man might
shell about forty bushels in Il day.
In Illinois the farmers now employ
steam or horse power, and two men,
with the aid Of the new shelters.
Will shell one thousand five hun
bred bushels Il day, the cobs being
carried off into Il pile BY themselves
and the corn run into sacks OF
wagons. Three hundred and seven
weight patents have been issued
on shelters.
The six great corn states are: Hi
noiS. iowa, Missouri, Indiana. Ohio
and Kansas. They produce more
than half the corn raised in the
country. Those States, by the cen
sis OF 1870, had l%,.i5,0OO persons
ENGAGED III agriculture. 1t would
require the entire farming commu-
nity Of those States to sit astride
barn->hoycls and handles o. FRYING
pans one hundred DAYS out of the
three hundred and siXtv-liye to
shell their corn by the old process
Take the crop Of last year, l,300,-
| Httn nIn It,-j..I- II ,.,,.n HI. 1,
tire population of the United States
every man, woman and child,
every individual of the 40, 600, 900
of us-would be obliged to spend
the entire six working days of the
week and till noon Of Sunday to
hell the crop by the old process.
WHEAT HARVESTING.
Mr.. Cot1i.l next turns to the Gull
~tiyation of wheat, the sowing and
the harvesting. lie gives a history
of the moving and reaping ma
chimes. In 1874 IL man IN Scotland
invented what Was described as a
most marvellous and wonderful ma
chine for cutting grain-Going rs
much in one day as seven men
could do with the sickle. This
marvellous machine was the cradle.
With Il sickle one man, in ten
hours, could cut one quarter OF an
acre. With the new cradle one
man could cut n and Il half acres
in ten hours, to be rakcd, bound
and stacked by two others. The
first mower patent was taken out
in 1888 BY IIussev. The following
vear the celebrated Mccormick
took out another patent, but moth
ing Of consequence was done until
1915, when Mccormick built one
hundred and fifty machines at Gin
cinnati. In 1885 there was an eX-
hibition Of reapers at the Worlds
Fair in Paris-one English, one
French and II American-Mc-
Cormick's. The French machine
did its allotted work in -, the
English in &c and McCormick's in
% minutes. The business of in
venting and making machines had
grown SO fast that IN 1864 not less
than one hundred and eighty-seven
establishments had been started to
manufacture reaperS, turning out
N hundred thousand per annum.
The demand Of the farmer. how
ever. was finally for Il machine that
would bind as we'll us reap. The
farmer, for ten to fifteen days
during harvest, WAS Il slave, ut the
mercy of set of mel who made his
necessity their opportunity, who
demanded and obtained s., 50 and
sometimes 81 Il day for binding,
besides their board. They began
in the southern section Of the
wheat-producing States and moved
northward with the advance of the
season.. They demanded good fare
and made themselves at home in
the farmers kitchens. The eNtrava-
CANT wages demanded materially
reduced the profits of the crop.
The first binder was used in 1874,
but it is yet in its fancy. The IN
yentors have sent men all yer the
country to make observations. The
harvest season is very short. There
fore they sen men to Texas, where
the harvest commences early, and
those men followed northward with
the harvest season until 1t ends IN
Minnesota. And more than that,
they have sent Il man to New Zea-
land, where the harvest season oc-
ours during our winter. Over 5000
patents have been issued to reaping
and moving machines, and about
thirty millions of dollars in capital
is invested IN their manufacture.
The following very interesting
statement is copied verbatim from