The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1889-08-24
THREsHING AND HARVESTING.

ing the past fifty years, have been wonder
full. Within the memory Of old settlers, and
of their descendants since that time, the adj
vancement in every branch of agriculture
has been so extensive, that from the old'
fashioned resping hook, to the modern t"ine
binder, from the fail to the latest steam
power thresher, from the sieve shaken in
the wind, to the machine separator, If they
all could have occurred instantaneously, they
would have been clasJcd as miracles, as
amazing as that Of AarOn's Rod or wooden
wand turned into living serpent! Men who
were born in La Sale county not fifty years
ago remember the old clumsy fail which Of
ten threshed the careless boy upon the head,
instead Of the head of the sheaf he was list.
lsssly aiming At Then there was the "hook'
or sickle, not changed in form since the
days of Moses! Following the crooked,
smoothe edged hook came another with
teeth which did better work. Next came
two or three varieties Of cradles, that of
Grey, of Chicago, or Cleveland, taking the
lead. The next great advance was probably
Bussey's reaping machine, whose cutting
principle was that of knives or shears Fol-
lowing this was Mccormick great Virginia
reaper, cutting twelve feet, afterwards tea
and later reductions have been made, aban-
doning the original idea Of cutting whole
field at a single swarth. His was followed by
Q score of other inventions, among which
we're that of Mr.. Green, those Of the two
Nanny 8, " Easterly's header" and Geo.
H. Riggs and VIM. Cogswell's reapers. The
a. side draft machines were often very
heavy, and required great power to over
come the weight, friction, gravitation and
resistance of the grain. Riggs machine ran
directly ahead of the horses, and therefore
all side-draft was avoided; but 1t was steered
like o steamboat, by guiding the hind wheels
by crank, which moved a sag wheel in a
half circle segment of cogs, to the right or
left, thus enabling the "steersman" to run
the machine independent of the horses,
whose duty it was only to pull, This ma
chine was lightrunning and really an ex-
cellen: harvester. Following these machines
have come self. binders and bundle carriers,
contrivsnces to reduce the cutting and bind
ing Of grain to merely frolic Of man and
two horses or four horses.
Threshing, too, has progressed wonderful
ly since the old settlers used fail. The
next and most expeditions mode, but not
commendable because not nicely clean, was
the small circus ring, on which the sheaves
we're spread, and horses, sometimes ridden
and guided and lead by boy, trsmped out
the grain. It was very primitive scheme,
but the most rapid method Of threshing,
that had been invented by man in six thous
and years! Some genius conceived the idea
of pulling grain through an apparatus some
thing like an old fax heckle, and when it
was found that wooden cylinder could be
made, with spikes in rows 30 as to revolve
-thresh out the grain and carry the straw
with it, the idea evolved into q thresher con-
sisting Of wooden cylinder covered with
rows Of spikes or teeth, revolving
between other spikes in concave. This ma
chine was terror to thresh, but it carried
out the straw, chat, wheat or oats, chess
weeds, &C., in torrent and left them all in
. heap, 10 be separated as best they might
be. A few years later came the Wemple s.
Son thresher and separator.-the latter
mere fanning.mill, attached near the cylin-
der. Separators have multiplied and improve
ments have been made till it would seem to
be perfect thing beyond which nothing is
desirable. Recently while passing the farm of
VIM. Bowers in Dayton, and seeing St cam
threshing machine at work, We had q curios-
ity to see it and compare its operations with
that of the old machine ran by us nearly 40
years ago. Our machine had to be loaded
upon wagon, the horse power upon another
and the band wheel, arms, mauls. heavy
stakes, &C., on another. To set a machine
was no light task. The ground had to be
leveled for the three portions of the machine,
each unloaded and securely fastened to its
spot of ground, the horses hitched, &c,-in
Ill about half an hours time was required
to start Here we found no horses, q ma
chine Oh its own wheels, driven by q daisy
Of ten horse power steam engine, made Of
wrought iron and steel, every part as neat as
the works of 6rstclass locomotive. 1t
works noiselessly and therefore with little or
no friction. The engine has all the modern
in the way of pumps, gauges,
water supplies, &c. 1t burns but little coal,
uses but two small tanks Of water daily, and
ian be guided upon the road as easily as
common lumber wagon, and all this with the
hresher and tank wagon in tow, and with
tut the help Of horses. The thresher is a |
splendid affair, provided with every modern