The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1893-08-31
HEADS AND THRESHES
A Combination Machine That
Reyolutionizes Harvesting.
ours THE WHEAT AND SACKS IT.
Crop Reports From All Farming Coan-
ties Tell Of Increased Acreage and
an Abundant Yield

CoLFAx, Aug. 2a-Eery few people have
seen q combined header and fhresher NJ
work harvesting wheat at the rate OF
twenty-five acres day. leaving $40 sacks
Of clean grain piled in punches OF three
where growing stalks stood only q few
moments before. A machine to perform
such feats belongs TO the latest evo-
lutions OF inventive genius There
are NOT many Of them in the
world, and but two in the state of Wash
ington. These two are wading through
the fields near Endicott. twenty mi.es
west of Coifax. The device IS so perfect
and its work so satisfactory as 10 suggest
the prophecy that perhaps the next step
may bring out = contrivanee to cut.
thresh and haul TO market all in one
stroke.
Thirty horses are required to draw the
machine; and thirty horses hitched up in
one team might be added as a great draw
ing card to the biggest show on earth. The
horses go six abreast for four lengths, then
four abreast, and the leaders are single
span. Two drivers guide the animals,
one sitting in seat that pro-
jects twenty feet from the thresher
TO place almost over the heads of the
hindmost team, the other riding horse IN
the fourth team. One pair of lines on the
leaders serves TO guide the whole thirty,
for the other horses are tied TO one an
other in a network of unity.
The thresher is 2s-inch cylinder, and
the header projects to the right. cutting q
swath of eighteen feet. A man stands
upon the fore end of the thresher manipu-
lating small wheel, which has much the
appearance of pilot wheel on a boat.
THIS adjusts the header high or low. as the
grain may demand. since only the heads
are cut off, A lever is right handy to
the pilots feet. by which the thresher
automatically kept on level. The bull
shaft, extending from the outer end of the
header to the farther side of the thresher.
is thirty-two feet long. Three monstrous
wheels work upon it. one at either end
and one at the coupling between the
header and the thresher. The shaft is al
ways on level with the lay of the land.
The thresher rests upon pivot, and may
easily be leveled on any hill of
not greater than forty-fve degrees
pitch. The machine glides right along
over the steepest places. for the length Of
the bull shaft and the size OF the wheels
prevent sliding.
the spout, and he keeps his sacks in
punches of three to live before throwing
them off.
The chat from the elevator falls into
cart following behind. About ton accu-
mulates, when the load dumps itself.
The two harvesters have averaged about
twenty-five acres day each, but now that
the teams are broken In there will be less
delay and the operators expect to get over
thirty-fiye acres the rest of the season.
Lillis 4. Smith, owner of one of the CON-
binations, says his heading and threshing
already done costs him $i75 an acre.
against IS under the old misunderstanding,
stacking and threshing separately. The
machine stood him at 81 800 laid down,
while threshing OUTFIT alone, old style,
sells for s., 500 to $500, aud the heading
apparatus represents an expense of 5000,
counting the header boxes and unloading
appliances.
The first test of the combined harvester
on Palouse hills few weeks ago met a
good deal of skepticism, but its work has
proved eminentiy successful; so the be-
ginning of revolution in harvesting
hereabouts has actually taken place.
II some enterprising capitalists could be
induced TO establish factory in this state
they would find an unlimited demand for
the product The machine is in its in
fancy, and now would be the time to enter
an open market