The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1913-04-11
THREsHINe WITHOUT RgAPINe

claim of Frank Morse. who describes
in the Technical World Magazine the
recent invention of q Kansan, Curtis
c. Baldwin. The machine has been
used for three successive harvests,
bur proved It's utility and practicable
ity most conclusirely last fall when
il threShed from twenty-five to thirty
acres OF standing grain in d ten-hour
day The inventor contends that it
will reduce the cost OF harvest from
fourteen cents to two cents a bushel.
We read:
The principle Of the new-styIe
thresher is simple \ strong blast OF
air from a revolving fan is blown
against the standing grain, and fore
es it against a toothed cylinder. which
threshes off the grain. depositing It in
a trough. from which it is elevated by
an augur to another toothed cylinder,
which re-thFeshes it. The chat is
blown out and the clean grain falls
into a sack, or may be carried through
a tube to a wagon driven alongside.
Four horses pill the thresher over
the field, while a small gasoline en-
CINE operates the machine. Only two
men are required. one TO drive the
horses. and the otrer TO tie the sacks
of threshed grain and look after the
engine.
Not the least advantage claimed
for the new machine is that it dis
penses with the ever-present need OF
farm hands at the harvest season,
when grain rots in the field because
Of the utter impossibility Of getting
men when they are most needed. Ey-
cry year an urgent cry for harvest
hands comes out Of Kansas, the Da-
kotas and Minnesota, 10 be answered
by college students But no matter
how urgent the call, it is impossible
to get enough men. and fields of grain
stand waiting the threshers while mil
lions of dollars worth of damage may
be done by the elements at any mo-
ment. The new-style thresher makes
it possible for four horses and two
men TO harvest a 1G0-acre oat field in
a week. What this means TO the farm
wife cannot be overestimated 1t
means an end to the big meals over
he hot stove. where she is compelled
% toll from early morn till late at
night to feed the hungry horde of har
vest hands who shove food into their
mouths as they would grain into a
hopper.
The c1nsus experts show that
more than a billion and a half bush
is of wheat and oats are produced
in the United States every year The
present cost of threshing and sacking
s approximately fourteen cents al
bushel, which makes the present har
-est fee aboatS 210,0C0,000. Mr.. Bald
win claims that his machine reduces
he price per bushel from fourteen
:ents to two cents. which would re-
duce the threshing tariff to about $780,
100000, an annual saving of a fabu-
Gus fortune ranging from a sixth TO
quarter of a billion dollars every
ear The saving in the wear and
ear of the farm-wife and in the con-
umption of food by the hungry har-
est hands can hardly be computed.
at it is a considerable item. as ev-
rybody knows, who has ever seen a
orde of threshers swoop down upon
well-laden table, like seventeen-year-l
Id locusts on a field of tender green
sprouts.
With the ordinary thresher. as
tell as my own, the threshing is done
rinc.pally at the cylinder, says Mr..
baldwin. With the ordinary machine
is estimated that the grain passes
ne cylinder at the rate of a mile a
minute with my machine the grain
asses the cylinder as fast as horses
an walk, or about three and half
niles an hour. You can see that with
ny machine the cylinder strikes the
heads seventeen times where the or
linary machine strikes them once. 1
My use the mile-a-minute cylinder as
| re-threshing device. | use the same
irinciple that is used in blowing
eavy corn fodder into a high silo,
md almost the same principle that is
Ised in drawing sand from the river
md in drawing cotton from wagon
The saving to the grain farmer
consists not only in dispensing with
he many high-waged threshers. but
also in the time formerly lost by cut
ing the grain. hauling it 10 the stack
and then hauling the threshed straw
back 10 the land. where. as a rule,
it is ultimately burned up
sir. Baldwin 1gures that it is best
to take the thresher to the field than
to take the field to the thresher. Be
eidoc tho saving in time and labor