Year: 1879

ing the past two months to get ossession


of such facts as would enable us to place the


subject in the proper light before our read


ers, and the result Of our investigation war


rant us in saying that the wire binder as


generally used by farmers the past season


is an unqualified nuisance to the miller. We


may here state in explanation of the fact


that some millers have emphatlcally de-


clared they experience no trouble, that very


much depends upon circumstances. 1t the


grain is threshed while the wire is still


bright, and the farmers take sufficient care


i'll cutting the bands, little Or no inconven-


lence will be experienced by the miller.


However, it is well-known fact, that very


frequently wheat is stacked for long time


preceding the threshing, during which time


the wire has opportunity to become rusty
and brittle, breaking very easily. Besides
this, who will undertake to say that farm
ers, or rather their employees, take anything
like adequate care in seeing that no wire
goes upon the thresher? Small bits of wire
cannot be seen in the wheat after they are
broken up in passing through the threshing
machine. A miller of our acquaintance
stood for several hours at the receiving hop
per where grain was poured into the bin
from farmers wagons in an almost cease
less stream, and saw but one piece Of wire
and yet from grinding that very wheat he
experienced great pecuniary loss and still
greater annoyance from the invisible bits of
wire. The tact that the rusteu wire when
broken up BY the machine becomes invisi-
BILE is in nOwise calculated to make the
farmer careful, as no evidence Of his negli-
gence is obtainable until after his wheat is
sold and the miller's money pocketed.
Those milers who have not been annoyed
by wire i'll their wheat have their good for
tune and careful farmers to thank. Their
testimony, however, is negative, and when
farmers adduce their statements in support
of the wire binders, they are like the thief
who, in order to overcome the testimony of
two witnesses who saw him steal coat,
offered to bring forward two dozen men
who did not see him steal it.


In mills where Wire-bound wheat has
been ground, pieces of the wire have been
taken from the separators, from the brushes,
from the bran, from the mddllngs, and
found in the flour. How they get there we
will explain in moment. We have col
lection of these bits of wire. and ugly look
ing specimens they are. Those that had
gone through the burrs were of course fat
tened ont, and range in size from six
teenth Of an inch to an inch and half in
length, The edges are sharp and not un-
like knife-blade as suggested by CORES
pondent in another column. When exam
ined through a microscope, this edge pre-
sents serrated appearance, and one can ca
silly see how formidable an enemy it is to
the delicate boiling cloth which receives the
chop with these miniature saws and raisors
mixed up with it. One miller informed us
that these pestilential pieces of fiattened
wire bad ruined our hundred dollars worth
of boiling cloth in his mill this year, and |
others had similar experiences to relate
Not only this. all Of these pieces OF wire
were not so wide as piece of the wire used
in binding would be if it flatteneu out equal
ly, showing that small portions of the wire
had been detached by the stones, fact fur
ther proved by the saw-like appearance of
the edge of the wire. The effect of wire |
passing through the stones on the face of
the stones and on the chop need not be en-
larged upon here. Every miller will appre-
cate the full extent of the evil. Bits of wire
have been taken from the hoop OF the burrs
by the handful. The tact carries its own
moral.


To many. and even to some millers, ID |
may appear strange that wire could find lis
way through the numerous cleaning ma