Rual Colnmu.

Clutha Leader, Volume IV, Issue 187, 8 February 1878, Page 7

Rual Colnmu.

■y-K-'ss ■-■ <■ ••-■; ■ -•-- '- y — : ' .*;■;"! A SEASON'S EXPERIENCE OF A WOOD'S REAPER AND BINDER. :xs ■%< A ; writer in the Australasian says : • ; J -~As' -the newly-introduced Wood's reaper and binder will probably be in

: V ? T $ general use next season, I have no > d6ubt those farmers who have some > intention of availing themselves of its V assistance will be very glad to hear something of the experience of those '- who have used them in this their first ; season ; and having jusc concluded a lull season's work, I propose to give my opinions and experiences of th'S raj first season's trial. It; was with some considerable anxiety and fear 1 launched it fprth into the fields for. a continuous practical hsr, , with inexperienced men, as far as this i : machine was concerned, for its management and, control ; for it is one thing to have a trial with the assistance of the importer's skilled manager, and quite another thing to hand it over to the use of an ordinary farm hand. However, after a few hours' use of the machine in an open grass paddock to accustom the then to the management of the binding apparatus, 1 started •them off into practical work, following and directing them myself for a few rounds, .and a very short time was sufficient; to get them into s genera} ! tm'Herstahding of its various parts and to Tisnow I ' those parts requiring the more vigilantJattehtion.

Firstly ras to my opinion of its efficiency and economy, which I must -say/upon the whole, is very favourable, so much so that I have quite decided to have a second machine next, season, so as to obviate altogether the necessity for any hand -binding. Compared with the ordinary back-delivery reapers, it cuts much cleaner, and in fair ordinary grown- crops does, not leave one-fourib of scattered heads among the stubble that hand-binding does. It will also allow of the crop being fully ripe before commencing to cut, as the britdeness of the straw never impedes its efficiency as a binder;. but in hand-binding the crop must be begun in a soft state, or the binding will be impossible in the later stages. I have several seasons past miide experiments or trials of grain cut in various stages of growth and ripeness.' This season I gathered a bunch of heads with the last tinge of green upon them, some of a bright yellow colour, and some fully brown and the grain tough and hard ; the first took 34 grains, the second 30 grains, and the third 24 grains, respectively, to weigh a scruple when all were fully dry. ]\ow, if the las* represented a 20-bushel crop, the second stage in the same crop would be 16 bushels, and the same crop cut in the first stage would be 14 bushels. This, I think, is a very serious consideration. Of course it may be objected that grain too longdelayed in the cutting may shell out greatly before it gets cut, but my experience this season of a late cutting does not warrant any such fear or alarm. The grain remained in the very point of the ear, notwithstanding we had: very frequent high winds during the time, and no appreciable scattering of shelled grain was observable on the ground-

Another very important merit is, that there are no loose sheaves encountered in ; loading, stacking, or threshing, which always leads to very serious loss in the threshing, and straw bands are never threshed so well as straight grain.. The wire binds so tightly that it causes quite ,a perceptible expansion of the sheaves' bulk at both head and butt With regard to serious rack or breakages, 1 may state that I have had experience of reaping machines in all their stages of progression, 'from their first introduction in 1859. In the case of all the former ones there was no season ever occurred but what serious and frequent" breakages and rack took place, sometimes causing half a day's delay in the repairs, and the breakage of knives was often a daily occurrence when the machines- got a little loose and worn. In the reaper and binder not a single finger, light as they are, ever broke, and the same knife remained constantly in till the cutting was two- thirds through, and then I changed it because it had got a little jagged with the roughness of the ground. The connecting rod, at^crank and knife ends, was only just perceptibly worn when I finished ; and with a few precautionary measures before starting and during the continuance of the work there need be no anticipation of' any serious delay from, breakdowns. With respect, to draught:: upon the horses, we started with the 1 full anticipation that it would be heavy ; and^l provided for its being worked by relays of three horses eauh in four-hour shifts, from four o'clock in the morning till eight o'clock at night, or while there was sufficient daylight to see the crop. At first the men worked it with two horses till they had got a little used to the work, intending to put in the third one after a few days ; but they found the two, after getting well into their work, stepped along so easily and iv th a minimum of sweating, that the third horses were turned out as being, pi^foctly unnecessary. The horses wevp-ofß. good farm stamp — active and strong., *;, With regard to its economy, provided there are no serious stoppages, it may be "balanced- against the back-delivery aV:. : equali ' with continuous work and relays^to' Vmachine and a half ; thati^ two m£nraDd,four:horses for. the binder,

to twelve men four; and a half horses to the back -deli very — men ot 6s per day in each case, the latter working 1 from (5 to 7, inclusive of dinner and cribs The wire is, as near as can be, 21b; to the acre, equal to Is 4d ; but the saving of waste grain over the back-deliveiy ] put at certainty not less than 2s 6d per acre. But there are spots on the sun, nnd the reaper and binder is by no means a perftct macbine, as received from the importers' hands, but will have to b<> very materially modified in many of its details, before ie is equal to our rough hard soil and fierce climate. In the first place, it is necessary before starting to be provided with duplicates of those parts that are most subjected to wear or. injury, among which is a spare Ewart's back-chain, the double clinch and ratchet of the binding apparatus, a spare bindinghead, and two or three at least of a small piece forming half the fork and of the revolving compressing arms. This, through the alternate passing of the wire from back to front at every sheaf, causes quite a groove to be cut in the back of it in a very short time, so as to hold the wire from passing to the front, in which case an unbound sheaf is the invariable result. This piece is merely rivetted on, and can be changed for a fresh part with very little trouble by unrivetting the old one and rivetting in a new one. The double clutch and ratchet of the binding apparatus is subject to so much wear through heing constantly puc in and out of gear at every sheaf, that all the angles are worn off before the season is half through. And here, f think, is a defect in the first construction, it is speeded too quick; and a provision might have been made for graduated speeds, say a t SOi't and 40ft distances. At present it is 20ft, which would represent quite a 30-bushel crop or more. Simula anything occur with the binding-head to impede its working 1 , the spare one may be substituted in a few minutes, and then the defective one may be taken

home and examined at leisure. It is also absolutely necessary to have one or two spare pairs of the spring that bends fur holding* the 'sheaf on the binding 1 table. These broke with me before the second week was out, and I had to finish with short iron ones,, avery inefficient substitute. I now come to some parts of the machine that are radically wrong- in their construction, and must be altered if it is to have anything like endurance; and, firstly, the horizontal canvas belt or apron that carries the grain to the elevator must be abolished altogether. In my case it began to wear immediately, and during 1 the cutting 1 I put in two new ones, and at the latter end had a nightly job of repairing, and had an absolute stop on the last day through it, with eight acres to cut, which I

finished with a fork delivery as preferable ro the delay and expense of another apron. During the latter half of the cutting quite a fourth of the time was lost thi'ough this cause. Some other contrivance must be adopted for this par^ if serious delay and annoyance is to be avoided. I propose myself 1p do without the canvas, and adopt the principle of the thresher straw elevator to it, using two or three vulcanised indiarubber belts, travelling on a boarded Top, covered with light galvanised iron, and light battens at short intervals securely fastened to the belts. A further defect in connection with this part is the light H boards which form the bottom of the frame over which the apron travels, to protect it from the clods and stubbles. Some of these u-pre knocked off with me before T. worked an hour, arid were being knocked off and replaced during the whole of the cutting Tbe?e I shall replace with a stout sheet- iron bottom, securely boltpd to the frame, so that I shall be able to cut as low as T require, and jf any obstacle is encountered, it

can ride over it without injury. There are other Jess important parts of the msichine where wear may be prevented by the use of a little sheet-iron, but as they will last, through the season, they may be passed over as they will suggest themselves. I now come, lastly, to the most serious defect in the construction of the whole machine, and that is the main travelling' wheel, upon which the whole affair bangs, and from which it receives its motion. A good deal of injury and wear in this part might be avoided if fuller instructions were sent with the machine, and though with care this might be made to last well through a season, or even two, it is too light in construction to have long endurance. The main principle of the construction of this wheeL is that one half of the spokes rest upon the main half of the boss or nave, and is capable of being drawn over by four light bolts. By screwing upon these every spoke is brought more psrpendicularly, thus causing a greater pressure of the spokes upon the inside circumference of the wheel, similar to that caused by cutting a tire, so that before commencing work or putting* the machine together it would be well to see that there is a space left for the bosses 10 come close together, and bring them closer if there is the least slackness. For the want of this knowledge the spokes dropped completely out with me, and caused me, a whole day's delay; but even if this precautionary measure is taken the encjs of the spokes will cause so much wear and destruction of the wood of the circumference of the wheel as goon to

.cause very considerable injury. I would recommend that the spokes of. the wheels be numbered and taken out, and good hard leather let into the level of the wood, and securely fastened with small wire nails, to .receive the ends of the spokes, so- as to prevent this wear of the wood and take the pressure of the weight. I did this, and with the very best effect. But this inward pressure is very apt to cause the joints of the broad thin felloes to open instead of to close, as in the cutting of a tire or band. It would be far better if the wheel was constructed with gin iron of thfi same breadth, and fitted with iron spokes upun the same principle, and then as the toothed gearing wore it could be fitted with a new part without interfering with the spokes or tires, which might last out several gearings. With these_vavious improvements I have suggested, and others that will suggest themselves, the machine may be. made thoroughly durable, and kept continuously at work without the loss and annoyance of frequent stoppages. It will Then be a most valuable and ec6nomical aid to the farming community. There are several things that are somewhat important in preparing for its use, among which is that the ground must be fined down by some means, either by rolling", harrowing or other wise, and that crops of a fair average heiffht and thickness should be insured, as it certainly works much more perfectly every way in a good crop than it does in short, thin stuff. The foregoing, I think, will embrace all that it is important to know in the working of these machines, at least as far as my experience-goes, and I hope it may save intending purchasers from annoyance and impatience, from the loss of time and trouble jn getting over the frequent stoppages which will be sure to occur if some of the precautions I have stated are not taken.