NEW HARVESTING DEVICE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 158, 23 March 1918, Page 10

NEW HARVESTING DEVICE

Great interest is being evinced by farmers in Now South Wales in a new device for picking up crops laid flat by wind and rain, in the shape of a > false comb for attachment to any stripper, harvester, or reaper thrasher. The inventor is .Mr. H. 15. Lookwood, of Dehingra, and the merit' of the design lies in a wonderful flexibility and free movement of the prongs forming the comb, and the fact that any ;ffong broken or bent can be replaced by a "spare" in less than a minute. The invention has had a severe trial on a orop of barley grown by Mr. S. Hutclrings, at Delungra (says the Sydney "Telegraph''). Tho paddock of barley contained 40 acres, from which a yield of 500 bags was originally expected. On Now Year's Day a gale and S inches of rain laid it completely flat. "When 'the weather dried an attempt to recover the crop failed, and it was abandoned and an attempt i made to burn it, and then stock were allowed into the paddock. Finally there was no more sign of crop to the casual observer than on a stock route, but plenty burrs, thistles, "hare poles, tat lieu," milk, thistle, and other vines and weeds. Spectators who went to see the machine at work passed through the paddock without knowing that there was a crop there at all. Into this tangle of rubbish Mr. Lockwood drove his machine with its six prongs, and a medley of apparent rubbish was .gathered lip, passing along the carrier into the drums; but the final .result was a fine sample of barley, slightly disooloured, which would make a good third. Sometimes there was a choking at the point of a prong, and the horses had to be stopped. Mr. Lockwood lias recovered 110 bags from half the paddock, and on orfe'afternoon ho secured 30 bags.