PRACTICAL HARVESTING.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1825, 28 October 1884, Page 2

PRACTICAL HARVESTING.

Tiie following is tho address delivered by Mr Guild of Te Ore Ore at the meeting of the Masterton Farmer's ' Club on 25th instant The subject I have desired to bring before you for discussion is one of 1 which you all have an intimate knowledgo of. I say practicable harvesting because this branch of farming cannot be propagated by theory. I shall merely touch on the difierent departments of harvesting to allow scope for discussion afterwards, taking the reapers and binders first, Every maker | has something what he calls an improvement in his machines, and still taking them collectively they are all good machines when applied to crops ' suitable for them, but the question I ' should like to arrive at is which is the best for general purposes. The McCormicks have had a good trial in the ' colonies, The perfection to which these makers have brought their machines, 1 and the improvements they have made enables them to compete in any field J successfully. Taking the draught of different machines as tested by the 1 dynameter shows their strength, as ' in the Howard. With a draught of 1 6 cwt. this machine competed in a field ; of green rye 6 feet long, and in fact was the only machine that could cut 1 and bind such a crop m a satisfactorily 1 manner, several other makers consider- 1 > ing their machines useless in such a crop, But it is so seldom that crops such as I have mentioned requires 1 cutting that we can dispense with that • weight of machines, and have one 1 more adapted for general crops, The ' Deering is a favorite with many, being : light in draught, about i cwt, a very good machine in light crops and will 1 get through a good day's work, but in I fairly heavy crops there are weak parts ' which causes delay, The Osborne ' machine as brought out first was very ' cumbersome, but last year they have ' got quite a different make which was ' satisfactorily represented, and generally " approved of where at work. Reid ■ Gray have a very fair machine but it is II a little heavy. In competition it shows very satisfactory work, but in practical 5 use is not very well adjusted, The 5 secret of a 'good machine is to have all its bearings equalized so that the f strain when it conies is well sustained. ' In two field trials it is not always the ' same machine that does the best work, 1 which is generally according to the 3 difference in the weight of the crop, J some being better adapted for 3 light grain and ethers for heavy. 3 Walter A, Wood is the maker of a nice ) light machine suitable for light crops, • having a draught of 3| cwt, being one ' of the lightest machines made, Now • I think we have nearly all the different 3 machines in Wairarapa, and I will ■ allow each gentleman to advocate in favor or otherwise of the machines in use. Heaping on damp mornings requires a machine with a high rate of : speed cut, otherwise the knife will not be able to out it. The canvas elevators 3 also giving and contracting with a little > wet on the straw is objectionable 5 because on a dewy morning they will 1 not work well, and a machine that is easily transported from one place to 1 another without taking it separate. ' Those points and many more require ; consideration before we can get at the best practable machine, and it is with i a view of arriving at this end that I > wish to discuss their different points for and against, Onoe have a good ' machine that will out all day long • without any unnecessary stoppages, : then I consider one of the greatest | difficulties is over. It is the fault of the farmer if he allows his grain to get 1 shrivelled up standing uncut, for to secure a good sample, grain must be 1 cut as soon as it is properly hardened. ' Of course everyone has their own idea 1 as to the proper time, but it is 1 generally allowed in wheat that to cut as [soon as the grain has absorbed its milk is proper, and oats much the same for a plump sample. Stroking is made easy, and one man is equal to a machine except in very heavy cases. Stooking also requires attention so to have them set so that the sun at midday strikes both sides, or if there are prevailing winds in harvest, set towards those prevailing winds. This allows the grain to mature properly, or in wet seasons to dry quickly, so that when the grain is stacked it is secured. 1 say secured because I consider that a properly built stack ought to keep out any rain, that is, from going down down through the stack. Of course in damp mild weather grain will gnw standing, and the outside grain on the stack roof will grow also, but further than that there ought to be no damage, It seems quite common in some districts to see stacks with gieen heads, and green means grief to the farmer! In other localities it is exceptional, even where the threshing is not finished till May. Therefore haying the roof of a stack properly built is an advantage to farmers generally, For they can a better price for wheat seconds when there is no grown grain in the market, and it is much easier for those who have .to thresh it out of the stack. Consider the number of bushels that are rejected from a few growing sheaves on the roof of a stack so much so that it sometimes effects the whole sample. But of course this is put down for being badly threshed or badly cleaned, Threshing is generally done as agreed, but there are many different modes of threshing, and if you save a penny it accumulates to a pound, and the saving of bushels accumulates to bags. I may say three are general, viz,, threshing out so much per bushel, finding everything, and ieaving the grain in bags in the paddook j threshing at so much per bushel, and finding the hands, driver, feeder, and bagman; threshing at so much per hour or day, and finding three hands. But I would ask what : is the customary way that threshing is done here—the grower to find < wood and water, the contractor finding 1 water cart, barrels and buckets, In ' threshing out of the stack is it necessary ' for the grower to be always present to i watch i/he progress of the threshing to 1 see that the grain is cleaned, that the i feeder is putting his sheaves in regular, < and to look how much grain is being 1 carried up the elevators or left on the i straw 11s it necessary in the Wairarapa i when you engago a threshing machine t

that the grower must be present to watcli all those proceedings? Is it customary for the Machinist to lay ground cloths to catch any grain falling between the machine and stack 1 Is it customary for the grower to find a tarpaulin to put over a stack when the same is not finished at night by the machinist, and is every grower to have a tarpaulin on hand for that purpose when one tarpaulin with a machine would clo for all; and yet with all those disadvantages some farmers consider the price charged for threshing too high, say 5d for wheat and 4d for oats per bushel, But the easiest way to ascertain that is to jjut the grower in the contractors place, and ask him at what percentage he would invest his capital, Taking wear and tear and buildings for machine into consideration, putting the machine and buildings at £BOO, hov many 1000 bushels would you require to thresh and what per cent, would you allow on the capital considering that a machine only lasts a few years? Would 20 per cent be equal to the interest on money and allow tor the deterioration of the machine! Well 20 per cent, on £BOO iO 160. But what is the cost of threshing 1000 bushels considering that the contractor pays for all labor at the charged? Would you reckon the rate of wages at per 1000 bushels, say 10 men at 18s per 1000 is £9, and 1000 bushels at 4Jd is £lB 15s; .that is £9 15s per 1000 for the machinist. Now how many 1000 bushels does he require to thresh to make his interest—£l6o? Would each machine command 16,000? At least they would require to. The cost of production is the next consideration, To farm profitably we want to know at what cost we can grow wheat per bushel. Of course in farming there is sometimes more to consider than the actual producing of grain. The land is renewed and improved by ploughing, the grass improved whereby the carrying capacity for stock is increased. But taking the producing of grain as a department by itself, what are we able to produce and sell our grain at per bushel ? Two points to consider are—what is the cost per acre, and how many bushels does that acre produce? The cost of working an acre does not vary very much, but the yi«ld per acre in different seasons under various circumstances is ; often very different. Taking the working and growing of wheat, say ploughing Bs, seed 10s, sowing and harrowing ss, reaping lis, stacking Bs, threshing 35 bushels 14s 7d, delivering at Id per bushel per 3 miles 3s, rent 40s, taking the average crop at 35 bushels per acre, and allowing 40s for rent and interest on working plant by those expenses, we are able to sell the produce at 3s per bushel. Therefore, considering that the price of wheat in the Wairarapa is 4s, we have an advantage over our southern competitors, all other advantages being the same'. But to put the average at 25 bushels, we require 4s per bushel to make it pay here. At the Royal Agricultural Society trial of self binding reapers in August, 16 machines competed for the £IOO first and £SO second prize, and several of those were made by one firm. The competitors were Howard, of Bedford, 3; Samuelson, of Banbury, 2; Hornsby. of Grantham, 3; McCorinick, 3; Walter A, Wood, 2; Kersley, of ilipon, 1 j Johnston (unworkable), 1; H. J, H. Kiug, of Stroud (too heavy draught), 1. With the exception of Walter A. Wood's machine, the packing, knotting, and delivering mechanism is in all cases a modification, more or less original, of the socalled American Appleby binder,