Country Life
THE NEW HARVEST.
Harvest has been reaped this year on the prairie principle, in five counties: Norfolk, Oxford, Hants, Cambridge and Haddington. A gigantic machine—the Clayton Harvester- thresher, the only one of its sort made in England, has defied the limitations of our fields and weather, and completed the harvest in one process. It reaps, threshes, sorts and bags the grain all at the same time, throwing out not bound sheaves but groups of filled sacks. The success has been marked, in spite of laid crops, flattened and tangled by thunder-dorms ; and has been made possible in this country by the perfection of a new drying process to which the grain is subjected after threshing. On one farm unit in Norfolk, belonging to those great pioneers, Parker and Proctor, two of these machines were at work simultaneously, cutting and threshing from 25 to 30 acres a day apiece ; and more would have been used, if a sufficient team of skilled hands had been available. Though simple and by no means delicate such a multiple machine needs, of course, special knowledge. The spectacle of the machine at work was most persuasive, at least to my eyes ; and the farmer and even the farm hands seemed to be well pleased. The excellent crops, both of barley and wheat, doubtless promoted such satisfaction.
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