sired quantity of grain. As labor saving machines in the harvest field, they need but the addition of a practicable automaton binder to make the triumph complete. The McCormick Self-Raker differs in principle from either of the preceding, and the raking contrivance is liable to serious objections. 1. It is a jointed elongation of one of the arms or bars of the reel, and to insure durability the machine must be made so heavy and cumbrous as to require four horses to operate it. 2. There is no provision made for "sizing the gavels." At each revolution of the reel a gavel is swept off, whether in light or heavy grain-a very objectionable feature, as every farmer well understands. The machine of Cline, Seiberling & Hower, "The Excelsior," is a self-deliverer. The principal objection to it seems to us to be that it delivers the grain in the rear, and thus in the return track of the horses on the following round. The cut grain must of necessity be taken up, bound and cast aside immediately after the machine has passed, which is often inconvenient, and with oats impracticable, or it is liable to be trampled upon and run over by the team, which could hardly be tolerated by the prudent farmer. The remaining Independent Reapers are hand-rakers, and, in their dass, certainly deserve a front rank. INDEPENDENT MOWERS. Of the eleven entries all did their work well, and but one-the "Excelsior"-failed to make its appearance on the last day in the prairie grass. We have no further distinctions to make than are shown by the preceding tables. Probably no equal number of first class mowers were ever before assembled in the same field. The figures in the tables show how near perfection, in the judgment of the Committee, American genius has arrived. HEADERS. In referring to these machines, we desire to make the following points-premising that the table (No. 4) shows that in grading the two machines which were tried, quality of work determined the award. On other points the two, in the aggregate, are equal. 1. The Committee believe that, in the operation of "heading" grain-that is, cutting off the heads with a small quantity of straw much time is saved in gathering the crop, but that much of the value of the crop may be lost to the farmer unless every part of the operation of harvesting is well, carefully and thoroughly done. 2. It is doubtless true that grain left standing until sufficiently ripe and dry to cure well when properly stacked, may be harvested and put in the stack or rick securely at the rate of twenty acres per day by one Header, two wagons with beds or boxes constructed for the purpose, seven men and eight horses. 3. It is somewhat hazardous to permit grain to remain so long in the field; and if, from any cause, it has been so left, and the harvesting is done by a Header, the greatest care should be exercised both in the gathering and stacking; and the stacks, if not immediately threshed out, should be securely thatched with some material equal for that purpose to long prairie hay. We are aware of the claim by some that grain may be cut by the Header and safely stacked after it, when as green as to be harvested in good condition by any other method. This may be pos sible, but does not seem to us at present practicable. Grain cut as "early" as many farmers prefer to cut it and stacked in bulk immediately from the field, in the manner usual with those harvesting with Headers, will surely become musty and deteriorated in quality; and, in our judgment, to avoid this result with such grain will demand preparations for ventilating the stacked grain, either by arrangement of barns or fixtures in the stack yard, which cannot, for the present, be profitably made. 4. Lodged grain is not so readily gathered by the Header as by the Reaper. 5. The two machines presented were probably the best of their class. The Haines' Harvester, represented by Messrs. Barber, Hawley & Co., Pekin, Illinois, performed its work admirably, taking the wheat clean, and the operators stacking it in a workmanlike manner. Time of cutting three acres, 87 minutes. The Mayberry machine, represented by Messrs. J. C. and C. N. Mayberry, Rockford, Illinois, failed to exhibit work of the first quality. The cutting was not well done, and the stacking very badly. The time consumed in cutting the three acres was fiftyeight minutes. Quality of work seemed to be sacrificed to time. Each machine cuts a swath ten feet, two inches wide. ONE-HORSE MOWERS. But a single machine was presented, "Wood's One-horse Mower." At present there is probably no large demand in the West for machines of the capacity of this; and, until our large farms are subdivided, there is not likely to be. In the smaller meadows of the States lying east of us, and especially in those with uneven surface, or where the timber has been recently taken off, the stumps still remaining, this small and excellent machine will, we think, be found very serviceable. In the test it performed to our entire satisfaction, and although there was no competition, it is highly commended. BURSON'S AMERICAN GRAIN BINDER. This implement, though not regularly entered, was examined by the committee. It can be attached readily to any ordinary hand raking reaper, and with one man to operate it, will leave the grain substantially bound with wire as rapidly as horses ordinarily walk, while drawing a reaper. The remarks and descriptions of the machine, which follow, are from the inventors themselves, and we are willing to say that so far as we are enabled to judge correctly, they exaggerate little if any the excellence of the implement. Although not yet perfect, we regard this as the most promising invention for binding grain by machinery we have observed. Whoever has a distinct recollection of our western harvests prior to the introduction of the reaper, can appreciate how much that implement has done for the farmer, one item in the count being, that it has doubled the capacity for wheat growing in the west. From the time that the reaper has been brought to practical perfection in working, the binding has been the hard part of harvesting, and an implement that would perform this important labor has been anxiously looked for by intelligent agriculturists. The first attempts at machine binding were made with the intention of using the straw for bands, and although some of them were very ingenious, yet the great dissimilarity in the band material, and the complicated machinery required, for making the difficult motions rendered all such binding devices practically useless. Some very ingenious attempts have been made to use twine and cord of different kinds of manufacture, yet the devices for tying a knot are necessarily complicated; also for twisting and tacking the ends, which would render useless an implement designed for general use among farmers. The liability for such bands to be eaten by crickets and grasshoppers in the field, and by mice and rats in the stack, is also thought to be objectionable. Still another objection to the use of twine is its cost, which, according to our estimate, is about double that of wire. The introduction of wire as a band material marks a new era in harvesting-its extreme cheapness, amounting, at the usual price, to about twenty cents per acre. The simplest form of machinery fastens the band, being only a twist, while its durability is proof against all the causes which destroy other bands. All who have used them speak in praise of the manner in which the bands hold. The cut represents Burson's American Grain Binder, which is placed upon the reaper platform in such position that the grain is shoved to it instead of being thrown upon the ground, enabling one man to bind the usual swath of the reaper. In the cut (the full lines show the mechanism in position to receive the gavel, the dotted position that of binding the sheaf) the reciprocating arm, A, moves upon its supports, and consists of four pieces, which we call, severally, the main arm, fore arm, handle piece and lever, receiving its peculiar motion by the lower end of the lever, moving in the irregular grooves in the uprights. The wire reel, R, is placed upon the rear extension of the main arm, and serves by its weight to counterbalance the weight of the arm. The curved ratchet rods act upon a ratchet pulley, placed upon a reel, which are so arranged that any desired tension may be placed upon the wire, which is drawn tight around a large or small sheaf. At the same time the wire is placed around the gavel, a cord, fastened near the end of the fore arm, is also thrown around the gavel, and by means of the weight, W, fastened thereon, any pressure can be brought upon the sheaf desired, thereby assisting the wire in drawing the sheaf tight. In operating this Binder, it is placed upon any reaper platform (most platforms are extended for that purpose) in such position that the forker can most easily move the grain to it, when the binder, standing on that side of the implement next the butts of the grain, takes hold of the handle, H, and pushes it down, which puts the band around the gavel, then with the other hand he makes one revolution of the crank, C, which twists the ends of the band together, cuts the sheaf portion of the wire from the reel portion, and securely fastens the end of the wire. While the handle is being raised the sheaf drops off, which may be assisted by the foot, when the implement is ready for another sheaf. The use of this implement has these, among other advantages: 1. The saving of about four-fifths the labor of binding, where the grain is thrown into the stubble. 2. Saving the greater part of the grain lost in the ordinary method of binding. 3. Relieving the farmer of much of that vexation which accompanies the hiring of a large number of hands in performing urgent work, where advantage is often taken of the farmer's necessities, and exorbitant prices demanded. 4. The grain bound with wire handles with less loss than in the common method, both in the field and in threshing, and the wire bands prove no detriment in threshing, as they are cut and run through the machine without injury to either the straw or grain. Two of these binders were built and experimented with during the harvest of 1860; about twenty-five for the harvest of 1861; about two hundred were made and sold for the harvest of 1862. This implement is the invention of W. W. Burson, of Rockford, and H. M. Burson, of Atkinson, Illinois. MISCELLANEOUS. An exhibition of farm implements and machinery, other than those to be tested by us, had been invited, and several inventors responded. The place designated was the Public Square in Dixon. The Executive Board, finding it impossible, without neglecting other important engagements, to make a personal examination of these implements, appointed a committee to attend to this business, who submitted the following report: DIXON, ILL., July 28, 1862. We, the undersigned, committee, appointed by the State Board of Agriculture of Illinois, have examined one of Michael's improved Indiana fanning mills, grain and seed separators, which was on exhibition by Hansel, Burr & Co., of Peoria, at the trial of reapers and mowers, held at Dixon, would respectfully report: That we have examined the above named mill and seed separator, and have seen it operate in all the various branches of cleaning grain and seeds, such as separating oats and all other foul stuff from wheat, and also separating timothy seed from clover, cleaning them perfectly. We have tried it on time, and saw it clean Spring Wheat at the rate of seventy-five bushels per hour, and do good work. We can cheerfully recommend it to the public, and especially to farmers, as a good fanning mill, and the best seed separator that has ever come under our notice. J. W. BECKER, DIXON, ILL., July 28, 1862. We, the undersigned, committee, appointed by the State Board of Agriculture, have examined one of Clark & Utter's Horizontal Sugar Cane Crushers, made at Rockford, Illinois, which was on exhibition at the trial of reapers and mowers, held at Dixon, Illinois, under the supervision of the officers of the State Board, and |