April18_2008

Botanical Glossary - Home - References Cited

The Stewart farm, circa 1880s, restored and furnished to represent what life was like at the turn of the century. Located on the banks of Nicomekl River, the Historic Stewart Farm operated as a hay farm for sixty years. The adjacent Hooser Weaving Centre features the art of textile making, and houses a collection of spinning wheels, and looms.

Photos - L-R - A Hay Tedder: Hay making began once the grass was cut. The cut rows or swaths had to be turned after a few days to speed up the drying process and to prevent damage to the hay from moisture. Tedders were hauled by a single horse. The revolving tines tossed the grass allowing the wind to blow through and dry it. These machines were so well equipped for this task that the were used well into the 20th century, especially were heavy swaths of grass had to be turned and scattered.

A detail of the gears and chains that operated hay moving functions in a Reaper Binder.

A Hay Rake was used to scoop the swaths of hay into rows that could be picked up by the Hay loader. This machine could be pulled behind a tractor or a horse.

The reaper-binder, or binder, was a farm implement that improved upon the reaper. The binder was invented in 1872 by Charles Withington. In addition to cutting the small-grain crop, it would also tie the stems into small bundles, or sheaves. These sheaves were then 'shocked' into conical stooks, resembling small tipis, to allow the grain to dry for several days before being threshed.

Withington's original binder used wire to tie the bundles. There were various problems with using wire and it was not long before William Deering invented a binder that used twine and a knotter (invented 1858 by John Appleby). John Appleby produced his invention in Beloit, Wisconsin.

Early binders were horse-drawn and powered by a bull wheel. Later models were tractor-drawn. The implement had a reel and a sickle bar, like a modern grain head for a combine harvester, or combine. The cut stems would fall onto a canvas, which conveyed the crop to the binding mechanism. This mechanism bundled the stems of grain and tied a piece of twin around the bundle. Once this was tied, it was discharged from the back of the binder.

With the replacement of the threshing machine by the combine, the binder became almost obsolete. Some grain crops such as oats are now cut and formed into windrows with a swather. With other grain crops such as wheat, the grain is now mostly cut and threshed by a combine in a single operation, while the binder is still in use at small fields or outskirts of mountain areas.

Photos - An amazing invention - the Reaper Binder. Details of the gears necessary to operate a system that would be pulled behind a horse which would cut hay that would fall into the binding mechanism.

Photos - Wide views of the Reaper Binder stored in the Pole Barn at the Stewart Farm located at 13723 Crescent Road.

Click here for more photos of The Historic Stewart Farm for this day.