19 SEPTEMBER 1931, Page 13

Country Life

" COMBINE " HARVESTERS.

Whether the "-combine " machines will help to bring profit to the grain-grower in England, with its little fields and mixed farmings, we do not know, but the machine itself is a wonder, well worth watching for its mere mechanical perfection. It is interesting enough to watch, as I have often watched this year, the ordinary cutter and binder, shooting out well-bound sheaves in regular lines and com- pleting the harvesting of ten acres a day without the use of a tractor. Up to a point the new " combine " is much the same as the older harvester. It cuts a broad swathe, conveys the straw and grain on a side-action canvas conveyor out of sight ; but here all likeness ceases. Thereafter the grain is threshed, winnowed, riddled, fanned, dressed, cleaned, sorted into different qualities and sacked. The sacks are delivered into heaps ready for carting wherever desired. Chaff, straw, good grain and poor grain are all separated into convenient parcels.

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