This new English-made combined-harvester—the Clayton— which is to be used
on this farm is a comparatively simple and compact affair. Two men can manage it, though it will cut up to 14 feet at a swathe and simultaneously perform the operations of cutting, threshing, sacking and grading the grain. One of the chief differences compared with machines used overseas, where the straw is regarded as valueless, is that the undamaged straw falls out at the tail of the machines, while the full sacks slide to the ground at the other side to the reaping knives. At a moderate average, on an ordinary "day's Work 21 acres a day would be thus harvested ; but nice adjustments to suit the weight and dryness of the crop are necessary. This area would be greatly exceeded in dealing with a light and dry crop. One of the advantages of the method that I have heard no one stress is the saving of the loss in stack from rats and mice ; and it is likely, I should say, that a spread of the method would result in a permanent diminution of these costly plagues.
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