It would appear that it is impossible to secure the binding of every single sheaf. Here and there, even with the best binders, an occasional miss will occur, in which the corn is thrown out unbound. However, with Messrs Samuelson's machine this was extremely rare, and the neatness of the sheaves produced was remarkable. No doubt the shortness of the crop in the portion allotted to this machine may have had something to do with this, as a longer straw is more likely than a shorter one to connect two sheaves and produce that hanging together which in other machines is so often observed to precede a miss in the binding. Mr. Wood's machine had a stronger crop and longer straw to deal with, and the hanging together of the sheaves occurred far too frequently, and was almost always followed by a loose sheaf. The Johnston harvester went through a very fair performance; there was no hanging except at turning the corners, and the piece of work was finished in a shorter time than with the other machines. Notwithstanding the automatic character of the gear for binding, we believe it will be found that the sheaves produced in these machines vary very much in weight.
At about 10:20 the next lot of machines started. They were those of the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, Messrs. Howard, and Messrs. Aultman & Co. Of these, the first-named only has the automatic trip. We believe it made no miss in binding during this trial, and the sheaves were neat, though, perhaps, rather too tightly bound. There was no hanging together or check in this run. The machine of Messrs. Aultman & Co. was not so successful in separating the sheaves, though this was not so often followed by an unbound sheaf as in some other machines. Sometimes as many as three sheaves, clinging closely together, were ejected at one time. To avoid this a man walked by the machine, and assisted the delivery of the sheaf. The tension of the string which binds the sheaves varies a good deal in this machine, some of the sheaves being rather too loosely held together, while at other times the fault is in the other direction. In Messrs. Howard's machine there is a tendency in the sheaves to cling together, but this is not accompanied to any extent with missing the binding. Mr. King attempted a run after the three last had finished their plots; but his machinery had not been fully adjusted, and after one course the trial stopped. As far as one could judge from this short performance, the chief fault in the sheaf produced was the uncertain position of the string upon it. Sometimes this was near the bottom of the straw, and sometimes among the corn. Unfortunately at 11:25 the rain began, and experiments were stopped till the afternoon. It was no light shower which could give a check to the ardor of the judges and other officers of the society, but a heavy downpour of some hours' duration, which soaked the crop through and through. Indeed, we think it a pity that the experiments should have been continued at all under circumstances in which practical harvesting would have been out of the question. However, after a short lull in the rain, the machines of Mr. Wood, Messrs. Samuelson, and the McCormick Harvesting Company went into the wet barley. The machine of Mr. Wood worked most rapidly, but the clinging of the sheaves and the failure to bind were again very apparent. The stubble left by this machine was the shortest and most even of the three. The machines of Messrs. Samuelson and the McCormick Company left a very ragged, long, and uneven stubble in this trial, though the delivery and binding of the sheaves seemed to be as good as in the oats trial. The binding in the former was rather too tight.