Combines Question will you set my terms straightIJ

The "reaper" invented by Cyrus McCormick in 1831. Others claimed to have also invented the reaper, but that is another story. The reaper was a machine that cut cereal crops like wheat using a sickle bar to cut the stalks and a reel to move the grain back off the sickle. The cut grain fell onto a platform and was raked off and then tied in to bundles by hand. later self raking machines were made and eventually a "binder" was developed that cut the grain and tied or bound the cut grain into bundles which were then dropped into piles. The piles of bundles were then stacked into "shocks" of with the heads off the ground where the grain could dry and eventually be picked up and hauled to the stationery threshing machine. If you are interested in reading more on this subject the book The Grain Harvesters by Graeme Quick and Wesley Buchele (ISBN: 0-916150-13-5) will take you through grain harvesting from the stone age to the present.

Those piles were called "stooks",and wasn't the binder used to make hayIJ

Those piles were called "stooks",and wasn't the binder used to make hayIJ

Oz, They were called shocks. Binders were machines used to cut and bundle wheat prior to the combine. After my grandpa bought his first self-propelled combine (a Massey Harris Super 26) he converted his binder into a windrower for oats. Today we use hay bines to cut hay. WW

wheat wacker, us aussies can be a little different because we called them stooks here too. Years ago there used to be a farmer and his son near us that used to use the old way for 5 to 10 acres every year.It was a great sight but i would never want to go back to the old ways, you certainly didn't need "Weightwatchers" after a week or two of that hard work. john

Sounds like stooks is a correct term also. I have always heard them referred to as shocks. We have a group of farmers here in North Texas that organized an antique machinery club several years. They run a thresh (thrash) machine. It is interesting to watch , but I sure wouldn't want to do it all summer. My dad ran a bundle wagon when he was a kid. He said he hated it , because they would occasional find a snake or skunk hiding in the shock (stook). Makes a person appreciate modern machinery. WW

Binders are still used today by a few guys who cut chaff for horses.What we call binders are used for cutting hay,these machines are 30,maybe 50 years old. They cut the hay onto a platform and canvas's(drapers)take it up to were it is bundled and tied into sheaves.A carrier on the binder holds 8-10 sheaves then when full it is "dropped".The drops are in rows and then the sheaves are picked up and stood with the heads up in "stooks" of 30-40 sheaves. The "stooks" are left to cure for 2-3 months then picked up and the sheaves are fed thru a chaff cutter. The cutter has a steam chamber on it so that the chaff is cut nice and even and not smashed up. Yes it is the year 2001 but some guys still do this and sell chaff to the horse market.Have you heard of anything like this in the U.S.IJ

Speaking of stooks, here are some "fair dinkum" Aussie photos I took in December 1999 near Ballarat. Those oat stooks went to the chaff mill for horse feed. I had a few wagers on some of the horses running on oat chaff!

Those photos are spot on. That binder is a 6ft model most of the ones I've seen left working these days are 8ft,havn't seen one with a steel wheel for years.The crop in those photos looks way past cutting time, they normaly cut it fairly green. Do they cut like this anywhere in the U.S. is chaff used at allIJ

I have never heard of using "chaff" as you call it. Some folks cut oats or beardless barley in the milk or soft dough stage and let it dry and bale it for hay. The Amish, a religious group that does not believe in using tractor still use binders pulled by horses to cut their cereal crops and then thresh them. They are masters at keeping old equipment going and adapting newer equipment to be pulled by horses.