built a successful twine binder, and had it at work in the harvest field in 1874. This machine, covered by patent No. 159,506, February 9, 1875, not only bound by cord, but produced bundles of the same size. The grain in this machine is delivered by the elevator of the harvester upon a platform, where it is seized by packers and carried forward into a second chamber, where it is compacted by the packers against a yielding trip, so that when sufficient grain is accumulated, the trip will yield and start the binding mechanism into operation. The ball of cord carried on the machine has one end threaded through the needle and fastened in a holder. The grain is forced against the cord by the packers, and when the binder starts the needle encircles the gavel, carrying the cord to a knotting bill, and the end is again seized by the rotating holder, the loop formed, the ends of the band severed, and the bound bundle is discharged from the machine. A gate, which has in the meantime shut off the flow of grain, is now drawn back, and the operation is repeated. On February 18, 1879, John F. Appleby took out a patent, No. 212,420, for an improvement on the Gorham binder. In Fig. 156 is shown a modern automatic self-binding reaper which embodies the fundamental principles of McCormick and Hussey, the inclined elevator and platform shown by Marsh, and the automatic binding devices of Behel, Gorham and Appleby. [Illustration: FIG. 156.--MODERN AUTOMATIC SELF-BINDING REAPER.] This machine, under favorable conditions, with one driver, cuts twenty acres of wheat in a day, binds it, and carries the bound bundles into windrows, and with one shocker, performs the work of twenty men, and does it better, the saving in the waste of grain over hand labor being sufficient to pay for the twine used in binding. It is said that the self-binding reaper has reduced the cost of harvesting grain to less than half a cent a bushel. It is estimated that more than 180,000 machines of the self-binding type are now produced yearly, the manufacturers in Chicago alone turning out more than three-fourths of this number. It is not possible to do justice to all the worthy workers in this great industry. Nearly 10,000 patents have been granted on reaping and mowing machines, and the conspicuous names of Whiteley, Wood, Atkins, Manny, Yost, and Ketchum, in addition to those already mentioned, are only a small part of the great army of inventors who have contributed to the development and perfection of the reaper. In 1840 it is said there were but three reapers made. To-day the total number of self-binding harvesters, reapers and mowers in use is estimated to be two millions. The growth of this industry in the four earlier decades is as follows (the relatively small increase between 1860 and 1870 being accounted for by the Civil War): 1840. 1850. 1860. 1870. 1880. Machines made 3 3,000 20,000 30,000 60,000