McCormick Deering Reaper Binder

This binder operated by cutting the crop a few inches above the ground with a sickle bar mower, operating with serrated triangular knives cutting the stalks against stationary fingers. Simultaneously the reel above, pushed against the crop causing the cut stalks fall onto the conveyor belt. The main belt carried the grain stalks to the right end of the binder, where it went up a very short elevator, made of two more conveyor belts. At the top, a knotter tied the cut grain into bundles. The tied bundles then rested on the metal fingers of the bundle carrier until the person riding the machine lifted the foot pedal, which dropped the fingers, dumping all the bundles currently being carried into a pile on the ground. Farmhands on foot then came and stood the bundles in an upright formation called a “stook”, designed to aid in drying, where it ‘sweated’ for 10-14 days. This drying process was important because if the sheaves contained too much moisture when stored under cover they could spontaneously combust!