men cut wheat with scythes by hand. An American fastened a number of scythes or blades to a shaft and made a reaping machine that could cut as much wheat as many men. (See McCormick, page 1133.) The reaper not only cuts the wheat but gathers it in bundles with the heads all one way, and ties the bundles. It is really a reaper and binder. Men gather the bundles behind the reaper and stack them in shocks for the sun to dry the grain.
A few weeks later a big red threshing machine goes from farm to farm. It is run by steam, like a fire engine, and it makes the same chug-chugging noise. It stands in the middle of the field. One man runs the engine. Others bring the bundles, feed them to the thresher. The heads are torn off, and the straw showered out behind. The grains are shelled from the husk, the chaff blown out in a golden rain, and the wheat grains dropped below. In one day a big thresher can clean two thousand bushels of wheat. It takes a great many men to feed its clattering iron jaws, to pitch the straw back so the thresher will not be buried, and to catch the grain in bags or wagon beds. And you ought to see the harvesters eat! Farmer's wives and daughters have to work a week to get food enough for one day. A combined reaping and threshing machine is now made which cuts the wheat, threshes it and delivers the cleaned grain in sacks.
Then what happens? The wheat cannot lie on the ground, and no farmer can afford to have a great storage house that he would use only a few weeks. His nearest town on a railroad has one for all the farmers who trade in that town. This storage house is called a grain elevator. It stands beside the railway. It looks like a very tall barn with only a few windows near the top. Often it is covered with sheet iron so it will not easily catch fire. Some elevators are tall, round towers of steel and cement. They are built in groups, and roofed with iron.
In every town in a wheat-growing country there is an elevator and a grain buyer. How is the wheat taken from the low wagon bed and put into the elevator? Did you ever see a link belt? It is an iron chain made of broad links. On each link is a little square steel bucket that holds about a pint. The belt runs over a sprocket wheel at the top of the elevator. The little buckets dip into the wagon. Each one carries a tiny load of wheat up. In a few minutes the wheat is all lifted into a weighing bin at the top. When a load is weighed the wheat is dropped into the elevator tower.
