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Before there were combines there were binders. One afternoon in June I got a phone message: "We're binding wheat tonight at six." A popular feature of the tractor show in August is old time threshing. The wheat for the threshing demonstration is harvested in June with an old time binder. A tractor pulls the binder around the field, and the binder cuts the wheat and ties it in bundles which it spits out on the ground in a row. Then come the guys with the pitchforks, tossing the bundles up onto a wagon. I had seen binders before, but I had never seen one operate, so I wasn't about to miss this. Here are the pictures:

   
   
   
   
   
   
   The only part of the exercise I would change next time is the vehicles pulling the wagons. A couple of prewar trucks would present a more fitting appearance for use in prewar style harvesting.

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