An early horse-drawn or tractor-pulled implement that revolutionized grain harvesting before the combine. It uses a reciprocating sickle bar to cut the crop, canvas conveyors to gather the stalks, and a knotter mechanism to tie them into uniform bundles with twine, dropping them in the field to be manually shocked.
Heard on the job
We dragged the old binder out of the barn for the heritage plowing match, but the knotter keeps missing the twine.
Also heard as
- reaper-binder
Do not mix it up with
- Combine harvester: A binder only cuts and ties the stalks; a combine harvester also threshes and cleans the grain in one pass.