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Grain Header

A grain header was another implement that a farmer had the option of using when harvesting grain. Typically, headers were most common in semi-arid grain-growing regions where the grain ripened and dried more evenly in the field. Essentially, grain headers functioned in the same way as grain binders except that they lacked a knotter mechanism to tie the grain stalks into bundles, and they were usually pushed instead of pulled by a team of horses. Precisely like a grain binder, as the horses pushed the grain header forward, the driving wheel was rotated, which powered the sickle and the reel. As the reel rotated, it bent the grain stalks inward towards the sickle, and the sickle cut the them off several inches above the ground. A cloth canvas then conveyed the cut grain up an incline and into an open sided wagon which was trailing alongside. By eliminating the shocking process, grain headers drastically increased the efficiency of grain harvesting, but they could only be used in semi-arid areas where the grain ripened more evenly.