Summary

This image appears within a circular border on the front cover of a 24-page publicity brochure entitled 'The Sunshine Auto Header', first published in September 1938 (see TL 1800 & TL 20562), with the caption 'The Machine That Established a Record by Harvesting 3,300 Bushels of Wheat from 76 Acres in One Day.'

A caption which appeared with this image when it was published in 'The Horsham Times' on 4th February 1938, read:
"The 14 ft. Auto Header at work on Messrs Eagle Bros. farm, Helens Plains, via Horsham. The photograph was taken shortly before this machine performed its remarkable feat of harvesting 3300 bushels of wheat in one day."

Description of Content

Mr. Ken McLeod at the controls of the 14-cut K Type Sunshine Auto Header which established a world record at Eagle Bros. farm on St Helens Plains, Horsham, Victoria, in January 1938, by harvesting 3,300 bushels of grain from a paddock of Ghurka wheat in a single 16 hour day. Messrs Percy and George Eagle attended to filling of the bags on the bagging platform, while a fourth man kept the machine supplied with petrol, oil, bags, etc. The machine stopped periodically just long enough to putting off of bags of grain. The driver remained at the controls all day, oiling part of the mechanism each time the machine paused. No head-lamps were used as the auto-header worked just as long as the natural light lasted. "On January 6th, 1938, at Messrs. Eagle Bros.' farm, St. Helens Plains, Horsham, Victoria, a 14 ft. auto header was driven into the crop at 4.45 a.m. and worked all day until 8.45 p.m., by which time 3,300 bushels of wheat had been harvested from seventy-six acres - a one-day, one-machine record for Australia, and as far as is known, a record for the world."

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