Combine harvester
machine that harvests grain crops
A combine harvester, also called a combine, is a machine that harvests crops. Its name comes from doing three separate parts of harvesting crops at once:
- reaping: cutting and collecting crops when they are ready for harvesting,
- threshing: separating the parts of a crop that can be eaten by people from the parts that can't.
- winnowing: removing the already separated parts of the crop that can't be eaten by people, the chaff, while keeping the part that can be eaten, the grain.
Far fewer people work in farming as a result of the combine harvester.[1]
References
change- ↑ Constable, George; Somerville, Bob (2003). A Century of Innovation: Twenty Engineering Achievements That Transformed Our Lives, Chapter 7, Agricultural Mechanization. Washington, DC: Joseph Henry Press. ISBN 0-309-08908-5.