Carmen Jardine, age 11, of Grand Forks, N.D., for her question:

WHEN WAS THE COMBINE FIRST USED?

A combine is a farm machine which moves across a field, cutting and thrashing in one operation such crops as small grains, soybeans and grass seed. The first combine was used in Michigan in 1837, but the machine did not come into general use until about 1917.

The combine is a machine that combined the harvester and the thresher. It is either self propelled or is pulled by a tractor.

The combine threshes the seed from the stalks of straw, collects the seed into a tank or sacks, and then leaves the straw lying on the ground.

The first extensive use of the combine was in the large wheat fields of the Middle West.

Combines are now used in ail parts of the United States where grain is raised.

Before the combine came into general use, most of the small grain crops were harvested with binders, which cut and bound the straw and grain into bundles. The bundles of grain were then threshed with a stationary threshing machine.