A real cornbinder is...

["Kurt Musgrave" <rvar@domain.elided>]

A real cornbinder is a machine produced by Deering and McCormick
and later by IH and others, that cut the stalks of corn off at
the ground and conveyed them up a series of endless chains into a
mechanism that would grab a bunch of stalks and tie them in about
8 inch bunches.  They would be laid out on the ground to be
picked up in a wagon or stood on end to make the familiar
"shocks".

Kurt