swather

plural swathers

1. A device on a mowing machine or combine harvester that raises uncut grain and marks the edge of the swath.
2. A length of cloth used to swaddle an infant.

   Swathers should be for ever abolished. Why did they put them on? Because they fancied an infant could not hold itself together. They did not hold themselves together any better for being squeezed in that manner.

   1890, Leartus Connor, The American Lancet, volume 14, page 416