gate locking bar 34 is released and swings upwardly due to the pressure of the bales in the accumulator and allows the bales to pass out of the machine as the accumulator is drawn forward over the ground when the bales have cleared the gate it swings down and the locking bar 34 engages the cam surface 70a of the latch 71 causing it to move upwardly against the spring 83 thus allowing the rear gate and the locking bar 34 to pass to the position shown in fig2 at which time the latch mechanism is immediately biased downwardly to the locked position as shown in fig2 it is to be realized of course that the latch 72 simultaneously operates in the same fashion to lock the gate fig3 illustrates the locking bar in solid position engaging the surface 70a of latch 71 to cam it upwardly and allowing the locking bar 34 to pass under the latch to the latched position shown dotted it is seen that this invention comprises an improvement on the accumulator gate and latching mechanism illustrated in u s pat no 3 779 402 in that when the gate moves downwardly to the locked position rather than.