m 



rHE FARMER'S MiVGAZIKE. 



JULY, 1800. 



PLATE I. 



PORTRAITS OF MESSRS. BURGESS AND KEY, 



THE AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENT MAKERS. 



PLATE II. 

 BURGESS AND KEY'S MOWING MACHINE. 



MESSRS. BURGESS AND KEY, THE AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENT MAKERS. 



The firm of Messrs. Burgess and Key originated 

 from one of those accidental meetings between men 

 of business, so happily referred to by Mr. Wren 

 Hoskyns the other evening, at the London Tavern. 

 The two partners wei'e introduced to each other in 

 1849, and during the same year the association 

 of their names as agricultural engineers was 

 determined upon. The first invention they brought 

 before the public was the American churn, known 

 as Anthony's Patent, and which was exhibited at the 

 Exeter meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society, 

 in 1850. Since then upwards of ten thousand 

 of these machines have been sold, while their use 

 is appreciated not only in England, but exten- 

 sively in our colonies and elsewhere. They have 

 taken every prize that has been offered by the Royal 

 Society for churns— at Exeter in 1850, in Hyde Park 

 in 1851, at Lewes in 1852, at Gloucester in 1853, 

 at Carlisle 1855, and at Chester in 1858 ; as well as 

 premiums from the Highland, the Bath and West 

 of England, the Royal Northern, and other societies. 



This successful venture was followed up in 1851 

 with a Reaper, and M'Cormick's American was 

 the one which Burgess and Key determined upon 

 adopting. Such a selection has since been signally 

 confirmed, although in the first instance there were 

 immense diflSculties to contend against. It was 

 gradually perfected and appreciated, but it was not 

 OLD SKWES.] 



until four years after its distinction at the Great Ex- 

 hibition the Reaper became a really practical imple- 

 ment. By then Mr. Burgess had succeeded in 

 doing away with the enormous labour of raking 

 off the corn as the machine proceeded, and this 

 with other improvements, v/ere so complete as to 

 warrant the award of the first prize at the trial at 

 Leigh Court in 1855. The judges thus reported 

 of the performance in the Society's Journal : — 

 "M'Cormick's Reaper, inproved and exhibited by 

 Burgess and Key : This machine cuts a clear 

 track of 5 feet 6 in., and in every operation in 

 which it was tested exhibited a decided superiority. 

 It cut with great precision both wheat and barley, 

 standing and partially lodged, and in cutting 

 through weeds and grass showed no tendency to 

 choke. The delivery is peculiar to this machine, 

 and is the principal and most important improve- 

 ment effected since last year ; the corn, on being 

 cut, falls on a series of rollers, fitted with Archime- 

 dian screws, by which it is delivered in a continu- 

 ous and well-formed swathe on the side of the ma- 

 chine. This delivery being effected by the machine, 

 dispenses with the attendant necessary in Dray's 

 and Palmer's Machines ; and it was proved to be 

 capable of cutting wheat and barley with no other 

 attendance than a boy strong enough to drive a 

 pair of horses. The draught also was much lighter 

 B [VOL. LIIL—No. 1. 



