THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



133 



pended from cars which pushed the apparatus. They 

 were far from performing id a satisfactory manner so as 

 to be adopted into practice by the farmer. The iuveu- 

 tors also continued to seek for other solutions of the 

 problem. In 1821, Jeremiah Biily, in the county of 

 Chester, in the United Stiles of America ; in 1822, 

 Henry Ogles, of Novthumberland ; in 1825, Brown, 

 of Aluwick, in tiie same county ; in 1828, Patricli Bell, 

 a farmer of the county of Forfur, in Scotland ; lastly, 

 in 1832, Joseph Mann, of Cumberland, presented dif- 

 ferent machines, the better disposed parts of which in- 

 dicated that they approached the end. Bell's niuohiiie 

 obtained, in 1830, a prize of fifty pounds from tlie Agri- 

 cultural Society of Scotland. It was placed on the farm 

 of Inch-Michael (in the county of Perth), where from 

 1832 to 1853 it has not ceased to perform exclusively 

 the reaping, and was also adopted on several farms in 

 Perth and Forfarshire. About 1834, four similar ma- 

 chines were sent to Chicago in the Illinois, a province of 

 the United States, from whence at a later period have been 

 sent to Europe the American machines of M'Cormick 

 and Manny. Patrick Bell had himself been for many 

 ye ira a Protestant minister in Canada, before returning 

 to establish himself at Carmylie in Forfarshire. 



In spite of this long and persevering infancy, which 

 may be considered as the sign of a very imperious 

 necessity, the mechanical reapers have but recently be- 

 come general in Great Britain. The cause is, that Irish 

 labourers come annually in numerous bands to Scotland 

 and England, and thus furnish the farmers an abundant 

 supply of hand-labour at a low price, during the time of 

 wheat harvest. But the Irish emigration, consequent on 

 the cruel famine caused by the potato disease, banished 

 all hope of obtaining in future that supply at a moderate 

 rate ; s') that about the year 1851, the inventions of the 

 commencement of the century were called to mind, and 

 it was required of America to furnish Europe with 

 the improvements in those machines which she had in- 

 vented. 



The scarceness of hands in the extensive {provinces of 

 the United States, the alternative of cutting by expe- 

 ditious processes, or of abandoning harvest, covering 

 vast plains almost desert, created the necessity of adopt- 

 ing in America very imperfect machines, leaving it to 

 time to render them perfect. From 1831, M'Cormick 

 had held the first patent for a machine, which in ^1844 

 having been considerably improved, was rapidly dis- 

 seminated. Then commenced an active and effective 

 competition, which successively produced the American 

 machines of Manny, Hussey, Aitkin, Wood, &c. The 

 skill of the English machinists suggested numerous im- 

 provements in the primitive machines. The French 

 inventors took up the problem in order to simplify the 

 solution if possible, and furnish our agriculture with 

 machines more in accordance with its constitution. 



The reaping machines in their present form are based 

 on one simple principle. 



A wheel drawn over the soil by horses, supplies a rol- 

 ling axle, to which may be applied a resistance equal to 

 the force of traction. Whether that resistance proceeds 

 from a load placed upon a carriage over the wheel, or 

 is produced by a mechanical organ receiving its motion 

 from the same axle, and charged to execute certain 

 operations, the conditions of equilibrium are the same. 

 As we can place only one certain load upon the axletree 

 of a carriage, so we can require of the motive wheel of 

 a reaping machine only a limited amount of work. Let 

 us imagine a toothed-wheel in gear with a pinion placed 

 concentrically with this motive wheel, we should have 

 round the axle of this pinion a horizontal shaft {arbre de 

 couclie), whence we should obtain by straps and pulleys, 

 toothed-wheels, endless chains, k.c., all the movements 

 required, the object of th^se movementi is to cut the 



crop and bend the corn so as to make it fall on a plat- 

 form, from which it will be delivered upon the ground 

 in sheaves, or bundles. la the generality of reapers 

 this last operation is not required of the machine itself; 

 but is performen by a workman called " the sheafer." 

 The reaping, which hsd been attempted to be executed 

 with rotary scythes and sickles, is now performed in 

 all the machines with the help of sickles receiving a 

 rectangular, see-saw movement, very rapid, across large 

 cutting-teeth, which serve both for guides and supports. 

 This system constitutes particularly the invention of 

 M'Cormick : it is drawn laterally by a pair of horses, 

 and is followed by the platform on which the corn falls. 

 The fly-wheel (volant), which bends the stalks of the 

 corn to the scythe, is Bell's invention, and is placed 

 above the saw. Some machinists omit it, and employ 

 the sheafer to perform its functions at the same time that 

 he deposits the corn on the ground. 



The Jury not only considered the construction of the 

 machines exhibited, but particularly directed its atten- 

 tion to the work executed by each. For this purpose 

 a field of wheat, containing an area of about 40 acres, 

 had been prepared by M. Lefour, Commissary-General 

 of the meeting, and M. de Corbigny, Inspector of the 

 Crown Forests and Director of the Domaine of Fouilleuse. 

 Forty-three lots, of 18 or 20 ares each (about 2,000 

 yards), had been measured and numbered beforehand ; 

 and the exhibitors were invited to draw by lot those 

 they should reap. The good machines were invited to 

 operate on at least two different parcels. A field of 10 

 acres had been set apart for the public experiments. 

 In addition, 17 acres of oats were placed at the disposal 

 of the Jury, and the machines were tried upon it. A 

 violent storm, which occurred on the night of the 

 18-19th of July, had drenched the corn and softened 

 the earth. The sun had afterwards borne great power. 

 The wheat of the Imperial Domaine was very good, 

 yielding by estimation about 28 bushels per acre ; some 

 fields might be estimated at 35 bushels ; in others a good 

 deal of the grain was shed. The farm of Fouilleuse, 

 containing 76 hectares (or 185 acres), was previously 

 the property of 150 proprietors. This re-construction 

 of the farm, which only took plsce at t'ne end of 1857, 

 has not allowed time to destroy all the weeds with which 

 some parts were infested. But the weeding, which had 

 preceded the wheat-crop, had already productd a con- 

 siderable effect.* Lnstly : five acres of very poor wheat, 

 not estimated at more than 15 bushels per acre, included 

 in the Domaine, had been hired by the Administration 

 of Agriculture. The circumstances of the woik were 

 therefore suflSciently varied, and consequently rendered 

 the decisions of the Jury complete and its judgments 

 perfectly explicit. All these details are necessary to 

 enable the agriculturists to comprehend the care with 

 which the decisions have been arrived at, and the degree 

 of authority they ought to possess. 



The machine which appeared to the jury to merit the 

 first rank is that sent by Messrs. Burgess and Key, of 

 London (23, Newgate-street). It is no (ither than the 

 primitive machine of M'Cormick, perfected by the ex- 

 hibitors in this respect— that the help of the sheafer is 

 no longer necessary. In proportion as the corn is cut 



* The Jury bad carefully inspected, in its most minute de- 

 tails, the Domaine of Fouilleuse. Forcibly struck with the 

 results obtained iu so short a time ou a tract of land, until 

 now so sub-divided, the members wished, in divesting them- 

 selves of their official titles, aud considericg themselves only iu 

 the chaiacter of an association of agncuUurista, to express 

 their entire Batisfactiou with a rural model-farm at the very 

 gates of Paris; they theretore requested M. the Miuister of 

 Agriculture to avcard a gold-medal to M. de Corbitjny, the 

 Director of the Domaine, and a silver-medal to M. Bondeville, 

 the Farming Steward. 



