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remarked that, in taking a brief review of what had been done in modern times to 

 produce a reaping-machine, they might pass over some vague accounts which had 

 been handed down from the past century, but which recorded nothing successful; 

 and they came to three inventors — Boyse, Plunkett, and Gladstone— who, about the 

 year 1806, made reaping-machines, all modifications of a large circular cutter 5 feet 

 in diameter ; but they were soon laid aside, principally for want of sufficient mode@ 

 of gathering the cut corn. In 1812, the late Mr. Smith, of Deanston, brought out 

 a reaping-machine, which appeared at intervals with different modifications, until 

 the year 1835, when it worked very successfully at the meeting of the Highland 

 Agricultural Society at Ayr, after which time it was laid aside, and had not since 

 been brought forward, There was another invention to which he would draw their 

 attention, on account of the great resemblance it bore to M'Cormick's Virginia 

 reaper, which had attracted so much notice during the last two years. In 1822, a 

 Mr. Ogle of Remington, near Alnwick, invented a reaping-machine, which was 

 worked upon wheat and barley ; but, as it received no encouragement, only one was 

 made. A description and drawing of it were published in 1826 ; and it was rather 

 a remarkable circumstance that this description answered in almost every particular 

 to M'Cormick's machine, which was invented ten years later, and at a distance of 

 5000 miles. They need be at no loss for an explanation of the failure of all these 

 schemes, many of which possessed considerable merit. Until the last two or three 

 years manual labour had been easily obtained in this country ; and at harvest time 

 especially, a large number of Irishmen came over to England, and obtained a liveli- 

 hood by assisting the farmers to gather in their crops. Owing to the rapid increase 

 of emigration, however, this temporary assistance was becoming every year more 

 and more precarious, and would in all probability entirely cease ;.and by a fortuitous 

 coincidence, the demand for reaping-machines, thtis occasioned, occurred at a time 

 when public attention was directed to them, in consequence of the prominent position 

 they occupied in the Great Exhibition of 185 1 . Amongst the American contributions 

 there were two reaping-machines, one invented by M'Cormick of Chicago, and the 

 other by Hussey of Baltimore. They were by no means the only reapers in use in 

 the United States, the great demand in that country having called into operation 

 numerous inventions for that purpose, but the two mentioned were very extensively 

 patronized. These two machines had been repeatedly tested, both in this country 

 and in the United States, and the question of superiority between the two was far 

 from being decided ; both had warm advocates, and they had received an equal share 

 of honour and prizes at various agricultural meetings and trials. In the year 1826 

 the Rev. Patrick Bell invented and constructed a reaping-machine, and succeeded in 

 making it work so well, that, in the year 1829, the Highland Agricultural Society 

 awarded to him the sum of £50 for his invention. Most of these machines were 

 gradually laid aside. In 1852, when the American reapers were sent northward, 

 Mr. Bell put his old machine into thorough repair, and met Hussey's at the meeting 

 of the Highland Society at Perth. The superiority of an implement with self-acting 

 delivery over one which required the assistance of a man to take the corn off the 

 platform was so evident that the judges unanimously awarded the prize to Bell's 

 machine, and the same result had occurred at every trial in which it had since been 

 engaged. This machine was different from both the American machines, and cer- 

 tainly Mr. Bell was entitled to praise for the novelty of his invention, no resemblance 

 existing between it and Smith's, Mann's, Orme's, or any other that had been made 

 before it, except that the horses followed the machine, a mode of propulsion which 

 was in use at the time of the ancient Romans. In acknowledging their debt of 

 gratitude to the Americans for bringing over their machines and directing public 

 attention to the subject, and also for demonstrating, in a manner that must have 

 convinced the most sceptical and prejudiced, that reaping by machinery was as 

 practicable as thrashing, it must be a source of national pride to find that they had 

 in Great Britain an implement superior to any brought from foreign countries, and 

 which only required an opportunity to be fully appreciated. In looking forward to 

 the improvements to be made in reaping-machines, it must not be forgotten that the 

 hasty flight of the seasons rendered a succession of experiments almost impossible. 

 Reaping by machinery was yet new to implement-makers, but no one has had 

 much experience to bear upon the subject ; and they might reasonably expect that, 

 for some time to come, every harvest would add something to our stock of know- 



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