HIS LIFE AND WORK 



became first Speaker of the Iowa Legislature, 

 then a professor in an agricultural college, and 

 finally the founder of the Department of Agri- 

 culture in all its present completeness. To-day 

 we know him as the Honorable James Wilson, 



the first official farmer of the United States. 



There was one other method in the marketing 

 of farm machinery, which seems to have been 

 originated by McCormick the Field Test. 

 As a means of stirring up interest in an indif- 

 ferent community, this was the most electrical 

 in its effects of any plan that has ever been de- 

 vised. As a pioneering advertisement, it was 

 unsurpassed. It was nothing less than a con- 

 test in a field of ripe grain between several ma- 

 chines that belonged to rival manufacturers. 

 Sometimes there were only two machines, and 

 in one grand tournament there were forty. 

 And all the farmers in the county were invited 

 to come and witness the battle free of charge. 



The first of these field tests occurred near 

 Richmond in 1844. McCormick had challenged 

 Obed Hussey, a Baltimore sailor who had in- 

 vented a practical mowing-machine, and who 



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