434 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



I have another strong objection to banks, as at 

 present conducted. It seems to nie that our state 

 legislature, together with a large poriion of our 

 citizens, are completely sold to them. It certainly 

 argues very badly for the morality of an indivi- 

 dual to refuse to pay his debts, and lor a great 

 moneyed institution to do the same thins is a 

 much greater enormity. Now let the bunks do 

 what they may, our legislature and a great j)or- 

 lion of the people are ready to sustain them in 

 it. Some time ai?o, our banks got into difficultv, 

 and to use their own language, suspended specie 

 payments, (I have often wondered why they use 

 the term, specie payments, for it is well known 

 that no other payment is worth a button.) Well, 

 they suspended, that is, in plain English, they 

 refused to pay their debts. Now suppose that 

 1 or one of you, gentlemen, should do the same 

 thing! Why the strong arm of the law would 

 immediately take hold of us and compel us, and 

 with the loss of property, we should lose our 

 cliaraclers also. But what is the fact in the case 

 of the banks? Why the legislature is imme- 

 diately convened, and their illegal act is mode 

 a letral one. At length, alter taking their own 

 time fbrit, they undertake to resume. And what 

 sort of a resumption is it ? I call it a mere mock- 

 ery. In one short n)onih, taking care in the mean 

 time to place their notes at such distant points, 

 that nobody could avail themselves of the pro- 

 mised payment, they suspend again. And the 

 general wish, so far as I know, is that their pre- 

 sent suspension may be a final one. 



Here then, gentlemen, is a most formidable 

 array of evils under which we liumers, that 18, 

 we ihe people, labor. We elect men and send 

 them to the legislature to do our business; and 

 instead of doing it, ihey get engaged in squab- 

 bles of party strife ; and there make long speeches, 

 and there squander away our money, until tired 

 of the game, they break up and go home, and 

 have the impudence to ofl'er again ; and we 

 have no more sense than to elect many of them. 

 We incorporate certain moneyed institutions, and 

 give them certain privileges, in consideration of 

 which, we expect them to study our convenience, 

 and to give us a sound currency, and to furnish 

 the means by which we may transmit our funds 

 from one point to another, and that without loss. 

 But what is the lijct? Instead of a sourid cur- 

 rency, they give us a dishonored currency, and if 

 we get any draftat all we get it with the loss of 

 our bread. Now what is the remedy for these 

 great and sore evils'? The best and safest cure, 

 as I think, is in agricultural societies. The plan 

 is simply this. Let there be an agricultural so- 

 ciety in every county in the state : let one feel- 

 ing, one spirit pervade the whole: let there be a 

 close and intimate correspondence kept up be- 

 tween ail the parts : let us, by means of our ora- 

 tors and missionaries, keep up a constant excite- 

 ment on this subject ; and then, my word (or it, 

 our servants will no longer aspire to be our mas- 



ters — and when we depute members of the Le- 

 gislature to do our business, they will do it — 

 and when we incorporate banks to study our 

 convenience, they will do it also. The servant 

 is very apt to become lazy or insolent, unless the 

 eye of the master is kept upon him. And this, 

 I would observe, is the very place to commence 

 this thing. We occupy the metropolis of the 

 state and its neighborhood, and our local posi- 

 tion gives us a commanding influence, which 

 we are criminal if we (ail to improve. 

 (^To be cuntinued.) 



would not hesitate to prefer the latter infliction to the 

 former. But, in the mean time, and until all hope of 

 relief or remedy has entirely vanished, we individually 

 will struggle to defend our property and rights from 

 the depredations of both the greater and the smaller 

 plunderers. — Ed. F. R. 



hussey's reaper. 



To tlie Editor of tlie Farmers' Register. 



Agreeably to the arrangement made between 

 Mr. Hussey and yourself, with a view of testing 

 the merits of his reaping machines fully in a long 

 harvest, he made his appearance here on the 

 27ih ult., having been preceded some days by 

 two of his reapers, one of either sort ; and having 

 received due notice of the probable time of our 

 commencing that interesting operation to the 

 farmer, the securing of our crop of wheat. He 

 accordingly put them in operation the next day, 

 but Irom the unskilfulness of the hands, and from 

 the horses not being accustomed to the work, and 

 probably from the greater friction in using new 

 machines, the work was so badly done, and the 

 loss of time so Great, that I more than once re- 

 gretted havins given my consent to make trial of 

 them here. It is proper to observe that the first 

 day the experiment was made on ten- loot beds, 

 where the furrows were quite deep ; and in cross- 

 ing the beds the horses were a good deal jostled, 

 and in going with the beds, or diagonally across 

 them, as vv;is done over part of the ground, the 

 wheels occasionally would run into the furrows, 

 and in both cases the machines were prevented 

 from operating successfully. The next day they 

 continued to work on the same unfavorable ground, 

 and though there was a manifest improvement 

 in the work done, and in the quantity of it, 1 was 

 still very much dissatisfied. The third day, 

 however, we removed them to a more favorable 

 site, where the beds were wide, the furrows shal- 

 low, and the wheat heavy, and I very soon be- 

 came convinced that Mr. Hussey's reaper did 

 not deserve to be classed with the humbugs of 

 the day. By this time the horses and hands 

 employed had become better trained, and the 

 work was beautifully done — better indeed than I 

 ever saw done by the most expert cradler and 

 binder, "with every appliance and means to 

 boot" to enable them to do the work well. Less 

 ■wheat was left on the ground traversed by the 

 machines, either standing or cut, than I ever ob- 

 served in any wheat field before. 



1 wish I could speak as strongly in favor of the 

 reaper as a lime-savins machine, but the truth 

 obliges me to say that I cannot. Still I think that 

 it will save time; but the question is, how much? 

 A very difficult question it is, too, and by no 

 means so easily solved as might at the first glance 

 be imagined. Indeed so much depends on the 

 locality, the length of the rows and the heaviness 

 of the crop, (the reaper operating to most advan- 

 tage in heavy wheat,) that the lime saved ia con- 



