306 



THE! GENESEE FARMER. 



appeared as a series of magazine articles, and were 

 afterwards published, both in England and Amer- 

 ica, in book form. 



In the summer of 1853 he was traveling on the 

 continent, in his usual health, when he was sud- 

 denly seized with spitting of blood, which termina- 

 ted in a rapid decline, and he died at Durham on 

 the 18th of September of that year. 



M'CORMICK'S NEW REAPER IN ENGLAND. 



On the 14th of August McCormick r s Nevv Self- 

 Raking Reaper was tried in England, and judging 

 from the following report in the London Times, 

 seems to have given great satisfaction : 



In 1851 McCormick's American reaping machine 

 at the Exhibition created a greater sensation in its 

 way than either Powers' statue or Hobbs' locks. 

 Its fame at once, of course, raised up for it a host 

 of antagonists and imitators. * * * Since 1851 

 McCormick's patent for these machines has expired 

 in America, and, of course, the attempt to renew 

 it was violently opposed by all who had, or fancied 

 they had, a better reaper themselves. * * * * 

 Hence Mr. McCormick was driven to invent 

 another and a better machine, and it was this 

 which was tried yesterdny, and the performance of 

 which we commend to the notice of our country 

 readers. The old machine, as we may. term it now, 

 was one which cut the corn, and as it dropped back 

 upon the platform behind the cutters turned it off 

 in "swathe" — i. «., left it in a continuous roll 

 alongside the track of the machine. In very moist 

 countries this swathe delivery is rather an evil, 

 and during wet seasons the machine has been often 

 left unused altogether. In addition to this draw- 

 back a great amount of manual labor is, of course, 

 necessitated to collect the swathe into sheaves, and 

 this too must in some cases be done before the re- 

 turn of the machine over the same track. The 

 object, therefore, has always been to invent a ma- 

 chine which will deliver on the ground the cut 

 corn in sheaves ready for binding, and such a ma- 

 chine Mr. McCormick has now invented. Visitors 

 to the Exhibition will see a similar one in the 

 rather empty court of the United States. 



The new machine is founded entirely upon 

 McCormick's old machine as made by Rurgess & 

 Key, the new patent' consisting simply in the in- 

 troduction of an automaton rake, which, at regular 

 intervals, by one rapid swee.p, draws the corn on 

 the platform together, and, with a quick turn, 

 throws it aside in a loose sheaf out of the way of 

 the machine. This machine has been tried once 

 before in England among some of the heavy Essex 

 crops, when its performances exceeded the most 

 sanguine expectations. Yesterday it was publicly 

 tried again, in the presence of a number of gentle- 

 men farmers, on Mr. Dixon's farm, about three 

 miles beyond Hemel Hempstead. This trial was 

 made under the most unfavorable circumstances; 

 in fact, under circumstances which the farmers 

 present contended should have prevented the ma- 

 chine being tried at all. The night and morning 

 had been very wet, and the rain was still falling 

 sharply when the machine, drawn by two horses, 



and wielding its fans and rake in the most aggres- 

 sive manner, was brought to a field of twenty-one 

 acres, covered with a very heavy crop of red 1am- 

 mas wheat, completely saturated and bent down 

 by the rain. Along the edge of the field, where 

 the ground was very rough, and the corn straggling 

 and beaten down, the machine was turned. Much 

 misgiviug was expressed before starting as to the 

 power of the rake to act on such ground against 

 wind and rain, and to remove the soddened crop 

 from the platform into regular sheaves. A very few 

 moments, however, sufficed to put these fears at 

 rest. The reaper went to its work at the rate of 

 about three miles an hour, making a clear cut 

 broad track of 5 feet 6 inches wide, and turning 

 out neat and remarkably large loose sheaves at in- 

 tervals of about 15 feet apart. The movements of 

 the reaper were exact and perfectly noiseless, and 

 it was easily turned in any direction. An ordinary 

 agricultural laborer at first drove it. Afterward 

 Mr. Dixon took the place of driver; but there- 

 suits were the same in both cases. The bunches 

 were well laid, the cut was clean and close to the 

 earth, and the spacing between the sheaves as clear 

 and accurate as if every foot had been measured. 

 At one part the corn was tangled and badly flat- 

 tened — badly enough to have offered difficulties to 

 the ordinary reaper ; but the machine went through 

 it with the same ease and regularity as through all 

 the rest. The horses were then turned direct into 

 and across the thickest part of the crop from cor- 

 ner to corner of the field, and though, as a matter 

 of course, the passage of the animals drawing the 

 machine trampled down a large portion of the 

 stalks before its track, the reaper still worked as- 

 cleanly and efficiently as ever. First came one of 

 the fans, pushing its quantum, when cut, on to the 

 platform; then a second, third and fourth, when 

 the rake swept round in a semi-curve and turned 

 the whole mass out in a thick sheaf on to the 

 ground. The horses appeared to draw it easily — 

 more easily, in fact, than the old machine, while, 

 from the strength and simplicity of the improved 

 mechanism, it was evident that, even in the most 

 inexperienced hands, nothing but wilful damage 

 could derange its slight but strong machinery. 



It is estimated that the new reaper can reap and 

 stack in sheaves from sixteen to eighteen acres of 

 wheat per day, at a cost, including wear and tear 

 of plant, food of horses, &c, of Is. 6d. (36 cents) 

 per acre. Manual labor costs from 7s. 6d. to 10s. 

 per acre, and a good reaper only averages from 

 half to little over half an acre a day. The new 

 machine effects a saving of at least one-third of the 

 manual labor that was still necessary with the old 



reaper. 



■ »-^»- 



A Novel Way of Curing a Breacut Horse. — 

 A correspondent of the Iowa Homestead was out 

 riding the other day with a friend, and observed 

 that one of the horses bad a hole in each ear. On 

 inquiring the cause, he learned that it was to keep 

 the horse from jumping. "Why," said he, "a 

 horse don't jump with his ears." " You are mis- 

 taken," replied his friend ; " a horse jumps as much 

 with his ears as with his feet, and unless he can 

 have free use of his ears he cannot jump." He ties 

 the two ears together, and has no more trouble 

 with the horse. We give this for what it is worth. 



