462 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



ricultural pursuits, of labor-saving machines, and especially of wheat-reapers, 

 (wheat, as you know, being one of the two great staples of the lower James, and 

 corn the other,) I embraced the earliest opportunity to make trial of both Hus- 

 sey's, of Baltimore, and McCormick's, of Virginia. The latter, after a trial, to 

 me satisfactory, made in the presence and with the aid of a vender, I condemned 

 and rejected. The former I was induced to buy, now four or five years ago, re- 

 garding it as superior to the McCormick, though very far from being an efficient 

 machine, and without farther and very great improvements, it cannot supersede, 

 on our large farms, where laborers can be had, the cradles. My last was the 

 largest crop I ever reaped, and the season the driest, coolest and most favorable 

 for the use of the reaper, yet with one of Hussey's machines, equal to any I have 

 seen, (though he may have made recent and I trust valuable improvements,) in 

 my barn, I was induced to use it for a few hours only, to gratify a practical me- 

 chanic of your city, by name Ransom Smith, a clock manufacturer and a man 

 of great mechanical skill and taste, who happened here, to whom I would refer 

 you. While I am as yet without an approved and efficient reaper — which, pro- 

 pelled by steam or some other power than horse, I regard as the great desideratum 

 (if attainable) on the valuable and extensive farms on the lower James River 

 especially — 1 have successfully and most satisfactorily introduced in my barn a 

 steam-engine of fifteen horse power only, by which I thresh, chaff" and clean, 

 ready for delivery, my Avheat, employing scarcely any manual labor, beyond the 

 feeder and one or two hands to attend to the straw as it passes from the rakers 

 over revolving drums upon a network of common cord to the point — 150 feet 

 from the barn — where the straw is received, for x.\\q first time, by hand, and put 

 in long ricks, where it is preserved, until it is hnally hauled, as provender and 

 litter for various kinds of stock, and as covering or top-dressing for the young 

 clover — in which mode much the largest quantity is annually used with the 

 most marked and gratifying results. Resides threshing my wheat and cleaning 

 and conveying it by elevators, as in a merchant-mill, from the basement to the 

 garret, as often as it may be necessary, to cleanse it from impurities, or in case 

 of a wet season (which very often occurs) during harvest, or before the wheat 

 can be housed, to keep it in motion and prevent it from heating, the engine 

 drives my corn-sheller, and at the same time the fans, which prepare the corn 

 for shipment, together with one pair of 42-feet stones, by which 1 am supplied 

 with meal for my domestic uses, an upright saw, (a circular would be better,) a 

 pair of 4-feet stones to grind plaster, and a pair of crushers or stampers for the 

 preparation of bone-dust, with which 1 am now making experiments (if, indeed, 

 the use of bone-dust can any longer be regarded as an experiment) upon wheat, 

 turnips, &:c. All these various and important operations are, in turn, econom- 

 ically performed in the same building, and, with the exception of the mere thresh- 

 ing of the wheat, can as well be performed in wet and inclement weather, as in 

 dry and mild. Without this silent, potent and economical agent, which I trust 

 will soon be as common in this as it is in the old country among agriculturists, I 

 should not be enabled to grow the crops which by its aid (indirectly) I not only 

 raise but clean. While others, in July, are threshing with their teams, I am 

 enabled to employ ??i?ne in the indispensable and all-important work of fallowing 

 my clover fields for a succeeding wheat crop, and am in this way only ena- 

 bled to give the necessary and timely preparation to a large surface, on which to 

 sow my seed. My engine-room is in immediate contact with my barn, which 

 has a brick gable only, though the engine-room is wholly of brick, and fire-proof. 

 Few sparks are emitted, from the construction of the chimney, and these few 

 so light as to lose all power of doing mischief, even were they to come in con- 

 tact with the straw, which is conveyed to a remote point, and in a difl'erent di- 

 rection. Many here, like yourself, expressed fears as to fire, but an inspection 

 has never yet failed to remove them. 



I have hastily, though I trust intelligibly responded to your two inquiries re- 

 specting, first, the wheat-reapers, and then the use of steam, in many of my ag- 

 ricultural operations. 



I learn from you with more regret even than surprise, as great as it was, that 

 your subscription in Virginia did not average a subscriber or more to each county.* 



[* No ; not more, probably, than 100 in the whole State ; although we have proftered them the most 

 voluminous, profound and highly illustrated works for less than one-quarter of their prime cost. We had 

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