THE REAPER AND MOWER. 33 



not proved successful. Hussey's machine was introduced in- 

 to New York and Illinois in 1834, into Missouri in 1835, into 

 Pennsylvania in 1837, and in the next year the inventor es- 

 tablished himself in Baltimore. McCormick's machine had 

 been worked as early as 1831, but it was afterwards greatly 

 improved, and became a source of an immense fortune to the 

 inventor. He took out a second patent in 1845, fifteen other 

 machines having been patented after the date of his first pa- 

 pers, including that of the Ketchum, in 1844, which gained a 

 wide reputation. 



NATIONAL TRIALS. 



The first trial of reapers, partaking of a national character, 

 was held under the auspices of the Ohio State Board of Ag- 

 riculture in 1852, when twelve difierent machines and several 

 difi*erent mowers were entered for competition. There was 

 no striking superiority, according to the report of the judges, 

 in any of the machines. A trial had been held at the show 

 of the New York State Agricultural Society, at Buffiilo, in 

 1848, but the large body of farmers who had witnessed it 

 were not prepared to admit that the work of the machines 

 was good enough to be tolerated in comparison with the hand- 

 scythe. Some thought they might possibly work in straight, 

 coarse grass, but in finer grasses they were sure to clog. The 

 same society instituted a trial of reapers and mowers at Ge- 

 neva in 1852, when nine machines competed as reapers and 

 seven as mowers. Only two or three of the latter were ca- 

 pable of equalling the common scythe in the quality of work 

 they did, and not one of them all, when brought to a stand 

 in the grass, could start again without backing to get up 

 speed. All the machines had a heavy side-draught, some of 

 them to such an extent as to wear seriously on the team. 

 None of them could turn about readily within a reasonable 

 space, and all were liable to tear up the sward in the opera- 

 tion. The old Manning, patented in 1831, and the Ketchum 

 machines were the only ones that were capable of doing work 

 that was at all satisfactory. One or two of the reapers in 

 this trial did fair work, and the judges decided that, in com- 

 parison with the hand-cradle, they showed a saving of 88|- 

 cents per acre. Here was some gain certainly, a little posi- 

 5 



