14 BRIEF NARRATIVE OF THE 



To the Editor of the A?mrican Farmer. 



As the question of ivhich is the best Reaping Machine is of no little 

 importance to wheat growers, it is highly necessary that they be rightly 

 intormcd of every fact which tends to decide the question. — The trial 

 which forms the subject of the following correspondence was looked 

 forward to with great interest by farmers; such was the partial charac- 

 ter of the trial, and the general terms of the committee's report, in 

 which the particulars that led to the result were omitted, it cannot ap- 

 pear strange that the public should be in some degree misled with 

 regard to the relative merits of the two machines. If my own inter- 

 est was alone concerned, I would not thus far trespass on your coL 

 umns, but you will doubtless agree with me, that it is due to wheat 

 growers throughout the country that the views expressed by Mr. 

 Roane, in connection with the committee's report, should be published 

 as extensively as the report itself ; I therefore solicit the insertion of 

 the following correspondence in your paper. 



Very respectfully, Obed Hussey. 



Baltimore, January i8th, 1844. 

 To the Hon. IVm. H. Roane-: 



Dear Sir, — You will remember that a trial took place on the farm 

 of Mr. Hutchinson near Richmond, Va., in July last, between my 

 reaping machine and Mr. McCormick's, at which trial you were one of 

 a committee which gave the preference to Mr. McCormick's machine. 



You will also recollect that the machine which I used at that time 

 was a small one, and quite different from that which I used in your 

 field a few days afterwards, in a second trial between Mr. McCormick 

 and myself. 



As the first trial was made under circum.stances unfavorable to my- 

 self, owing to the difficulties which prevented me from getting my 

 best machine to the field on that day, and other impediments inci- 

 dental to a stranger unprovided with a team,&c., and as no report was 

 made of the second trial, you will oblige me by informing me what 

 your impressions were after witnessing the second trial. 



I would very gladly embrace the opportunity which the next Jiar- 

 ve.st will afford of following up my experiments in wheat cutting in 

 Virginia, but the new field opened to me in the great west for cutting 

 hemp, in which I was so successful last September, as will appear by 

 the Louisville Journal of that date, will claim my particular attention 

 this year. I mention this to you lest it might appear that I had aban- 

 doned the field in Virginia by my non-appearance there in the next 

 harvest. 



Very respectfully, yours, &c., Obed Hussey. 



Tree Hill, January 23d, 1844. 



Dear Sir, — I received a few days ago your letter of the 17th inst., 



on the subject of your reaping machine; you call my recollection to d 



trial between it and Mr. McCormick's reaper at Mr. Hutchinson's in 



July last, on which occasion I " was one of a committee which gave 



