24 BRIEF NARRATIVE OF THE 



The machine has been fully tried, and I am gratified to be able 

 to say, that it has fully succeeded; hundreds of farmers from the 

 different towns of this and the adjoining counties, have witnessed 

 its operations, and all have not only expressed their confidence in its 

 success, but their gratification in the perfection of the work. 



As every inquirer asks the same series of questions, I presume 

 your readers will have a like course of thought, and wish for satisfac- 

 tion in the same particulars. To give them this, I will write them 

 in their order, and give the answers: 



Does the machine make clean work? 



It saves all the grain. To use the language of a gratified looker-on, 

 an old and experienced farmer, " it cheats the hogs."* 



Does the machine expedite the work? 



What the machine is capable of accomplishing, we who have used 

 it can hardly say, as we had no field in fit order, large enough for 

 a fair trial thro' a whole day; and can only say what it has done. 

 Five acres of heavy wheat, on the Genessee flats, were harvested 

 in two hours and a quarter. 



In what condition is the wheat left, and how is the work done 

 where the wheat is lodged? 



The machine leaves the wheat in gavels large enough for a sheaf, 

 and where grain stands well enough to make fair work with the cradle, 

 it leaves the straw in as good condition to bind as the gavels of a good 

 reaper. Whether the grain stands or is lodged is of little consequence, 

 except as to the appearance of the sheaf, and the necessity of saving 

 more straw, when lodged, than is desirable. The condition of the 

 sheaf when the grain is lodged depends much upon the adroitness 

 of the raker. 



What number of hands, and what strength of team is necessary 

 to manage the machine advantageously? 



Two men, one to drive the team and the other to rake off the 

 wheat, and two horses, work the machine; but when the grain is heavy, 

 or the land mellow, a change of horses is necessary, as the gait of the 

 horses is too rapid to admit of heavy draft The horses go at the rate 

 of four to five miles an hour, and when the growth of straw is not 

 heavy a fair trot of the team is not too much. 



Is the machine liable to derangement and destruction from its 

 own motion? 



This is a question which cannot be so directly answered as the 

 others. We have only used the machine to cut about fifty acres, 

 and have had no trouble; judging from appearances so far, should 

 say it was as little subject to this evil as any machinery whatever. 

 The wear upon the cutting part being so little as to require not more 

 than fifteen minutes sharpening in a day; there is no loss of time 

 on this score. 



Is the sheaf a good one to thresh? 



The man who has fed the threshing machine with the grain 

 of twenty acres cut by this machine, says the sheaves are much 



* The hogs are the gleaners in this section of country. 



