INVENTION f)F REAPING MACHINES. 25 



better than those of cradled grain, and quite as good as those 

 of a reaper. 



There is one more advanta<^c beyond ordinary inquiries, of conse- 

 quence, where so much grain is raised as in this valley; be the grain 

 ever so ripe, there is no waste of grain by any agitation of the straw, 

 and all the waste which can take place must arise from the handling 

 and shaking in binding. 



I am yours, &c. 



W'.M.C. DWIGHT. 



Moscow, Livingston Co. N. V.. Nov. 14, 1834. 



N. B. The machine we used was intended only for upland, but 

 Dy some little alterations and additions we used it with equal facility 

 on all kinds of soil; and it can be used on any farm so clean from 

 stumps and stones as not to endanger the blocking the wheels. 



The following letter is evidence for 1835, and also refers to the 

 originality of the invention by O. Hussey. 



P.XLMVRA, Mo., Au^g-. 14, 1S54. 



Friend Ilussey — Yours duly received. As to the machines sent 

 by you (ordered some two years since) they both worked well. 



Before you had invented your machine in 1831 or 1832, your 

 attention was drawn to a mode of cutting grain, hemp, and grass, 

 and you told me you thought you could invent such a machine 

 to be drawn by horses; and after you had returned to Cincinnati 

 from Laurencchurg, you wrote me a letter in '32 or at the furthest 

 in '33 (for I left Indiana 2nd Oct. 1833) with a draft and descrii)tion 

 of a plan for cutting grain. The draft was thus (here follows a diagram 

 of the cutting apparatus exactly as described by the patent) and the 

 description was, that these knives were to work by the motion of the 

 wheels, being a perfect description of the invented principle. 



As soon as I saw the plan, I was satisfied of its success and wrote 

 to you that there was no doubt of the success of your machine; that 

 it was astonishing the world had so many thousand years been confined 

 to the sickle when so obvious a mode of cutting grain and grass existed; 

 and shortly after you obtained a patent for the machine. 



On the 6th July, 1835, yo^^ brought to Palmyra two of your 

 machines, and they were put in operation near this place — one 

 in a meadow between here and Philadelphia, and one in the heavy 

 grass in Marion City bottom.* The machines did cut well. I was 

 the editor of the Missouri Courier, from the month of November, 1833, 

 until 1838, and brought your machine before the public; it excited 

 much attention, and its performance was highly satisfactor\'. The 

 results of the trials were published in the paper by me in August 

 or September, 1835. I knew of the cajiacit)' of the machine, and that 

 it did so execute in the bottom three acres an hour. In this I cannot 

 be mistaken, for I felt at the time the deepest interest in the success 



* Both of these machines were sold to Wni. Muldrow, Agent, of Marion College, 



Alarioii county, Mo. 



