30 BRIEF NARRATIVE OF THE 



Baltimore, October 17th, 1854. 

 To Obcd Hjtssey, Esq. 



Sir — In the harvest of 1837 I saw one of your Reapers in opera- 

 tion in my neighborhood [West River, Anne Arundel Co., Md.] in 

 charge of the Hon. John C. Weems, who I believe was the owner of it; 

 and was so much pleased with its performance, that I ordered one 

 from you in the following year, 1S38, which you set in motion for me. 

 It worked most admirably, and fully met my expectations; as it has 

 dtmc from that early period to the present day. 



In a loose way, I estimated that in the saving of labour, and grain 

 from shattering, it nearly or quite paid for itself the first harvest. Since 

 then the machine has been much improved. 



Up to the time I purchased, very few had been used in this State. 

 The first, as I have always understood, was bought by that intelligent 

 and enterprising farmer. Gen. Tench Tilghman, of Oxford, Talbot 

 County. In 1838, Col. Edward Lloyd, of "Wye," Talbot Co., the largest 

 wheat grower in Maryland, and myself, as above mentioned, availed 

 ourselves of your invention; but I did not hear of any other orders for 

 it in this State. It came, like most other agricultural implements, 

 slowly into use; and I fear has not fairly compensated you for the 

 labor and ingenuity bestowed upon it. This, however, is too often the 

 fate of discoverers and inventors; and others reap the fruits of their 

 toil and genius. I have long thought that governments were unjust to 

 inventors; and could never understand why a man ha= not the same 

 right of property to a machine conceived in his head, and con- 

 structed by his hands, as to that acquired in any other manner. The 

 same that a farmer has to the lands he owns. 



Very respectfully, y'r ob't serv't, 



Geo. W. Hughes. 



Oxford, Md., Sept. 22d, 1854. 



Mr. Obcd Hussey : 



Dear Sir: — I recently received from the Commissioner of Patents 

 the Report on Mechanics for 1853, and have examined with much 

 interest the descriptions of what claim to be improvements in the 

 Reaping Machine. 



I was rather surprised to find that so many of them were almost 

 identical with the notions which were tried and rejected during the 

 season you spent with m.e nearly twenty years ago; when for the first 

 time, (I believe,) a reaper was used throughout our entire harvest, on 

 a farm as large as six hundred acres. 



You had just then arrived from Cincinnati with two machines — one 

 a reaper, and the other a reaper and mower. 



They were exhibited publicly at Oxford and Easton, and their 

 operation on wheat gave entire satisfaction. The work throughout the 

 harvest was equally well done; the only objection being the delay 

 caused by repairing the machinery, a difificulty common to all new, 

 machines of much power at that period. 



Since then, I have used one or more reapers every year, and have 



