INVKNTION OF l<KAI'IN(; MAfHlNES. 35 



American Farmer; — and all ivum North Carolina, tiiouf^h the evidence 

 from other sections is much more extended, and e(iually as con- 

 clusive: 



Somerset Place, Washington Co. ) 

 N. Carolina, 25th Aug. 1847. ( 

 To the Editor of the American Farmer: 



Dear Sir:— Yours of the 6th ult. arrived at my residence during my 

 absence, in consequence of which I was unable to return you an 

 answer in time for your August No. of the "American Farmer." — I 

 trust, however, the delay will not materially affect the value of my 

 communication. In consecpience of the recommendation of a gentle- 

 man who had used "Hussey's Reaper" in the harvest of 1846 with 

 much satisfaction, I was induced to make a trial of one the present 

 season. It was put in operation under the direction and supervision 

 of Mr. Husscy himself, upon a field of reclaimed low ground, origi- 

 nally Cypress Swamp, which of course could only be cultivated in 

 beds — these beds were six feet wide, including the water-furrow 

 between, and were intersected at intervals of about fifty yards by 

 drains, known to us as tap-ditches, which cross the water furrows at 

 right angles, and are cut from two to four inches deeper than the 

 furrows themselves. I am particular in describing the land, as I had 

 always supposed that an insuperable obstacle in the way of the regular 

 action of any machine would be found in the irregularity of surface 

 into which our land is necessarily thrown by our system of culture. 

 The machine surmounted every anticipated difificulty, and was emi- 

 nently successful, both in cutting lengthwise with the beds and across 

 them. The wheat was cut in a most thorough manner ; nothing 

 escaped the cutting surfaces, nor did weeds or any other obstruction 

 of the kind hinder the machine from doing its work perfectly. 

 During the running of the machine one day in the harvest, 17 acres of 

 wheat were cut by it* — this was done by using relays of horses, four 

 at each time, the same hands being employed however, and the work- 

 ing time was twelve hours. — After a heavy rain we were obliged to 

 abandon the use of the machine, owing to the fact that the ground 

 became so soft that the "road wheel" as it is termed, buried in the 

 soil, and would become clogged with mud. This difficulty can, I have 

 no doubt, be easily overcome by increasing the "tread" of this wheel. 

 and making some slight alteration in the co'^-wheel which gears 

 into it. 



Some two years since I saw an experiment made upon an adjoining 

 estate with McCormick's machine — it cut occasionally well where the 

 wheat was free from weeds, but any obstruction from that source 

 would immediately choke it, when of course the wheat would be over- 

 run without being cut — the experiment proved a failure, and the 



*\Vhen Mr. Hussey was with me I informed him that the piece of wheat cut by 

 the machine on this occasion equalled 20 acres, but I have since discovered that I 

 had been mistaken in my calculation of the acre. 



