5() ENGLISH PUBLICATIONS. 



and where, consequently, the greatest difficulty must occur in the cut- 

 ting, the manner in which the reaper did its work elicited their loudest 

 approbation;— "Why," said one burly old gentleman by our side, " a 

 man with a scythe could never cut it like that." " It is wonderful," said 

 another. 



Frojn the Morning Advertiser, Sept. 12, 185 1. 



On Monday last, the public trial of Hussey's patent Reaping 

 Machine took place with the permission of his Grace, the Duke of 

 Marlborough, on his Grace's estate of Blenheim, near Woodstock, 

 Oxfordshire, and also, on the adjoining one of Mr. Southern, one of 

 the most considerable landed proprietors of the country. A large 

 assemblage of the Agriculturists of the highest class attracted by the 

 celebrity which this ingenious and efficient contrivance has acquired for 

 itself in a course of successful experiments performed last week in York- 

 shire, were present to witness the trial, mostly from Oxfordshire and 

 the adjoining counties, but many from a considerable distance, and all 

 of them concurred in the most ready acknowledgments of its 

 advantages. 



The reaping commenced at eleven o'clpck in the barley field, the 

 machine being drawn by two fine chestnut horses, lent by his Grace 

 for the purpose of the experiment, in which he took the deepest inter- 

 est, following the reaper in a car, and watching with evident satisfac- 

 tion, the ease and rapidity with which the blades cut down the golden 

 produce of the field. The crop was by no means one calculated to 

 favor the experiment. On the contrary, some of it was down and 

 much laid. It was cut down, however, with great regularity and speed, 

 and the general evenness of the stubble was the subject of general 

 remark. As the machine passed on, hewing its way at a smart pace 

 through the dense mass of stalks, the crowd of eager observers rushed 

 after it, and many were the cheers with which it was welcomed. Occa- 

 sionally, to satisfy the ideas of the more fastidious, the level of the 

 cutters was changed, so as to leave a greater or less length of stubble, 

 and it was evident to all that in this respect the machine was suscepti- 

 ble of the nicest adjustment. Sometimes at the end of a turn it was 

 rested to give the farmers an opportunity of inspecting it, which they 

 seemed nevertired of doing, and then it was turned round at right angles 

 to cut in the cross direction. In the experiments upon barley, it 

 showed itself capable of reaping the enormous space of 1 5 acres, which 

 we believe is from eight to nine times the power of the most vigorous 

 and skillful reaper. Afterwards the machine was taken into a large 

 field of clover, which it cut to within two inches of the ground, and 

 with still greater rapidity. 



His Grace repeatedly expressed his admiration of the powers of 

 the apparatus, and congratulated some of the agricultural gentlemen 

 present with him on the prospects of greater economy and security in 

 harvesting which it afforded them.— These opinions \vere generally 

 entertained upon the ground, and yesterday at Bishop's Startford, in 



