64 ENGLISH PUBLICATIONS. 



contrary, the field after shearing, looked nearly as smooth and even 

 as a kitchen floor or turnpike road. The farmer has now no longer oc- 

 casion to be behind the reapers, dinning in their years, "shear low,' — 

 " now do shear low; ' for this machine, with a very simple adjustment, 

 will cut the corn as low as he can possibly require. A seat on the 

 machine is provided for a man, who with a large rake, and with mo- 

 tion resembling the pushing of a punt, removes the corn from the 

 machine as it is cut, and leaves it for the binders to put together in 

 sheafs. 



The assistance of two men and two horses are thus all that is re- 

 quired to draw and to guide this wonderful sickle — and so manned, it 

 will cut wath the ease and regularity I have described, from perhaps 

 10 to 12 acres in the working day. Nor as far as I could see, or learn 

 from the observation of others, does there appear to be any drawback 

 against its general adoption. Its price (^2i) is not exorbitant — its 

 construction is not so complex as to cause a fear of frequent repairs 

 being required; men of the common run of agricultural laborers are 

 quite competent to go with it, and the work of drawing it is not dis- 

 tressing to the horses. Neither does the nature of the ground appear 

 to be much an object, for it travelled as well over ridge and furrow 

 as it did upon a level. 



Nothing could be more unanimous, than the approval of which the 

 machine met with from all who saw its work, and I was informed that 

 nine machines were ordered on the ground- Among the purchasers 

 was the Duke of Cleveland, who with Lord Harry Vane, was present, 

 and examined its working and construction minutely. The curiosity 

 excited by the machine was great, and an immense number of people 

 visited the ground during the two days. — Noblemen and gentlemen, 

 farmers and farm laborers, tradesmen and mechanics, men and wo- 

 men, flocked to seen the implement, which from the other side of the 

 Atlantic has come to effect so important a revolution in the labor of 

 the harvest field, and all were agreed that Brother Jonathan, though 

 still a young man, had some clever notions in his head, and that John 

 Bull, in the case of the reaping machine, would not be above taking 

 advantage of his intelligence. I am, &c. 



A. B. 



\^From the Lotidofi Daily Neivs.'] 



Hussey's Reaping Machine — Trial before Prince Albert. 



The celebrated battle of the Ganges hardly excited more interest 



in the railway world than the battle of the Reaping machines has 



lately created in the agricultural world, nor is the result perhaps 



very much less important in the latter case than in the former. 



Of the recent inventions for diminishing the cost of production, 

 the most remarkable are undoubtedly the Reaping machines of Messrs. 

 Hussey and M'Cormick. Perhaps it would be more accurate to call 

 them importations than inventions, since both have been in use for 

 a considerable time in America; and amongst the benefits arising 



