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THE ILLINOIS FAMEK: 



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SIMEON FRANCIS, Editor. 



BAILHACHE: & BAKER, Pitblishsbs. 



f*Ol. 2, 



SEPTEJflBEn, 1857. 



JVto. 9, 



Inventors. 



We can scarcely take up a paper at this 

 time which does not contain accounts of the 

 trials of mowers and reapers. We have 

 now lying by us notices of the trials of 

 these machines in St. Louis, in Indiana, 

 Ohio, Maryland and New York. New ma- 

 chines have been presented for trial, and 

 with few exceptions, it seemed to be ad- 

 mitted that the new inventions, in Eome par- 

 ticulars, had advantages over the old. Per- 

 fect AS the old inventions have appeared to 

 us, it is not doubted that, to borrow the lan- 

 guage of the inventor of "Brown's reaper 

 and mower" — "other inventions and im- 

 provements will follow until the farmer can 

 attach his horses to a reaper or mower, with 

 as much certainty that it will perform its 

 work well, as be now does when he at- 

 taches his horses to his wagon or plow." 

 These trials and those which will follow, 

 will test the value of the new as well as the 

 old machines. 



At the recent trials great admiration has 

 been expressed with the performances of the 

 machines on trial. The farmer saw how 

 much mechanical genius and science had 

 done to lessen his labors in harvesting his 

 grain and grass crops. Illinois Farmers 

 -could realize, that without these machines, 

 their immense grain crops could not be 

 secured. There are not laborers enough in 

 Illinois to cut the wheat, rye, barley, oats, 

 millet and grass, by the old mode of using 

 the sickle, cradle and scythe. The agri- 

 cultural machinery of this State — including 

 thrashers, drills, broadcast sowers, horse 

 rakes, &c — supply the place of an hundred 

 thousand laborers. This machinery does 

 more for our State than all the slave popula- 

 tion of Missouri does for its owners. 



We were glad to see that at one of the 

 trials noticed, the hard-plodding, the la- 

 borious, the patient, the untiring, the worthy 

 mechanies, who have brought into existence 

 the agricultural machinery of the country, 

 were not forgotten. And, indeed, they 

 never should be forgotten by our right- 

 hearted farmers. 



The history of oar Illinois mechanics, who 

 have successively brought into notice, 

 "Manny's reaper and mower," "Atkin's 

 self-raking reaper and mower," "M'Cormick's . 

 reaper and mower," (this last machine was 

 perfected in Illinois,) "Rugg's reaper and 

 mower," "Haine's harvester," Brown's 

 reaper and mov\rer," "Flagg's reaper," — 

 their first efforts, their frequent disappoint- 

 ments, their renewed efforts under great dis- 

 couragements, and their final success — 

 would be deeply interesting to those who 

 can feel a sympathy in their struggles, in 

 poverty, in opposition to the views of 

 friends, and even, sometimes, when they 

 almost lost confidence in their own powers 

 to accomplish the object of their toils; 



Hon. Marshal P. Wilder, President of 

 the United States' Agricultural Society, at 

 the recent trial of reapers and mowers at 

 Syracuse, New York, delivered an address, 

 in which he thus paid the homage due to 

 the inventors and manufacturers of our agri- 

 cultural machinery: 



Reaping machines were in use in England 

 towards the close of the last century. Since 

 that period many improvements have been 

 made and patents have been secured, but 

 no very marked progress had taken place 

 until towards the middle of the present 

 century. A new era then commenced, and 

 the entry of our American machines in the 

 Loudon fair, awoke and directed to improve- 



