2GQ 



THE ILLINOIS FAEMER. 



Sept 



The Great Beaper Trial. 



No event in the progress of rural improve- 

 ment has for a long time been of such vital in- 

 terest to the farmer as the late reaper trial at I 

 Dixon. The value of the trials at Syracuse, at 

 Salem and Urbana had faded out before new 

 improvements that were rapidly changing the 

 aspect of affairs. Iron has been gradually su 

 pcrceding the use of ■wood to a great extent, 

 while self-rakers, headers and binders were each 

 struggling for the mastery, and a vigorous and 

 healthy competition was making close compari- 

 son with aiijustability, durability, cheapness, 

 rapidity of work, ease of draft, of delivery and 

 of repair. Thus genius has been giving to the 

 harvest field a new enstilement of values. 



The State Soci3ty could not have taken a 

 more opportune time to call together and exhibit 

 to the western farmer the valuable improvements 

 that had been so silently maturing for his use. 

 At no time have these improvements been so 

 welcome, from the withdrawal of such large 

 enstalements of labor as at the present, to fill, in 

 part, the void thus made. 



"What the Merrimac and the Monitor was to 

 the old navy, the new improvements will be to 

 the old family of reapers, not that the new Mon- 

 itor is yet fully constructed, but the idea is 

 born, an its infant hands presents the power of 

 a giant ; the harvest field is to see a revolut on, 

 potent and powerful for good. It was with a 

 keen eye that inventors and manufacturers 

 watched each new born thought that had been 

 giwm form, and nothing escaped them, whether 

 it was a new cutting plate, a new hand to grasp 

 the bundles, the devil's fork, or the iron binder — 

 . all came in rapid review before them. These will 

 go on the trestle board, have their curves and 

 motions and relative values measured, and lo 

 the Monitor will come down sweeping the har- 

 vest field and gathering with its iron gra-p its 

 golden products. Some of the old craft can be 

 rebuilt and yet do good service, but the great 

 republic of harvesters will most implicitly rely 

 upon the new. 



The exhibition (for we do not propose to call 

 it a trial,) Las proved that no one machine on 

 the ground is, in all respects, the best, but that 

 certain new combinations must be formed by in- 

 Tentors that shall be another proud triumph for 

 the great grain fields of the west. 



It is to be regretted that a thorough trial 

 could not have been had, so as to settle forever 

 certain conditions and elements that are more or 



less involved. Whether the Board had before 

 them the ill-starred report of the "scientific 

 committee on steam plowing," or some similar 

 hobgoblin we know not, but certain it is that 

 they concluded to rely upon their own unaided 

 efforts to make the examinations, in departments 

 of mechanics to which th ir previous habits of 

 life had not fitted them in any very eminent 

 degree. That they should, under such circum- 

 stances, fail to satisfy themselves, much less to 

 meet the just expectations of a discriminating 

 public is no great matter of wonder. As a trial, 

 in the ordinary use of term, it was a complete 

 failure, while as an exhibition it was a proud 

 and valuable triumph of mechanical genius, not 

 only to the farmer, but to the inventor and man- 

 ufacturer, the result of which will mark a new 

 era in the progress of the harvest field. 



When men assnme public positions, their acts 

 are subject to public inspection and criticism, 

 for there is no human power eo high that it is 

 beyond our reach, or that its dignity may not 

 come down to be judged by the ordinary rules of 

 common sense. The members of the committee 

 personally we hold in high esteem, but as a 

 Board we are well satisfied that they have com- 

 mitted grave errors of judgment, and done that 

 in their ofl&cial capacity that as individuals they 

 would not wish to endorse. In the course of our 

 remarks we intend to point out the errors of the 

 Board to some extent, and this shall be done in 

 all kindness, for we believe that in all their acts 

 they have honestly endeavored to make them- 

 selves useful to the country. Since the failure of 

 the State Fair at Big Muddy, a part if not all 

 of the members of the Board have not been 

 pleased with the course of the public press, and 

 to prevent any misunderstanding at this time, 

 concluded that they would keep their own se- 

 crets, look wise anl stand forth on their dignity. 

 It is true that they had advertised a public trial 

 of machines at which everybody and his wife 

 was invited to be present. Editors of agricultu- 

 ral journals and whose columns had made these 

 announcements at the request of the Board were 

 assured that they would be particularly welcome. 

 Three of these journals were represented by their 

 editors in chief, and one by its associate, yet 

 these gentlemen were as fully excluded from 

 this public trial as the farmer who had sacrificed 

 his time and money to investigate and compare 

 the relative value of the various reapers. None 

 but the Board who had decided to act as an 

 awarding committeee. were admitted to the 

 grounds, and the trial which had been promised 



