238 



T EI E SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



and that interesting as the subject may be, we 

 can only devote a small portion of our columns 

 to it. 



JMr. Botts, — A great deal has already been 

 said on the subject of Reaping Machines, and I 

 should not presume to trouble your readers with 

 this, were it not yet an important question with 

 them, which is the best reaping machine now 

 offered to the public. It will, of course, be un- 

 derstood that I wish to make it appear that mine 

 is the best of the two, and I think it will be no 

 hard matter to do so. Both Mr. M'Cormick 

 and myself can obtain more certificates than 

 any editor is willing to publish. Cutting wheat 

 by machinery is so great an achievement, that 

 any machine which can do it tolerably well can 

 forthwith obtain certificates. Mr. M'Cormick 

 has published many such, while I have been 

 often censured for neglecting my own interest 

 in being so far behind him in that respect ; I 

 have trusted to my machine to manifest its own 

 superiority. It has always manifested it over 

 M'Cormick's, when both have had a fair trial 

 near together. It is true, that in one instance, 

 at a trial near Richmond in 1843, a small, infe- 

 rior machine of mine (the only one of the kind 

 ever made,) did not sustain the character of my 

 reaper in the opinion of a committee ; that was 

 not a fair trial, because my proper reaper was 

 not on the ground to speak for itself, and was 

 made to suffer for the faults of a mere experi- 

 mental machine. I came to Richmond in 1843 

 to compare my machines with Mr. M'Cormick's. 

 I had two of different prices, one far superior to 

 the other. I was desirous of exhibiting both, 

 and testing their merits fairly. When my 

 best machine was exhibited in comparison with 

 M'Cormick's, I had the satisfaction to think that 

 it was preferred, but of this trial no report was 

 made. The next time I met M'Cormick's ma- 

 chine it was extremely inconvenient to procure 

 my best machine, and I carried out the smaller 

 one ; which I would not have done if I had 

 known this was to be the great trial between 

 the machines ; but it was not until I had arrived 

 on the ground that it was proposed to appoint a 

 committee with the usual formalities to decide 

 between the two machines, and then I would 

 not back out although laboring under such a 

 disadvantage. The report was favorable to both, 

 but a final preference was given to M'Cormick's, 

 partly on account of one quality in mine which 

 was then esteemed a fault, but is now by all 

 farmers experienced with it considered an ad- 

 vantage. I allude to the fact of its leaving the 

 wheat lying straight in the wake of the ma- 

 chine and rendering it necessary to bind as fast 

 as it is cut. Something has been said unfavora- 

 ble to a few of my machines built previous to 

 1842. hey were defective, but those defects, 

 I trust, are now remedied. Before experience 



had taught me how strong to make them, they 

 would occasionally break, but are mine the only 

 machines that break ? I saw last year one of 

 M'Cormick's machines which was purchased 

 about 1840 lying a heap of ruins in the field of 

 Richard Sampson, Esq. in Goochland county, 

 Virginia, but no machine is proof against break- 

 ing. Mr. John Watkins witnessed the opera- 

 tion of M'Cormick's reaper through the harvest 

 of 1843, on a farm adjoining his own, and was 

 fully acquainted with all its merits before he 

 purchased a machine of me. Several gentle- 

 men who visited his field and saw his machine 

 operate in 1844, (while M'Cormick's was at the 

 same time cutting in the next field,) have within 

 a few days ordered machines of me for next 

 year, and I fully believe that not an individual 

 who has seen both machines work sufficiently 

 to form an opinion, will purchase M'Cormick's 

 machine. I would not speak in this manner but 

 in self-defence. 



My reapers have been in use several years in 

 Jefferson county, Virginia. M'Cormick's reaper 

 was introduced there in the last harvest. In a 

 letter from a gentleman of that neighborhood 

 addressed to me, is this language : " We have 

 had a fair trial of M'Cormick's reaping machine 



in this neighborhood this harvest. Col. 



used one in the same field with one of yours 

 and found that yours would make two rounds 

 while the other made one From all ac- 



counts I hear the farmers say it is of no account. 

 I know several farmers that will have yours next 

 season ; they were holding back to see M'Cor- 

 mick's work, and are satisfied. Thinking that 

 you would be pleased to hear of the success of 

 your machine over the other I have accordingly 

 written." 



Mr. Lewis W. Washington, of Jefferson coun- 

 ty, has cut three harvests with one of my reap- 

 ers ; the following letter will show what his opi- 

 nion is. and how his machine compares with 

 M'Cormick's : 



BeaU Air, July 6, 1844. 



Obed Hussey : 



Dear Sir, — Our harvest is over, and has af- 

 forded another opportunity of testing the reapers 

 of your construction. Unlike most patent farm- 

 ing implements, they manifest their utility more 

 evidently with each successive trial. Owing to 

 the rust, the straw this year w T as spongy and 

 difficult to cut with any tool; it w 7 as also much 

 fallen. Those farmers who witnessed the opera- 

 tion of my machine, admitted that cradles could 

 not have done the work so effectually. 



Several of M'Cormick's machines were sent 

 in this neighborhood, for trial, two within a mile 

 of me and the others some two and a half miles 

 off; being engaged in cutting myself, I did not 

 see them operate ; I made particular inquiry of 

 four acquaintances who tried them, and in no 

 single instance did they think them comparable 



