on Agricultural Implements. 



615 



Averao:e cost of reapins: 15 acres, 9s. - - £6 15 0 

 Horses and men Cor Reaper - - £0 10 0 

 Binding 15 acres, 2s. Qd. - - 1 17 0 



2 7 6 



Saving per acre, 5s. \Qd. - - - - £4 7 6 



The saving- in wages, however, would of course be an imper- 

 fect test of the Reaper's merits, since in bad seasons and late dis- 

 tricts it may oflen enable the farmer to save I he crop. 



Since this statement was written fresh trials have been made 

 of Mr. M'Cormick's Reaper, as also of one bv Mr. Hussey ; and 

 as the award under the Commission has been called in question, 

 it is right that some statement should be made on tlie subject. 

 In the first trial at Tiptree Hall, Mr. M'Cormick's Reaper 

 worked well, the other did not act at all. As the corn, however, 

 was then green, it was thought right to make further trial, and 

 special leave was obtained from the Council of Chairmen to give 

 tico Council medals — one to each Reaper — if, on further trial, 

 their respective performances should be found to deserve one. 

 The object in our second trial was not to decide which was the 

 best implement, but whether either or both were sufficiently good 

 to receive the Council medal. Mr. M'Cormick's in this trial 

 worked — as it has since worked at Cirencester College and else- 

 where — to the admiration of practical farmers, and therefore 

 received a Council medal. Mr. Hussey's som.etimes became 

 clogged, as in the former trial at Tipiree, and therefore could 

 not possibly obtain that distinction. 



Further trials, however, have since been made by other parties 

 elsewhere, in which Mr. Hussev's machine worked well ; and one 

 of our colleagues, Mr. Thompson, informs me that it has been 

 used for a week by a practical farmer on his own farm, who was 

 perfectly satisfied. Its inventor states that at the trials for the 

 Commission tlie failure arose from a mal-adjustment ; and Mr. 

 Thompson informs me that at one of the subsequent trials a 

 similar mal-adjustment impeded its action, until Mr. Hussey 

 arrived to set it right. I am bound, then, to express my own 

 individual opinion that the merits of the machine are such as 

 entitle it to a Council medal, and my regret that it should be 

 formally disqualified to receive one. 



We have, then, two good American reaping-machines. Their 

 respective merits time will discover : but there is one caution 

 which applies to the introduction of boih into England. They 

 both cut by a sidelong vibration, the frequency of which must be 

 determined by the number of straws to be cut in passing over a 

 given space. Now, as the acr cable yield of England nearlv 



