368 Report on the ExMhition and Trial of Iirvplements 



All who were engaged in the experiments will ever remember 

 his kindness and consideration on that occasion.* 



C. E. Amos. 



Grove, Southwarh, 2Sth Sept. 1853. 



The Judges' Report on Reaping Machines. 



The Gloucester Trial. — For the trial of Reapers at Gloucester, circumstances 

 were upon the whole propitious. The day was fine. The field laid up in 

 narrow high-backed lands or stetches proved a good test of their working 

 powers, and a rather strags^ling crop of rye within about ten days of being 

 ripe presented in itself no particular difficulties to overcome. The work 

 allotted to each machine was laid out across ridge and furrow. Twelve com- 

 petitors started, who fulfilled their tasks with various success; and ultimately 

 left five in possession of the field, namely, Hussey's own Improved, Dray and 

 Co.'s Hussey, Samuelson's original M'Cormick, Burgess and Key's im- 

 proved M'Cormick, and Crosskill's Bell. The work of these only was 

 found sufficiently satisfactory to be reserved for a further trial at Mr. Pusey's 

 farm, at Pusey, in Berkshire. To these was added Garrett's Hussey, on the 

 credit of its well-earned character, though it failed in the present instance, 

 from its being constructed only to cut on a level surface. The above five cut 

 their stubbles, over high ridge or deep furrow, with equal evenness, their 

 knives following the inequalities simultaneously with the wheels— Bell's, 

 however, the least so, from being dependent on the management of the steerer ; 

 — and these generally performed their characteristic deliveries in a satisfactory 

 manner: — Mr. O. Hussey's, which, together with Dray and Co.'s, gathers, 

 by the rake of a man sitting on the machine, a sufficient quantity on the 

 platform for a sheaf, and lets it off behind ; M'Cormick's, which also by a 

 man and rake pulls off the same quantity to the right side, out of the way of 

 the return of the horses ; and Bell's, which, by the action of an endless web, 

 forming a revolving apron to receive the corn from the knives, turns out a 

 continuous swathe. The self-delivery of this last, with the facihty of turning 

 the corn off on either side, was the most satisfactory and w^orkmanlike of the 

 whole. Dray and Co. assisted their delivery by a platform on a pivot, but 

 which did not appear to possess a marked advantage over Hussey's own. 

 They employed moreover three men, stationed at intervals, with light gather- 

 ing forks, to lift and place the deposit on bands previously laid down ; and 

 this was devised to obviate the necessity of binding immediately after the 

 machine. M'Cormick's deposits varied in degrees of evenness for binding, 

 according as the corn leaned favourably or otherwise. Bell's, propelled by 

 two horses yoked to a pole, manifested its independence by striking into the 

 standing crop, and opening a passage for the horses 6 feet wide, and by cutting 

 it in any direction. While Hussey's, managed by the veteran inventor him- 

 self, commanded general attention, by the style in which he surmounted the 

 ridges and dipped into the furrows, while in a deliberate and workmanlike 

 manner he collected and deposited each gathering in its proper quantity. But 

 the complete trial was reserved ibr the Pusey meeting. 



The Automatons exhibited by Messrs. Ransome and Messrs. Garrett 

 excited at the same time a vast deal of interest. These, from some cause, 

 failed to perform the reaping action with success. And the straggling nature 



* Since writing the above I have learnt that Crosskill and Co., with their usual 

 promptitude, have constructed a machine on the principle recommended, to 

 which they are about to give a public trial.— C. E. Amos. 



