304 Mejyort on the Exhibition and Trial of Implements 



subject has been obtained wliicli may be turned to good account 

 both bj agriculturists and implement-makers. With this object in 

 view the writer put himself into communication with farmers in 

 different parts of the country, who had used reaping-machines 

 during the harvest of 1852, and has now before him the written 

 opinions of a considerable number of practical men, who give 

 their own experience of the use of these implements. In the 

 present position of the labour-market the production of a really 

 effective reaping-machine is an object of national importance ; so 

 that it will scarcely be necessary to apologize for devoting a few 

 pages to the result of these inquiries. 



Before commencing, it will be proper to allude briefly to the 

 circumstances under which these machines have been brought 

 prominently before the public. The Highland Society's Journal 

 for January 1852 contains an elaborate paper by Mr. Slight, 

 giving a detailed description of a number of reaping-machines 

 which have been brought out in Great Britain since the com- 

 mencement of the present century, and a pamphlet, printed in 

 the United States,* describes a number of different machines, 

 both British and American, and even alludes to an ancient one 

 used in Gaul, which is described by Pliny and Palladius, (?) 

 the latter of whom states that one of these machines, worked 

 by one ox, cut large fields of grain in a day. Those who are 

 desirous of tracing the successive inventions that have preceded 

 and paved the way for the adoption of the present forms of 

 this machine, will do well to consult the articles referred to, 

 especially the one by Mr. Slight, which is very carefully written. 

 For our present purpose it is sufficient to mention that the in- 

 formation thus studiously collected conclusively proves that none 

 of the reaping-machines of the present day can claim to be con- 

 sidered the ''^ original reaping-machine^^ though each of them 

 (Bell's more especially) bears the stamp of original talent. 



After the first production of the reaping-machine, the next point 

 which claims our attention is the lateness of its introduction into 

 British agriculture. It is a remarkable fact that, though reaping^ 

 machines have been largely used in America for some years past, 

 and though even in Great Britain Bell's reaper has worked 

 year after year for nearly a quarter of a century to the entire 

 satisfaction of its owners, yet that very few British farmers 

 knew or cared that such a machine was in existence until the 

 opening of the Great Exhibition, when this friendly comparison 

 of the products of the world's industry showed British farmers 

 that in this point (at least) their American brethren were fast 



* ' Remonstrance (to the Congress of the United States) of the Citizens of NeW 

 York against the renewal of Letters Patent granted to Cyrus H. M'Cormick, June 

 1834, for Improvements in the Reaping-machine.' 



