Trials of Self-hinding Reapers at Aigburth. 127 
when the maker brings forward a machine with the necessary 
alterations for adapting it to our English ci-ops. 
The completion of the first day's work was much more satis- 
factory than the commencement, when the clouds hung over us 
with a threatening curtain. Several slight showers, also, in the 
early part of the day were most teasing; but the Judges acted 
judiciously in their arrangement of the proceedings under the 
existing circumstances ; and the Stewards, with marvellous 
patience and activity, devoted themselves to the necessary pre- 
parations for a work which could not fail to be discouraging as 
it appeared to be likely to be a futile one, viz., that of harvesting 
in wet weather. The change to fine weather at the late period 
of the day falsified our fears, and enabled the trials to be so far 
completed that the Judges decided that no more cutting should 
take place in the wheat-field, and that the machines should 
commence operations upon oats the next morning. 
The trials on the 18th took place on oats on another part of 
the same farm. The field was about 30 acres in size, and, on 
the whole, a magnificent crop, one-half of which was fully 
9 quarters per acre ; of the remaining half there was a small 
portion rather light, with rather shorter straw, which I estimated 
at 5^ quarters per acre. The remainder of this moiety of the 
field I estimated as likely to produce 7 quarters per acre. The 
two sections of the field were divided by a broad space which 
had been cleared of sheaves ; on the east side, and also on the 
north and south sides. The whole of the grain on the west side, 
between the portions spoken of and the fence, was already cut 
and stooked. The whole of the piece prepared for the opera- 
tion of the self-binding reaper by the open spaces surrounding 
was next subdivided into plots of half an acre by a swathe 
running from east to west. The top lot. No. 1, was of a much 
heavier character than any of the other pieces, and contained a 
good deal of entangled and twisted corn. The crop throughout 
the field was uniformly ripe, with straw especially bright and 
brittle, the conditions, therefore, being much more favourable 
for the sheaf-binders than they were in the previous day. This 
portion was selected for a preliminary operation of all the 
machines, and McCormick went first. McCormick only suc- 
ceeded in getting twice round, and this with several stoppages. 
Where the crop was heavy he could not get it up, but where it 
was laid he came to a dead-lock and retired. 
Walter A. Wood came next, and made three circuits in the 
heavy corn, with manual assistance at the delivery-board, as 
well as at the point where the cut-corn has to be lifted on the 
lower table, and to pass up the incline on the sheafing-platform. 
The roller and sheet acted very well, and the speed of delivery 
