AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
371 
Sec. 5. The society may hold cattle shows 
and fairs, at such time and place as shall be 
designated by the executive committee. 
Sec. 6. This constitution may be amended 
by a vote of two-thirds of the members 
present at any annual meeting. 
WHO WAS THE INVENTOR OF THE FIRST 
SUCCESSFUL REAPING MACHINE 1 
There is no account of any successful 
reaper in ancient times, and it is well known 
that England and Scotland never produced 
any up to the time of the London Exhibition 
of all nations in 1851 ; it consequently fol¬ 
lows that the claim of priority is clearly con¬ 
fined to the United States. The question 
then is, who originated the successful reap¬ 
ing and m®wing machine 1 
I do not wish to urge any unjust claim for 
myself, but I wish to maintain the credit 
which is justly due to me. 
It is well known to the country, and by far¬ 
mers in particular, that there are at the pres¬ 
ent day several successful reaping machines, 
which are known by different names ; but it 
is not generally known that all of them, 
without exception, embrace substantially the 
principle invented by me, and exhibited by 
myself in successful operation in the harvest 
field as long ago as 1833, and however sur¬ 
prising and unexpected this statement may 
appear, it is nevertheless true that there is 
no successful reaping and mowing machine 
now in use without it. Most of the reaping 
and mowing machines of the present dav 
are of recent date ; nearly all of them are 
little more than copies of my invention. 
The old Roman machine seems to have 
been little more than a cart, backed up to the 
wheat. This mode of approaching the grain, 
was followed by the Scotch and English in¬ 
ventors from the remotest period in the his¬ 
tory of reapers down to 1854. The earliest 
of these English and Scotch machines ap¬ 
pear to have been constructed on the rotary 
principle, the cutting instruments being 
placed on the periphery of a large horizon¬ 
tal wheel, which revolved near the ground. 
Bell, of Scotland, at a later period used sis- 
sors. His machine presented to the grain a 
row of pointed blades, which operated like 
a series of tailor’s shears, but it was soon 
pronounced a failure. The American reap¬ 
ers woke it up from a long sleep in 1851. It 
was resuscitated and flourished for a brief 
season, took the English and Scotch prizes 
in 1853 by especial favor, and was again 
condemned at the late meeting of the Royal 
Agricultural Society held in Lincoln, (Eng¬ 
land) the present year 1854. 
Much time, labor, and money were ex¬ 
pended on these early inventions during 
many years, but there does not appear to be 
any record of a successful reaper until my 
discovery, first publicly exhibited in success¬ 
ful operation on the 2d day of July, 1833. 
In conclusion, I will submit the following 
points, and leave it to the judgment of the 
public to decide who was the inventor of the 
successful reaping and mowing machine : 
First.—Every effort at reaping by ma¬ 
chinery from the earliest time down to July 
the 2d, A. D. 1833, were failures. 
Second .—The double or slotted finger in 
combination with vibrating blades was not 
used by any other person than myself pre¬ 
vious to the 2d day of July, 1823. On that 
day this invention was put into successful 
operation by me, and its performance ap¬ 
proved by an agricultural society then pres¬ 
ent on the field. 
Third .—Every successful reaping and mow¬ 
ing machine, of whatever name, which has 
been brought before the puplic since that 
time, is substantially of the principle inven¬ 
ted by me, and put in successful operation 
by myself, on the 2d day of July, 1833. 
No change has been made in the cutting 
apparatus of my reaper since 1833, except 
an improvement to prevent choking, but 
several changes have from time to time been 
made in the construction of the woodwork, 
and in the arrangement of the gearing, to 
render the machine convenient and durable 
and of lighter draught. Obed Hussey. 
JACOB STRAWN, 
THE NAPOLEON OF CATTLE. 
Mr. Strawn is a man of about five feet and 
six inches in stature, stoutly, built, with a 
chest of great capacity, measuring about the 
breast, as we are told, fifty-two inches in 
girth. He is now fifty-four years of age ; a 
little upon the down hill side of life, with hair 
turning grey; and as he himself says, “get¬ 
ting a little lazythat is, obliged to sleep as 
many as about four hours every night. He 
has a large and pleasant face, and is aman of 
good appearance. His farm consists of two 
tracts of land lying, firstly, in the heart of 
Morgan County, and next in the County of 
Sangamon. The first consists of 7,800 acres, 
in one body; being six miles in length by 
three and a half in breadth; the other of 
8,500 acres ; or together, something over 
16,00 acres, of as good land as the sun and 
the moon ever shine upon These lands, 
with all their improvements, stock, and fix¬ 
tures, are his individual earnings ; being the 
product of no speculation, either in lands, 
stocks, or other matters ; and the result of 
no “ rise in real estate for we have not 
been able to learn that Mr. Strawn ever sold 
an acre of land since he came to the State. 
Nor has he bought lands for the sake of mo¬ 
nopolizing, or “ holding on,” or for traffic in 
reality ; his purchases have been for use, and 
when obtained have been, and are, used. 
Jacob Strawn was born in Somerset Co., 
Pa. His parents we infer to have been either 
poor or in such circumstances as to leave 
him to shirk pretty much for himself. His 
mother we learn was a “ terrible ” worker, 
and the boy Jacob was taught in her ways. 
We hear of his endeavors at clearing a farm, 
after his first marriage, which took place at 
home in Pennsylvania ; of his chopping till 
far into the night, by the light of fires kindled 
by his wife of the fallen trees, and after a 
short sleep, being at it again, after the same 
fashion, by the same aid. At an early day 
he left Pennsylvania for Licking Co., Ohio, 
where he remained eleven years, and then 
pulling up stakes again, came to Illinois, ar¬ 
riving in 1831, and pitching upon a small 
tract of about 300 acres, where his house now 
stands. 
The great business of his life had, howev¬ 
er, been long commenced. Indeed, in his 
own words, he “ began it at ten years of 
age, and has driven it to this time, with all 
the wind and credit he could command.” 
The great passion of his life was and is— 
steers—cattle ; to drive them, to feed them, 
buy them, sell them; and then own other 
steers, to go through the like process ;—this 
was to him and is yet, what books were to 
Kirk White, or armies to Napoleon. He 
pursued it eleven years in Ohio, and at the 
end had cash enough to purchase the afore¬ 
said 300 and odd acres in Morgan County, 
three miles from Jacksonville, Illinois. He 
got him up a small log house, good as those 
of his neighbors, and which stands yet 
where he resided till 1838, when his present 
dwelling was erected. The partner of his 
early life died, however, about one year after 
his arrival in Illinois, leaving him three sons, 
who still survive. Twenty years since his 
present wife was jointed to him, and five 
living children are the result of this mar¬ 
riage. From that day to this, his life has 
been an undeviating pursuit of his absorbing 
idea. His were first the steers fed in Mor¬ 
gan County, and he has probably fed more 
since that time than all other men in the 
County together. The industry with which 
this business has been pursued by him, is 
wholly without a parallel in all the histories 
of business ever perused or heard of by us. 
Mr. Strawn is not and never has been in any 
proper sense of the term, a breeder of cattle. 
He buys them, feeds them till fattened and 
then sells them. As his business increased, 
he increased his farm till it has grown to its 
present size. He has now upon it, 2,900 
acres of corn, 1,600 head of cattle—having 
just sold 400 whose places must soon be 
again filled ; 700 hogs to follow and fatten 
after his cattle, about fifty horses, and from 
50 to 100 mules. Of other stock he has lit¬ 
tle. His only experience in sheep, he gave 
as follows : “ He once bought 26 head ; the 
dogs killed 16 of them, and the balance he 
sold to a butcher, who has not yet paid him.” 
Of turkeys, hens, or other poultry, he cares 
little or nothing. He raises a few steers 
yearly, and one of these, one year and a half 
old, sold the present season, weighed 1,350 
pounds. 
His sales of stock the present season, 
have amounted lo something over $100,000 ; 
those of cattle alone exceeding $96,000. 
The style of farming pursued by Mr. 
Strawn may easily be gathered from the 
foregoing : He raises no wheat, oats, or 
other small grain ; the whole surface of his 
domain is devoted to timber, grass and corn. 
We were however shown one field, now 15 
years in grass, which the plow has never 
touched. It was a piece of rough bog low¬ 
land, given over to weeds and brush. It was 
“brought to,’’byclearingthe surface, smooth¬ 
ing it down ; and being trod compactly to¬ 
gether by an immense drove of cattle. Since 
then it yields ail the grass a scythe can go 
through, and at this time is peppered all over 
with hay stacks. All the corn is fed on the 
land. A common manner of raising it, is, to 
furnish the land to a laborer, and have the 
corn grown and put into stooks at a cost to 
Mr. Strawn, of eight cents the bushel. One 
man will tend a field of 40 acres. We were 
shown a field of a half section—or 320 acres 
—which will now yield, not much less than 
80 bushels per acre, bad as the season has 
been. This half section by the way is a fa¬ 
vorite size for a field on this farm. 
Mr. S. makes it a condition with all who 
cultivate land for him, that no weeds are to 
be tolerated. He will any where on his 
farm, get off his horse to pull up a weed: 
and in his own words, “ a hat full of cockle 
burr or sour dock could not be found on the 
premises.” In truth, the extent of his pos¬ 
sessions, forms no occasion for slovenliness 
of culture. Neater, cleaner lands can not be 
found in the State. The enclosures are al¬ 
most exclusively of Virginia rail fence, 
staked and ridered, such as no civilized bul¬ 
lock will think of attempting. The usual 
practice of good farmers in this part of the 
State, is here followed, of cutting up and put¬ 
ting in stook all the corn. At this work, the 
sons of Mr. S., in striped overalls, were en¬ 
gaged, on the day of our visit. As the stooks 
are wanted for feed, they are hauled into a 
lot adjoining, and fed upon the grass, stalks, 
ears and all. Hogs either run with the cat¬ 
tle or are turned in after them, and thus clean 
work is made of feeding. 
The question may arise, where such a 
number of steers can be found, as are here 
annually fed and turned off. This is perhaps 
no difficult question to answer now, for cat¬ 
tle are plenty at present in Illinois ; and in¬ 
stead of increasing his business, Mr. Strawn, 
owing to the slight pressure of years and in¬ 
firmity, has rather decreased it of late. But 
years ago, when the land was newer and the 
country was wilder, the business of finding 
and driving cattle on such a scale was one of 
