314 
THE CULTIVATOR 
Sept. 
which may have been the reason that it was necessary to 
drive the horses at a rapid pace, too much so for all-day 
work with ordinary teams. Rugg’s propeller did not suc¬ 
ceed well, and was soon withdrawn from the field. Man¬ 
ny’s Northern Illinois Reaper, a slight modification of his 
mower, which cut so well upon the meadow, succeeded 
equally well as a reaper. The grain was thrown off at 
the side. This was thought by some who witnessed its 
operation, as the best combined machine, or for using 
both as mower and reaper, although for the latter pur¬ 
pose alone, it hardly came up to some others. It may 
not prove practicable to combine these two qualities to 
the best advantage in one machine, but it is certainly well 
worth the attention of inventors ; for while the cost is 
from $110 to $135 dollars, farmers will not be willing to 
purchase two, when one can be made to answer the pur¬ 
pose. We do not perceive, however, why the price 
should be nearly so high. 
Densmore’s machine, from Brockport, excited much 
interest. Its construction is notunlike McCormick’s, with 
the addition of a self-raking apparatus, which suddenly 
throws off the grain at one side, as soon as enough has 
been cut for a bundle, thus saving the labor of one man, 
required with the others, to rake off by hand. Some 
improvement is needed, however, in this self-raker; in 
light erect grain, it lays the bundles tolerably well,, but 
when heavy they are often spread in streaks. One of the 
best machines in the field was McCormick’s—like Man¬ 
ny’s and Dinsmore’s, it cut about six feet wide , and in ex¬ 
ecution was not exceeded by any, especially in u lodged” 
grain. Seymour & Morgan’s machine, from Brockport, 
cut well, but like some others, did not clear well, which 
might be owing to the inexperience of the raker. All 
these reapers appear to be quite similar in principle, if 
not in construction; Burrall’s and Hussey’s being furnish¬ 
ed with acutely formed cutting edges to their knives, and 
without reels; and all the others possessing sickle-edged 
cutters, and the machines furnished by reels. The vi¬ 
brating knives and the reels appear to be both quite old 
inventions. Hussey’s, McCormick’s, and Burrall’s appear¬ 
ed to be the favorite of this day’s trial. 
On the 22d, Danford’s double-edged reaper was put in 
operation—its principal defect was not cutting off the 
straw well, probably in consequence of having no fingers 
to gather and hold the grain, and to keep the blades in 
close contact while working together. In other respects, 
it was a neat and compact reel machine. At the same 
time, the self-raker presented by J. S. Wright, of 
Chicago, was tried—it was truly an extraordinary 
curiosity, and excited the highest interest. The 
self-raking machine (attached to Hussey’s reaper,) is the 
invention of J. Atkins, of Chicago, a person of great 
ingenuity, as this contrivance fully testifies. The rake 
sweeps the bed where the fallen grain is deposited, presses 
it against a toothed plate, and both, holding firmly the 
bundle of grain thus collected, swing round the quarter 
of a circle off behind, when they open wide, and drop 
their contents in a neat bunch upon the ground. All 
these motions are accomplished by a very simple piece 
of mechanism, and they seem so nearly the immediate 
result of intelligence, that this machine was generally 
called by the name of the Automaton Reaper. Its in- 
Atkin's Self Raker. 
vention is quite recent, and it had scarcely ever been 
used before, and hence owing to an accident it did not 
succeed the first day of its trial. It was however re¬ 
paired, a temporary reel attached, and tried again on the 
23d with entire satisfaction, proving decidedly the best 
self-raker, on the ground. With further experience, it 
may become a great acquisition. If a good self-raker 
can be brought into use, it cannot fail to be adopted, for 
farmers will be quite unwilling to employ two hands to 
man a machine that will work equally well under the 
care of one. 
The afternoon of the 22d was occupied with the reap¬ 
ers in the barley field, a piece of ground still more un¬ 
even than the wheat field. A first rate cradler had laid 
several swaths to divide the measured portions or acres; 
it was observed by all how greatly superior "was the opera¬ 
tion of the reapers, in evenness, in not leaving a straw 
behind , and in the precision with which the bunches were 
deposited. Several machines were tried, and all, or 
nearly all, did their work in the most finished manner. 
On the whole the trial was a complete triumph of ma¬ 
chinery over hand-work, for both mowing and grain cut¬ 
ting, and when machines shall be perfected, simplified, 
and rendered much cheaper than at present, mowers and 
reapers must become as indispensible on all farms of much 
size, as horse-rakes, plows, and thrashing machines. Out 
of the many hundreds who witnessed the trial, we heard 
only a single adverse expression, from a strong boned, 
rough looking laborer, who remarked in an undertone, 
when he saw the partial failure of the most defective ma¬ 
chines, “ I want nothing better than a good cradle!” 
Doubtless, had he witnessed the first experiment with 
the cast-plow, he would have exclaimed, “ A good spade 
is enough for me!” 
Thrashing Machines. 
Experiments were made on the 23d and 24th to test 
the power and efficiency of horse-powers and thrashing 
machines. A most ingeniously constructed dynamome¬ 
ter, in possession of J. E. Holmes, of Mass., one of tho 
committee, exhibited with mathematical accuracy the 
speed and resistance at the same time. Unfortunately, 
this elegant instrument was found not well adapted to 
the degree of velocity and force existing in thrashing ma¬ 
chines, and after a few trials it was found necessary to 
discontinue its use. The committee were therefore com¬ 
pelled to depend on other modes of determining the 
power, such as counting and weighing the sheaves pass¬ 
ing through each machine in a given time, measuring the 
thrashed grain, using the same pair of horses, operating 
by their weight on the endless-chain powers, ascertaining 
the degree of friction in each, by measuring the angle 
of inclination required for a given weight to put each in 
