192 
Annual Report of the 
Question. Don’t you think forty days rather a long time to be 
haying in this country ? 
Answer. I said haying and harvesting all through. 
Mr. Sherman. I agree with my friend in regard to the Marsh 
harvester, and my neighbor here did not understand me as to the 
amount of grain which I cut. I don’t doubt but that the larger the 
farm the better the machinery will pa} r , so far as the machinery is 
able to perform its work. If a man has 250 acres to cut, he can do 
it certainly, and make it pay better; but I was speaking on gener¬ 
al principles in Wisconsin. 
Mr. Whiting. This subject of farm implements is an interest¬ 
ing subject, and one in which all farmers have an abiding interest. 
I think the gentleman is correct in his statement on general prin¬ 
ciples, that reapers in particular fail to pay; and I believe he is also 
correct in stating that he can hire labor, and hire his grain cut at 
a less price than by a machine, if he has only 40 to 60 acres. The 
difficulty however, in the way of rendering this plan particable, is 
this: when our wheat is ripe it must be cut. If we depend on hir¬ 
ing it done by our neighbors with their machines, they are gener¬ 
ally all busy, and we cannot get it done in time, and to leave it 
from three to four days beyond the proper time of cutting is a mat¬ 
ter of very bad economy; and hence those of us who own. small 
farms are necessitated to buy reapers and get them at the enormous 
price at which they are sold in order to continue our operations. 
If you can hire that labor in proper time, then I say one-half the 
reapers in use and perhaps two out of three should be disposed of. 
One idea in regard to the patent law. It seems to me something 
ought to be done in this regard to alleviate the burdens of the farm¬ 
ers. It is monstrously extravagant for us to pay $225 for a ma¬ 
chine which can doubtless be constructed and leave a reasonable 
profit to the manufacturer and to the patentee for twenty-five or 
thirty per cent, of that amount. And if our American Congress 
cun interpose by legislative enactment an obstacle to the progress 
of those men who are making themselves immensely rich at the 
expense of a vast number of the farming community, they will do 
a thing that is exceedingly for the good of the people. 
I happen to be just at this time a little interested in patent 
rights myself. I have an invention for which I hope and expect to 
receive a patent, but. notwithstanding, I hope there will be an 
