"_To the Editor of the Darlington and Stockton Times:_
"Sir--I beg to trouble you with a few particulars of Mr. Hussey's
American Reaping Machine, which I yesterday saw working in a field near
Barnardcastle. I am not a farmer, and of course cannot be thoroughly
_au fait_ at describing an agricultural implement, nor am I
sufficiently versed in mechanics to explain to you the construction of
the machine in all its details, but of the result I can speak, and that
with confidence.
"Drawn by two horses, a man seated on the near side horse as driver, this
wonderful implement was drawn with perfect ease, at more than the rate of
three miles an hour, round and round a field, partly in wheat and partly
in barley, cutting a breadth of corn in its progress with a regularity
and evenness that was surprising. No straggling stalks of corn were left,
none of the slovenly irregular work too often seen where manual labor is
employed was to be discovered; on the contrary, the field after shearing,
looked nearly as smooth and even as a kitchen floor or turnpike road. The
farmer has now no longer occasion to be behind the reapers, dinning in
their ears, 'shear low"--'now do shear low;' for this machine, with a
very simple adjustment, will cut the corn as low as he can possibly
require. A seat on the machine is provided for a man, who, with a large
rake, and with motion resembling the pushing of a punt, removes the corn
from the machine as it is cut, and leaves it for the binders to put
together in sheafs.
"The assistance of two men and two horses are thus all that is required
to draw and to guide this wonderful sickle--and so manned, it will cut
with the ease and regularity I have described, from perhaps ten to twelve
acres in the working day. Nor as far as I could see, or learn from the
observation of others, does there appear to be any drawback against its
general adoption. Its price (£21) is not exorbitant--its construction is
not so complex as to cause a fear of frequent repairs being required; men
of the common run of agricultural laborers are quite competent to go with
it, and the work of drawing it is not distressing to the horses. Neither
does the nature of the ground appear to be much an object, for it
traveled as well over ridge and furrow as it did upon a level.
"Nothing could be more unanimous than the approval of which the machine
met with from all who saw its work, and I was informed that nine machines
were ordered on the ground. Among the purchasers was the Duke of
Cleveland, who, with Lord Harry Vane, was present and examined its
working and construction minutely. The curiosity excited by the machine
was great, and an immense number of people visited the ground during the
two days. Noblemen and gentlemen, farmers and farm laborers, tradesmen
and mechanics, men and women, flocked to see the implement which from the
other side of the Atlantic has come to effect so important a revolution
in the labor of the harvest field, and all were agreed that Brother
Jonathan, though still a young man, had some clever notions in his head,
and that John Bull, in the case of the reaping machine, would not be
above taking advantage of his intelligence. I am, etc.,
"A. B."
From the London Daily News.