Part 17

"Dear Sir:--Having housed all the grain crops of this farm, it is due to you that I should now frankly admit the removal of all my doubts in regard to the effectiveness and excellence of your 'Reaping Machine.' The doubts expressed in my early correspondence with you arose from the many abortive attempts in this country and in England to produce a reaping machine, possessing power and simplicity and durability; most of them were complicated, and proved too fragile.

"Soon after the arrival of your machine, I tried its power and became readily familiar with the manner of using it; the result of my experience will appear from the following facts:

"The wheat crop of this farm covered 104 acres, producing 2,540 shocks, 30,480 sheaves, as counted on the ground, and again when housed in the grain barn and sheds.

"The whole crop was cut by your reaping machine in eight days, using one team, a boy to drive and a man to manage the machine.

"The average quantity cut per day was thirteen acres.

"The largest quantity cut on any one day was seventeen acres.

"The longest period for working the machine on any one day was nine hours.

"Seven men were stationed on the field to bind the sheaves.

"The cost of cutting the wheat with your machine is twenty-five cents per acre.

"The total cost for cutting, raking, binding and shocking is seventy-eight cents and a fraction per acre.

"The cost may be stated as follows, viz:

A man and team for eight days at $1.50 per day $12.00

A boy to drive for eight days at fifty cents per day 4.00

Interest on cost of machine and for wear and tear, say at 10 per cent 10.00 ______ $26.00

"Which is equal to 25 cents per acre on 104 acres. The seven men employed to rake and bind received, each, $1 per day for eight days, say $56, which sum added to the cost for cutting or reaping, gives a total cost of $82, or 78-88/100 cents per acre.

"I have compared this cost with the cost paid by my neighboring farmers this season, and find it vastly in favor of your machine. The individual in this town who harvested with the most economy paid $1 13/100 per acre--other farmers have paid from $1 25/100 to $2 per acre.

"Since the wheat harvest the machine has cut with signal advantage about twenty acres of oats.

"The wheat and oats were cut with such neatness and precision that the gleanings were not sufficient to pay the labor of raking.

"The machine remains in perfect order, and did not fail to perform all you promised.

"I deem it one of the best labor-saving machines ever offered for the advantage of the farmer; its effectiveness, simple and durable construction, have been witnessed with satisfaction by a large number of my neighbor farmers.

"Respectfully yours,

"J. DELAFIELD."

The machine alluded to in the above letter is the low priced one at $100.

For 1846, 1847 and 1848 we copy from the Richmond Planter and American Farmer--and all from North Carolina, though the evidence from other sections is much more extended, and equally as conclusive:

"Somerset Place, Washington Co., "North Carolina 25th Aug. 1847.

"To the Editor of the American Farmer:

"Dear Sir:--Yours of the 6th ult. arrived at my residence during my absence in consequence of which I was unable to return you an answer in time for your August number of the American Farmer. I trust, however, the delay will not materially affect the value of my communication. In consequence of the recommendation of a gentleman who had used "Hussey's Reaper" in the harvest of 1846 with much satisfaction, I was induced to make a trial of one the present season. It was put in operation under the direction and supervision of Mr. Hussey himself, upon a field of reclaimed low ground, originally Cypress Swamp, which of course could only be cultivated in beds--these beds were six feet wide, including the water-furrow between, and were intersected at intervals of about fifty yards by drains, known to us as tap-ditches, which cross the water furrows at right angles, and are cut from two to four inches deeper than the furrows themselves. I am particular in describing the land, as I had always supposed that an insuperable obstacle in the way of the regular action of any machine would be found in the irregularity of surface into which our land is necessarily thrown by our system of culture. The machine surmounted every anticipated difficulty, and was eminently successful, both in cutting lengthwise with the beds and across them. The wheat was cut in a most thorough manner; nothing escaped the cutting surfaces, nor did weeds or any other obstruction of the kind hinder the machine from doing its work perfectly. During the running of the machine one day in the harvest, seventeen acres of wheat were cut by it. This was done by using relays of horses, four at each time, the same hands being employed, however, and the working time was twelve hours. After a heavy rain we were obliged to abandon the use of the machine, owing to the fact that the ground became so soft that the "road wheel" as it is termed, buried in the soil, and would become clogged with mud. This difficulty can, I have no doubt, be easily overcome by increasing the "tread" of this wheel, and making some slight alteration in the cog-wheel which gears into it.

When Mr. Hussey was with me I informed him that the piece of wheat cut by the machine on this occasion equalled twenty acres, but I have since discovered that I had been mistaken in my calculation of the acre.