"I am respectfully yours,
"N. H. ROZIER DE COURCEY."
"Baltimore,
"October 17th, 1854.
"To Obed Hussey, Esq.:
"Sir—In the harvest of 1837 I saw one of your Reapers in operation in my neighborhood [West River, Anne Arundel Co., Md.] in charge of the Hon. John C. Weems, who I believe was the owner of it; and was so much pleased with its performance that I ordered one from you in the following year, 1838, which you set in motion for me. It worked most admirably, and fully met my expectations; as it has done from that early period to the present day.
"In a loose way, I estimated that in the saving of labor, and grain from shattering, it nearly or quite paid for itself the first harvest. Since then the machine has been much improved.
"Up to the time I purchased, very few had been used in this State. The first, as I have always understood, was bought by that intelligent and enterprising farmer, Gen. Tench Tilghman, of Oxford, Talbot County. In 1838, Col. Edward Lloyd, of 'Wye,' Talbot Co., the largest wheat grower in Maryland, and myself, as above mentioned, availed ourselves of your invention; but I did not hear of any other orders for it in this State. It came, like most other agricultural implements, slowly into use; and I fear has not fairly compensated you for the labor and ingenuity bestowed upon it. This, however, is too often the fate of discoverers and inventors; and others reap the fruits of their toil and genius. I have long thought that governments were unjust to inventors; and could never understand why a man has not the same right of property to a machine conceived in his head, and constructed by his hands, as to that acquired in any other manner. The same that a farmer has to the lands he owns.
"Very respectfully, y'r ob't serv't,
"GEO. W. HUGHES."