"Respectfully yours,
"J. DELAFIELD."
The machine alluded to in the above letter is the low priced one at $100.
Hussey's Rear-Delivery Reaper. (From "Who Invented the Reaper?" by R. B. Swift.)
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.[6] 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.