Hussey's Machine "Vastly Superior"
"I have had in operation on my plantation this year both Hussey's and McCormick's reapers. Now, as you have asked me to furnish the Planter with the result of my own experience and opinion as to the comparative merit of the two machines, it is now at your service. I have had them both in operation (as the weather would permit) for the last fortnight, and have cut with the two rather upwards of two hundred acres of wheat. Both machines have been, I think, very fairly tested in all qualities of grain, from wheat five feet and more in height, both standing up, and lodged and tangled, and averaging, as is supposed, from thirty and forty bushels, down to light, thin wheat, not averaging more than four bushels (being some galled hills) and I am candidly and decidedly of opinion that Hussey's machine is vastly superior. I deem it superior, not only in the execution of its work, but in the durability of the machine. So well pleased am I with its performance that I have ordered another machine of Hussey's for my next harvest, and also one, and probably two, for my father's plantation. I consider this machine invaluable to the grower of wheat, and would recommend every farmer who grows even fifty acres of wheat, to purchase one. He may rest assured that he will be pleased with his purchase. I shall probably be in Richmond shortly.
"Yours very respectfully,
"T. POLLOCK BURGUYN.
"Occonichee Wigwam, near Halifax, N. C.,
"June 20, 1846.
"For 1849 and 1850 we will return and see how the invention progresses on the broad prairies and fertile lands of the West, where it first operated—in 1833 and 1834—and where, too, although the most luxuriant crops are grown with comparatively but little labor, it would in many cases be next to impossible to save them without the aid of this invaluable invention.
"These certificates embrace the mowing of large crops of grass as well as grain, and in addition, the cutting of more than three hundred acres of hemp in the harvest of 1849 and 1850, by 'the same single machine.'
"Hussey's complete success in cutting grass and hemp was no new thing ten years ago; but we suppose, like the grain cutting, in the view of Philip Pusey, Esq., M. P., 'Its perfection depended on its being new only in England,' full eighteen years after it was effected in America.
A General Opinion