had a seat behind, and a thick, deep cushion
in front, for the raker to press his knees against while removing the
grain from the platform to his right hand, which he was enabled to do
with apparent ease with a _rake of peculiar shape_;--(it cannot be done
with a rake of ordinary shape).

[Sidenote: McCormick Adopts Mr. Hite's Suggestion]

The working of the first carriage was witnessed by many gentlemen who
approved of it; and the combination of the second carriage I applied for
a patent for. The model carriage can now be seen in the room of the
Patent Office, containing models of all rejected patents. After this, I
heard of McCormick making experiments at one of his Western factories--I
think it was at Chicago; and finally he addressed me _a letter,
stating he had changed the construction of his machine, and had it so
constructed that the raker could ride on the machine and remove the
grain_."

We think the foregoing letter--for it carries truth on its face--clearly
shows that the idea of "changing the construction of the machine," and
permit the raker to ride, did not originate with the McCormick's father
or son; for "they had tried every imaginable plan or way before placing
the machine before the public, and that they regarded it as an
impossibility for the wheat to be so removed regularly, successfully and
properly, in any other way except on foot."

At the trial referred to at Hutchinson's, and the late Senator Roane's
in 1843, it was demonstrated that a raker could ride and rake, and as
was also done by Hussey many years before, at various places, and
delivering the grain at back or side. But we have still better evidence
than the above--C. H. McCormick himself.

His Patent of 1847, covering some four or five folio pages, is altogether
to change "the construction of the machine," to admit of, and to patent
the raker's seat; the substance of the whole is comprised within the
following brief extract from the patent of 1847:

[Sidenote: McCormick's Patent for Raker's Seat]

"And the gearing which communicates motion to the crank is placed back
of the driving wheel, which is therefore subject to be clogged by sand,
dirt, straw, etc.--_and in consequence of the relative position of the
various parts, the attendant is obliged to walk on the ground by the
side of the machine, to rake the cut grain from the platform as it is
delivered and laid there by the reel_. These defects which have so
much retarded the int