e of
agricultural improvement in our State. Strange as it may appear to many
at the present day, and notwithstanding these demonstrations in Ohio,
Illinois, New York, Missouri and Maryland, which did not admit of cavil
or doubt as to the entire efficiency and success of Hussey's reaper,
scarcely a farmer could be found ready and willing to take hold of it,
and aid the inventor in introducing it into use. But farmers as a class
are proverbially cautious, and disinclined to change from established
customs and usages; it often requires "line upon line and precept upon
precept," aided, too, by almost a free gift of the article, to induce
them even to give a new agricultural implement a fair trial,--a plough,
for instance, that will do better work, with a fourth to a third less
draught; the old and nearly worn out implement "does well enough." Gen.
T. was, we believe, the first farmer in Maryland to use and purchase a
reaping machine; and by so doing, to aid the inventive genius and talent
of his countrymen, and also at the same time greatly to benefit the
interest of his brother farmers. It avails little to the inventor, or
the public, how valuable his improvement may be,--for in nine cases out
of ten the inventor is limited in means,--if none can be found who are
both able and willing to lend a helping hand to modest merit; for true
genius is ever modest; and unfortunately the term is too often
synonymous with penury and want.

[Sidenote: The Inventor's Rewards]

Very few of the really valuable inventions inure to the benefit of the
inventors,--even to a tithe of the profits that are occasionally
realized. His necessities often compel him to a forced sale of his patent
right to some capitalist who has the tact to turn other men's wits to his
own advantage; or the _Public_,--which simply means other capitalists of
another description, who possess little or no inventive genius
themselves, and just about as much principle as genius--seize upon the
invention, and often in spite of law, justice, or right, reap the reward
justly due to another.

This, however, is a digression for which we beg the reader's pardon; but
we could not let the occasion pass without rendering this honest tribute
to the public spirited farmer, who had the discernment to perceive its
merits, and the liberality to aid its introduction, of one of the most
valuable improvements of this, or any age.

The following three letters not only embrace the year