cutting my wheat on the 28th of June, having cut over 160 acres,
excepting what was cut by a cradle in opening tracks for the
horses and rounding the corners so that the machine might sweep
round without loss of time in turning, which it did with ease and
certainty, cutting more than twenty acres a day on an average. A
part of the wheat was so heavy as to require three active shockers
to keep up with the cutting; the whole cost of all necessary
repairs 31-1/4 cents for the harvest.
"Of the two machines which I purchased of you I used the large
one, having sold the small one to Richard Millwood, who rents the
farm of Dr. Noble. Strange as it may appear, I could find no
_landholder_ in the vicinity who had enterprise enough to
risk the purchase of that machine until they could see it work;
but after the performance was once witnessed, the impression it
made was such as to justify me in ordering you to have ten ready
by next harvest for New Castle County, Del. Mr. Millwood's wheat
was very heavy, one measured acre having sixty dozen sheaves upon
it, and the whole cutting time on the forty acre field was but two
days, making for the small machine a full average of twenty acres
per day, without any repairing or accident. None of the hands who
worked it had ever seen such a machine before those you sent to
me. My crop has not all passed through the half bushel yet, but it
will fall but little short of 3,000 bushels--expect it will all be
in market to-morrow.
"In conversation with Col. Vandergrift, the present owner of the
Reaper you sold to the St. George and Appoquinomick Agricultural
Society, in 1838, he told me that he had cut about 700 acres of
wheat and oats with it since he owned it, and up to that time the
cost of repairs had been $1.25 for every hundred acres cut. It was
then in good repair.
"Yours,
"JOHN JONES."
"Jefferson County, Va.,
"August 9th, 1845.
"_To Mr. Obed Hussey:_
"Dear Sir:--We, the undersigned, having used your reaping machine
during the recent harvest in cutting our respective crops, take
great pleasure in tendering to you this voluntary testimonial of
the very high estimation in which we hold your invention. We have
now tried your machines fully and fairly, and we are unanimous in
the conclusion that in every case they hav
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