e
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.

[6] When Mr. Hussey was with me I informed him that the piece of
wheat cut by the machine on this occasion equalled twenty acres,
but I have since discovered that I had been mistaken in my
calculation of the acre.

[Sidenote: A McCormick Failure]

"Some two years since I saw an experiment made upon an adjoining
estate with McCormick's machine; it cut occasionally well where
the wheat was free from weeds, but any obstruction from that
source would immediately choke it, when of course the wheat would
be overrun without being cut. The experiment proved a failure, and
the machine was laid aside. The blade in this machine appears to
me to be too delicate in its cutting surface to succeed, except
under the most favorable circumstances. Quite a number of
McCormick's have been in use in this part of the country during
the last two years, and to my inquiries concerning them I have
received but one answer and that an unfavorable one. The few of
Hussey's machines, on the contrary, that have been employed within
my ken, have in each instance given entire satisfaction. I do not
hesitate to say that when well managed, with a skilful hand at the
rake, in dry wheat (I do not recommend it when the straw is wet),
it will, as compared with _ordinary_ cutting, save per acre
the _entire expense of reaping_, from the thorough manner in
which every stalk is cut, thus preventing loss or waste.

"Believing, as I do, that a great desideratum to those who grow
wheat upon a large scale, is to be found in Mr. Hussey's reaper, I
cannot but wish that both he and they may _reap_ the benefit
of its general adoption.

"I am, sir,

"Very respectfully your ob't serv't,

"JOSIAH COLLINS."

"Edenton, N. C.,
"Jan