t at first failed to work satisfactorily. One
burly fellow present picked up a reaping cradle and, swinging it with an
air of great exultation, exclaimed, 'This is the machine to cut the
wheat!'" Another account charges the breakage to a fractious team.

[Sidenote: Mr. Hussey's Triumph]

"After the jeers and merriment of the crowd had somewhat subsided, the
inventor remedied the defect, and assisted by the laborers present--the
horses having been removed--pulled the machine to the top of an adjacent
hill; when, alone, he drew the machine down the hill and through the
standing grain, when it cut every head clean in its track. The same
machine was directly afterwards exhibited before the Hamilton County
Agricultural Society near Carthage, on the 2nd day of July, 1833."

The secretary of the Society wrote an exceedingly favorable report. The
group of spectators present at this trial drew up a testimonial that was
very favorable indeed. On July 2, 1833, then, we are warranted in
saying, the problem that had so long exercised the minds of inventors
was solved.

[Sidenote: The Hussey Reaper in the Field]

[Sidenote: Public Tests]

Fortunately Mr. Hussey was not as easily discouraged as many. He, no
doubt, felt chagrined that his machine had broken down, but had the
pluck then and there to make an effort to close the hooting mouths, and
fully succeeded. In 1834 other machines were put out. We learn from the
Genesee Farmer, dated December 6, 1834, that Mr. Hussey, the inventor of
a machine for harvesting wheat, had left in the village one of his
machines for the purpose of giving the farmers an opportunity to test
its value. During the harvest of 1834 it was operated in the presence of
hundreds of farmers with most satisfactory results. We next find Mr.
Hussey at Palmyra, Mo., on July 6, 1835, with two of his machines, at
the farm of his old friend, Edwin G. Pratt. The machine "excited much
attention, and its performance was highly satisfactory." The results of
the trials were published in the "Missouri Courrier" in August or
September of 1835. The machines were sold for $150 each. A Mr. Muldrow
bought another kind of machine, however, in which the cutting was done
by a "whirling wheel" and paid $500 for it. In 1836 Mr. Hussey was in
Maryland, at the written solicitation of the Board of Trustees of the
Maryland Agricultural Society. The fame of his reaping machines in the
state of New York, and the far West, had spread, "