“ Dear Sir:—I have used one of your Mowing and Reaping Machines, and consider it the best machine I ever saw, and never intend to do without one, if it is possible to get one, even if I have to go to Baltimore and remain at the shop till one can be made. I do candidly believe if I had had one ten years ago I would now feel like a much younger man; and cheerfully recommend them to all who have grass or grain to cut, as a machine that will do their work in perfect order, neatness, and with ease to all employed. ”

“ A mowing machine was so remote from the expectations and hopes of the Society, that no prize was offered for one; yet Mr. Hussey was prepared with a mowing machine, which was taken to an adjoining field of meadow grass and clover mixed. The people followed, but evidently with no expectation of being gratified. The machine mower was put in action, and to the admiration of every one, it cut the grass with an evenness and precision which is truly surprising, being more close and even than a scythe. ”

“ Could any gentleman look back twenty-one years and see me combating the prejudices of the farmers, and exerting the most intense labor of body and mind, and continuing to do so from year to year, at the very door of poverty, and also look back on those New York parties through the same period, accumulating wealth by the usual course of business, and perhaps watching my progress, and waiting for the proper moment to step in with their money power and grasp the lion's share of the prize which justly belongs to myself. ”

“ The object is not to detract from the merits fairly claimed by any inventor; but it is to examine into some of the rival claims, furnish the evidence that has satisfied our own minds, and leave it for others to judge for themselves. We would not intentionally deprive an inventor of his often dearly bought and hard-earned fame—the creation of his own genius—for it is more prized than even fine gold by many. ”

“ Obed Hussey is dead, but his machine still lives, an article of measureless value to the great world of agriculture. His life was one of long suffering and faithful service and he justly deserves the proper credit and honor for his great invention. To Obed Hussey belongs the fame of Inventor of the Reaper as these pages will show, to which purpose these facts are published by those who knew him and his works, and these facts, like his works, stand squarely on their own merits. ”

“ No Reaping Machine Without Hussey Principle
Many alleged improvements have been made in the Reaper in the past ten or twelve years; and many more still within half that period. How far they are new inventions, and actual improvements, we can better judge by examining Hussey's patent; for it describes the cutting apparatus clearly and minutely, and which in fact is the whole thing,—the "one thing needful" to success. For the use of wheels, or a system of gearing to all kinds of motive machinery is coeval with the first dawn of mechanical science. ”

“ It is really a very hard case, that a poor man and one of the most deserving in the community in every sense of the term, should thus fail of a just reward when he has done so much for the benefit of others. * * * Believing as I do that the extension is no more than sheer justice to Obed Hussey,—quite equal in merit to any that has been granted,—as one of the most meritorious in the language of the Committee, I do most earnestly solicit thy kind aid and influence to get it through the Senate. ”

“ The idea that a wise Government, of an enlightened country, can not only look on and suffer such injustice but will actually encourage it by disregarding the prayers of the poor inventor is a mystery to those who build their hopes on the dogma that 'Truth is mighty and will prevail.' I hope the Committee will not pass lightly over my case but duly consider, as I believe they will, to whom the advantages of this invention belongs, whether to me or to the parties in New York. ”

“ McCormick Had to Pay for Hussey Improvements
"In the criticism which has been necessarily made upon the invention of 1845, there has been no design to detract from the acknowledged value and usefulness of the machine, as constructed under the patent of 1847. It has had its brilliant successes in England and France, but it has also had its marked discomfitures when competing with other machines. Though enjoying a great and perhaps a still expanding popularity, it is by no means a universal favorite." ”

“ Dear Sir:—Having worked your Reaper for many years I have fully tested its merits. It has proved itself to be not only a wheat saving implement but a labor and time saving one—these are all important to the farmer. ”

“ I have worked with McCormick and Hussey's Reapers three seasons, and unqualifiedly pronounce Hussey's the best machine. It cuts cleaner and faster, and leaves the grain in better order on the ground; and this is the opinion of every hand in giving an expression of the comparative merits of the two machines. ”

“ When the grain is flat down, the machine will of course pass over it; but if it be leaning, or tangled only, it is cut nearly as well as if standing, excepting when it leans from the machine, and then if the horses are put in a trot it will be very well cut. But in cutting such grain much depends on the expertness of the hand who pushes off the grain, in making clean work and good sheaves. I found the machine capable of going through anything growing on my wheat land, such as weeds and grass, no matter how thick. ”

“ Believing sincerely that the farmers of the U.S. owe you a debt of gratitude, which a regard for themselves should prompt them to pay, and understanding that attempts have been made to question even the priority of your invention, I send you a volume of the Genesee Farmer published in 1834, which will show the opinion entertained at that time by the farmers of that celebrated wheat growing region, both as to the efficiency and priority of your reaper. ”

“ Here, then, was the problem solved—the great discovery made that had puzzled the brains of hundreds if not of thousands, and for centuries. No one we fearlessly assert had ever succeeded so completely and satisfactorily, and with so simple and practical a machine. ”

“ A BRIEF NARRATIVE OF THE INVENTION OF REAPING MACHINES And an Examination of the Claims for Priority of Invention
The object aimed at in this examination is to ascertain as far as reliable evidence within reach will establish the fact—and before the evidence may be lost—to whom belongs the credit of first rendering the Reaping and Mowing Machine a practical and available implement to the American farmer; not who theoretically invented a machine for the purpose, that may have worked an hour only, and very imperfectly for that short period, and was then laid aside ”

“ Why your machine is preferable to any other, is, after you have cut your different kinds of grain, fully as well as can be done with any other machine, with not over fifteen minutes' work, you can take the same machine into your meadow or on to the prairie, and cut your grass at the rate of ten acres per day, cutting closer and cleaner than can be done with a scythe. ”

“ Another has been lately devised in one of our Colonies, which cuts off the heads of the corn, but leaves the straw standing, a fatal defect in an old settled country, where the growth of corn is forced by the application of dung. Our farmers may well, therefore, have been astonished by an American implement which not only reaped the wheat, but performed the work with the neatness and certainty of an old and perfect machine. ”

“ We stipulate, however, that the Machines shall be tested, not only on a particular patch of good upstanding grain, where they might, perhaps, prove equal, but on an average variety of conditions, as to short and laid corn, etc., such as the farmer will usually meet with. Its capabilities for cutting green crops, such as clover, etc., shall also be proved. It must be evident to the Farming Public that the Reaping Machine which will cut a crop of the greatest variety and difference of condition must possess the greatest merit. ”

“ Two men, one to drive the team and the other to rake off the wheat, and two horses, work the machine; but when the grain is heavy, or the land mellow, a change of horses is necessary, as the gait of the horses is too rapid to admit of heavy draft. The horses go at the rate of four to five miles an hour, and when the growth of straw is not heavy a fair trot of the team is not too much. ”

“ A man is placed on the part of the platform directly behind the horses, and with a rake of peculiar construction pushes off the grain in separate bunches, each bunch making a sheaf. It may appear to some that the grain will accumulate too rapidly for this man to perform his duty. But, upon considering the difference between the space occupied by the grain when standing, and when lying in a pile after it is cut, it will be evident that the raker has ample time to push off the bunches even in the thickest grain. In thin grain he has to wait until sufficient has collected to form a sheaf. ”

“ You may safely say that any ordinary workman about a farm would be able to manage the machine; and when I say this of Hussey's, it is also true of McCormick's. The one may be a better machine than the other, but the merits of either of them may be brought into practical action by a laborer of average intelligence and skill. It is the opinion of farmers and others with whom I have conversed, that the saving per acre, by the use of Hussey's machine, would be about 5s. ”

“ Tench Tilghman, where 180 acres of wheat, oats, and barley were cut with it. Three mules of medium size worked in it constantly, with as much ease as in a drag harrow. They moved with equal facility in a walk or a trot. A concise description of this simple implement will show that it is admirably adapted to the important purpose for which it was invented. Resting on two wheels, which are permanently attached to the machine, and impart the motion to the whole, the main body of the machine is drawn by the horses along the outer edge of the standing grain. ”

“ We have seen a number by different inventors, and all have failed to give satisfaction. They may work well for a very brief period and with keen edges; but as they become dull, the shears are forced apart by the straw and grass—particularly the latter, and the machine fails, as it inevitably must do, in its allotted duty, and for very obvious reasons. ”

“ There is in business an actual firing line where continuous conflict wages, and so fierce does the struggle become that it requires a certain class of men possessing qualities, not only of energy and perseverance, but of tenacity and combativeness, aggressive and determined to fight to the last ditch for commercial supremacy. Such men do not always rely upon the merits of their cause, nor do they stop to question the justice or injustice of their methods. ”

“ 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. ”

“ HUSSEY'S AND M'CORMICK'S REAPERS
"It is very painful to be compelled to inflict a private injury in the discharge of a public duty; upon a particular system of cultivation we can talk and write without restraint; but when we are called on to discuss the merits of an invention, upon which the fortunes of the originator may absolutely depend, it is a much more responsible and delicate office. We are aware, too, that in introducing a subject of the kind, we are opening the floodgates of a controversy that is often hard to close ”

“ None of these machines, however, Hussey's excepted, were successful, or were used any length of time; nor is it necessary here to refer particularly to other attempts, about this time, or indeed prior to this period, for they were equally unsuccessful; and their inventors cannot claim the merit of doing a thing, that was not in fact performed—making an efficient and successful Reaper. We may here remark, however, that so far as now known, no machine like Bell's, on the shear or scissor principle, has succeeded in this country; or as we believe, is ever likely to succeed. ”

“ If the ancients were successful in making a practical implement for Reaping, by horse, or ox power, as some ancient writers assert, we certainly have no correct and reliable account of a machine that would be considered efficient or useful at the present day; a machine to save or tear off the heads only—as described by Pliny and Palladius—would more properly be termed a gathering machine, and not at all suited to the wants and habits of modern farmers.
Silver medal won by Mr. Hussey with the Reaper at New York in 1852. ”

“ Hussey's Machine had labored when tried against McCormick's for the Great Exhibition Medal; Mr. Hussey not being in the country at that time, and no one being present who understood the adjusting or working of the implement. Mr. Thompson said he was now so thoroughly satisfied of its great merits that he would do his best to get a medal awarded to it. After luncheon, the machine was taken to the grounds of Mr. Adamson, and tried upon a field of oats, which were so laid as to form a very severe test to the machine, but it nevertheless was successful there also. ”

“ The contestant's counsel have argued from the testimony of Lovegrove, that Hussey abandoned his inventions to the public by having them on sale more than two years before applying for a patent. The testimony does not sustain this point. Besides, an inventor does not abandon his invention to the public by constructing a machine embracing it, in the same factory where he makes and sells other machines. ”

“ I can state that in cutting wheat, oats and cloverseed—also in mowing my crop of grass—it has fully answered my expectations, doing the work better than I ever had it done by the scythe, and at much less expense. The machine has been tested by cutting some fifty to sixty acres of grass—quite sufficient to prove its complete adaptation to mowing as well as reaping. ”

“ A Hussey Testimonial
"'I procured a reaping machine this summer of Mr. Hussey, the inventor, which I have used through my wheat harvest. It was in constant use every day, and performed its work to my satisfaction, and far better than I had any expectation of when I first engaged it of Mr. Hussey. When the ground is clear of rocks, loose stones, stumps, etc., and the grain stands well, it cuts it perfectly clear, taking every head; and, if well managed, scatters none, but leaves it in neat heaps ready for binding. ”

“ 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 ”

“ The admiration of the truly astonishing performance was universal.
"The cutting the rye was looked for, but mowing the grass took every one by surprise. Thus a great desideratum has been achieved; the farmer has now only to gear up his horses and take a ride through his meadow, and his grass is cut."
Again, at the Royal Agricultural Society's Exhibition, held at Lincoln, the present season, the Mark Lane Express states that Hussey's machine won the prize over all competitors; and admits that Bell's machine was "at last fairly beaten." ”

“ It was cut down, however, with great regularity and speed, and the general evenness of the stubble was the subject of general remark. As the machine passed on, hewing its way at a smart pace through the dense mass of stalks, the crowd of eager observers rushed after it, and many were the cheers with which it was welcomed. Occasionally, to satisfy the ideas of the more fastidious, the level of the cutters was changed, so as to leave a greater or less length of stubble, and it was evident to all that in this respect the machine was susceptible of the nicest adjustment. ”

“ I have recently learned, with surprise and indignation, that certain speculating harpies who fill their coffers with the products of other men's brains, and who, in your case, seek to 'reap where they sow not' are basely and unjustly endeavoring to prevent a renewal of your patent for your Reaping and Mowing Machine,' upon the ground [among others] that you and your agents have neglected to press your Claim properly before Congress. ”