With these views, your committee entered upon their duties, and arranged a system for determining the mechanical principles combined in the machines presented for trial, in order to understand more clearly, and better to exhibit to our farming people the power possessed by these machines to overcome or divide resistances with economy of time and labor, in the accomplishment of the work of a farm. This system embraced the determination of the power applied, the quantity of force required for giving motion as well to the machine alone, as also to effect perfect work when in full action, the speed required or used; the force or power consumed to perform a specific amount of work; the quality of the work accomplished; the condition of the surface acted on; the construction and liability to wear, and other details which are presented under the various divisions of this report. This system seemed important and interesting, not only for the advantage of agriculturists, but also for the mechanics of our country. Your committee indulge the belief that this trial of machines and implements will present to the farmer a reliable authority for a due appreciation of such objects when presented for his use. It must be conceded that great improvement has been observed within the last five years in the construction of plows and a few other farm implements, and much ingenuity has been displayed in other and more complex machinery for the farm, yet it is equally true, there is an absence of a sufficient knowledge of the essential principles of construction and application of agricultural implements. It is no discredit to our artizans or farmers to say that with all the knowledge we have attained, our requirements are very far from being met or satisfied, and that the rudiments of agricultural machinery are rarely sufficiently understood by either farmers or mechanics. The many thousand persons assembled at the Geneva trials, afford a conclusive evidence that this first ef fort of the State Society to make apparent the value, or the imperfections of implements and machinery, to the eye of all interested in their uses and application, will cause greater attention to mechanical principles, lessening the powers of draft, and of resistance; relieving us also from an excessive demand upon the physical energies. THE TRIAL GROUNDS. The grounds selected for the trials, were favorably situated about one mile from the beautiful village of Geneva, on the estate of Mr. Horace L. Bennett. The meadow appropriated to the several mowing machines, presented a gently sloping surface, the most elevated portion having a gravelly surface soil with many loose cobble stones; the lower part of the field exhibited a loose vegetable black mold, rough and uneven, as if poached by feeding herds. The grass was thin and wiry, consisting of red top, forin,* and timothy, varying from eighteen inches to two feet in height; aquatic grasses occupied much of the lower ground. This field was accurately surveyed and laid out in parallelograms, each containing an area of two aeres; each area was marked by stakes numbered consecutively from 1 to 10. A meadow on the farm of Mr. Sherman was also selected as having a growth of heavy grass, on which to test the power of the mowing machines; this field was covered chiefly with timothy grass, with a thick bottom herbage springing from a vegetable mold; the lower portion of the meadow was naturally wet, sending up a growth of water grasses from a bog surface; the sedges were about four feet long, the red top rose to three feet, the timothy measured three feet six inches in length, and the water meadow grass was as long as the timothy. Much of the grass on this field was lodged and tangled. Both 'meadows would have severely tasked the efforts of the most experienced mowers, and the temper of the most appoved scythe; they afforded therefore a good test for the power and capacity of machines for mowing. The wheat field, comprising about thirty acres, presented an undulating surface, with a water course or deep furrow through portions of it; a few trees and stumps, with here and there a boulder offered occasional impediments, and the whole field pre • Sometimes called foul meadow. [Ag. Tr. '53.] G. sented as many and as varied obstacles to farm machinery and labor, as will occur probably on any property where machinery can be profitably employed. The wheat crop on the ground was of the Mediterranean and Soules varieties, injured in some degree by the wheat fly; small portions of the field were lodged; and with the exception of low moist places the grain was in proper condition for harvesting. The soil of this field is a clay loam, a specimen of which is deposited in the Society's museum for reference when desired. The barley field contained about 30 acres, was more uneven as to its surface; deep irregular water courses traversed its length; the water standing in some portions; many boulders and stumps were in the track of the machines; the grain was much lodged and tangled; the straw soft and tough. The soil of this field is a clay loam, though more sandy in its proportions than the wheat field; a specimen of this soil is also deposited in the Society's muThe committee believe that a combination of difficulties equal to the many presented on this field to the machines on trial, can rarely occur. seum. Both the wheat field and barley field were accurately surveyed and laid out in lots containing areas of two acres each, marked by numbered stakes in consecutive order from 1 to 12. A track for the teams to enter was opened by cradles between each lot. The several areas of the wheat and of the barley field were appropriated to the exhibitors by lot; the numbers drawn by them respectively, designating the number of the lot on which to operate; the numbers prefixed to the exhibitors names in the several tables in this report indicate the position of each. An adjacent field, plowed during the second day of the trial, afforded ample space for the trial of Grain Drills and Cultivators; the long continued dry weather during the month of July acting upon a clay soil, caused the furrows to be rough and baked in large masses, presenting a surface not to be easily pulverised; consequently tasking the merits or powers of each Cultivator to reduce the soil to a proper tilth, and every Grain Drill to distribute seed at equal distances and at uniform depths. The upper, or highest level ground of the barley field was raked, bound and housed, or removed, affording a favorable stubble ground for a second trial of Cultivators, the action of which having reduced the soil to a condition suitable for planting, it was appropriated to the trial of corn and seed planters. These machines were worked on areas, marked, numbered and planted by each machine, with the intent to note, especially, the results, after vegetation had advanced the plants a few inches above the surface. To aid the efforts of the State Society, and to promote the farming interests, the inhabitants of Geneva caused a large area of a meadow adjoining the wheat and barley fields to be covered with the spacious canopys prepared by Mr. E. C. Williams, of Rochester. One of these immense tents afforded space for the horse powers where motion was applied on the principle of the endless chain; the various powers were arranged on a line with the walls of the tent in a manner to permit the application of power to the several machines. Another tent gave protection to machines and implements until they were called to the field for trial. A tent was also appropriated to the exhibition of implements and machinery not subject to trial; other tents were erected for the comfort and convenience of attending visitors, and for the officers and judges of the State Society, with abundant refreshments; every wish was liberally anticipated and every needful appliance prepared for the objects to be accomplished.* With these arrangements and preparations, the judges entered upon the examination and trial of the implements and machines submitted to them, and according to the following list of entries presented by Mr. Secretary JOHNSON : *The inhabitants of Geneva were represented by a committee consisting of JOHN H. TILLMAN, Treasurer, Wm. Creighton Lee, Wm. Orton, E. Jenkins Burrall, S. H. Parker, JOHN C. PROUTY, Chairman, A. T. CHEW, Secretary, Robert Lay, Asa Gardner, Jos. S. Lewis. LIST OF ENTRIES: Reaping Machines. J. H. Manny, Wadham's Grove, Ill, Reaping Machine, "Man ny's Patent Adjustable." Byron Densmore, Brockport, N. Y., Reaping Machine. C. H. Mc Cormick, Illinois, Reaping and Mowing Machine. A. C. Powell, Syracuse, Rugg's Reaping and Mowing Machine. E. Danford & Co., Geneva, Kane Co., Ill., Danford's Doubled Sickled Reaping and Mowing Machine; also entered by J. Rapalje & Co., Rochester. A. J. Cook, Enon, Ohio, Reaping and Mowing Machine. T. D. Burrall, Geneva, N. Y., Convertible Reaper and Grass Cutter. Seymour & Morgan, Brockport, N. Y., New-York Reaper. Mowing Machines. Howard & Co., Buffalo, N. Y., Ketchum's Mowing Machine. A. C. Powell, Syracuse, Rugg's Mowing Machine. T. D. Burrall, Geneva, Grass Cutter. J. H. Manny, Wadham's Grove, Ill., Mowing Machine. O. Hussey, Baltimore, Md., Mowing Machine. Grain Drills. P. Seymour, East Bloomfield, 3 Grain Drills. Huffman & Bickford, Macedon, N. Y., 1 Grain Drill. |