England and Scotland many years ago, they had never been proved to be efficient on the field, and had never gained the confidence of the farmers, even in their neighborhood; while the patent issued to Obed Hussey, of Cincinnati, in 1833, and another issued to McCormick of Virginia, in 1834, not only succeeded in the trials to which they were subjected, but gained a wide and permanent reputation. Many patents had been issued in this country previously, the first having been as early as 1803, but they had not proved successful. Hussey's machine was introduced into New York and Illinois in 1834, into Missouri in 1835, into Pennsylvania in 1837, and in the next year the inventor established himself in Baltimore. McCormick's machine had been worked as early as 1831, but it was afterwards greatly improved, and became a source of an immense fortune to the inventor. He took out a second patent in 1845, fifteen other machines having been patented after the date of his first papers, including that of the Ketchum, in 1844, which gained a wide reputation.

The first trial of reapers, partaking of a national character, was held under the auspices of the Ohio State Board of Agriculture in 1852, when twelve different machines and several different mowers were entered for competition. There was no striking superiority, according to the report of the judges, in any of the machines. A trial had been held at the show of the New York State Agricultural Society, at Buffalo, in 1848, but the large body of farmers who had witnessed it were not prepared to admit that the work of the machines was good enough to be tolerated in comparison with the hand-scythe. Some thought they might possibly work in straight, coarse grass, but in finer grasses they were sure to clog. The same society instituted a trial of reapers and mowers at Geneva in 1852, when nine machines competed as reapers and seven as mowers. Only two or three of the latter were capable of equaling the common scythe in the quality of work they did, and not one of them all, when brought to a stand in the grass, could start again without backing to get up speed. All the machines had a heavy side-draught, some of them to such an extent as to wear seriously on the team. None of them could turn about readily within a reasonable space, and all were liable to tear up the sward in the operation. The old Manning, patented in 1831, and the Ketchum machines were the only ones that were capable of doing work that was at all satisfactory. One or two of the reapers in this trial did fair work, and the judges decided that, in comparison with the hand-cradle, they showed a saving of 88 cents per acre. Here was some gain certainly, a little positive advance, but still most

of the reapers, as well as the mowers, did very inferior work. The draught in them all was very heavy, while some of the best of them had a side-draught that was destructive to the team.

The inventive genius of the country was stimulated by these trials to an extraordinary degree of activity. Patents began to multiply rapidly. Local trials took place every year in various parts of the country to test the merits of the several machines. The great International Exposition at Paris in 1855 was an occasion not to be overlooked by an enterprising inventor, and the American machines, imperfect as they were at that time, were brought to trial there in competition with the world. The scene of this trial was on a field of oats about forty miles from Paris, each machine having about an acre to cut. Three machines were entered for the first trial, one American, one English, and a third from Algiers, all at the same time raking as well as cutting. The American machine did its work in twenty-two minutes, the English in sixty-six, and the Algerian in seventy-two.

At a subsequent trial on the same piece, three other machines were entered, of American, English, and French manufacture, when the American machine did its work in twenty-two minutes, while the two others failed. "The successful competitor on this occasion," says a French journal, “did its work in the most exquisite manner, not leaving a single stalk ungathered, and it discharged the grain in the most perfect shape, as if placed by hand, for the binders. It finished its piece most gloriously." The contest was finally narrowed down to three machines, all American. Two machines were afterwards converted from reapers into mowers, one making the change in one minute, the other in twenty. Both performed their task to the astonishment and satisfaction of a large concourse of spectators, and the judges could hardly restrain their enthusiasm, but cried out, "Good, good!" "Well done!" while the excitable people who looked on hurrahed for the American reaper, crying out, "That's the machine!" "That's the machine!" The reporter of a French agricultural journal said: "All the laurels, we are free to confess, have been gloriously won by Americans, and this achievement cannot be looked upon with indifference, as it plainly foreshadows the ultimate destiny of the New World."

Five years after the Geneva trial there was a general desire to have another on a scale of magnificence that should bring out all the prominent reapers and mowers of the country. The United States Agricultural Society accordingly instituted a national trial at Syracuse,

New York, in 1857. More than forty mowers and reapers entered, and were brought to test on the field. It was soon apparent that striking improvements had been made since the meeting at Geneva. The draught had been very materially lessened in nearly all the machines, though the side-draught was still too great in some of them. Most of the machines could now cut fine and thick grass without clogging, and there was a manifest progress in them, but of the nineteen that competed as mowers, only three could start in fine grass without backing to get up speed. The well-known Buckeye, patented only the year before, won its first great triumph here, and carried off the first prize.

The horse hay-rake was invented at an earlier date than the mowing-machine. It has been used in this country nearly seventy years, and the saving by its use, sixty years ago, was estimated to be the labor of six men in the same time. The work to be performed in raking hay, though slow, is comparatively light. It does not require the exertion of a very great amount of strength. It is just such kind of work where the application of animal power becomes of the greatest advantage, because it multiplies the efficiency of the hand many times. The same thing is noticed in the use of the hand-drills for sowing small seeds, the tedder for turning and spreading hay, and in other similar operations. The labor of a good horse-rake is equal to that of eight or ten men for the same time, and from twenty to thirty acres a day can be gathered by a single horse and driver, and that without overexertion. In the economy of labor the horse-rake must be regarded as second only in importance to the mower and the reaper, and is considered as essential upon the farm as the plow itself.

The tedder is another invention of still more recent date. With the introduction of the mower, by which grass could be cut so rapidly, and the horse-rake, by which it could be gathered more rapidly than ever before, there was still wanting some means by which it could be cured proportionally quick, something to complete and round out the new system, as it were, to make the revolution of the process of haymaking entire. Various forms of the tedder had been patented and used in England, but they were too heavy and cumbersome for American use, and it was left to our own inventors to meet and overcome the mechanical obstacles in the way of success here. This they have done, and we have so far economized labor in this direction, that the tedder is now regarded as of nearly equal importance with the mower and the horse-rake.

To these appliances for lightening and shortening the labors of haying, have been added many forms of the horse-fork for unloading and mowing away hay in the barn or upon the stack. Few machines have met with greater popular favor than the horse pitchfork, for it saves not only the most violent strain upon the muscles, but economizes time, which, in the hurry of haying, is often of the utmost importance. The American hand-forks had been brought so near perfection, by their high finish, lightness, and strength, as to leave little to be desired, but the horse-fork has been so generally introduced, as, to a considerable extent, to supersede their use.

While these vast improvements have been going on with the other implements of the farm, the improvement in machines for thrashing grain has been rapidly progressing, till they have reached a wonderful degree of perfection. Most of us can remember when the old-fashioned flail was heard upon almost every barn-floor in the country. Here and there was a case where the grain was trodden out by cattle, with an amazing waste of time and labor. Compare those slow methods with the process, widely known at the present day, by which a horse-power or steam-power thrasher not only separates the grain but winnows it, measures it, bags it, ready for market, and carries away the straw to the stack at the same operation, and all with a rapidity truly astonishing. As early as the Paris Exposition of 1855 the victory was won by an American machine. To ascertain the comparative rapidity and economy of thrashing, six men were set to work at thrashing with flails. In one hour they thrashed 36 liters of wheat. In the same time Pitt's American machine thrashed 740 liters; Clayton's English machine thrashed 410 liters; Duvoir's French machine thrashed 250 liters; Pinet's French machine thrashed 150 liters. Speaking of this trial a French journal said: "This American machine literally devoured the sheaves of wheat. The eye cannot follow the work which is effected between the entrance of the sheaves and the end of the operation. It is one of the greatest results which it is possible to attain. The impression which the spectacle produced on the Arab chiefs was profound." Good as that machine was at that time, it has been greatly improved since then; and it is a fact that wherever our first-class machines have come into competition with those of European manufacture, they have invariably proved themselves superior in point of simplicity, rapidity, and perfection of work.

Nor has the progress in the improvement of other indispensable machines of the farm been less marked and important. The smaller

implements have felt the impress of the mechanical genius of the age. The corn-sheller has been brought to such perfection as to separate the corn from the ear with great rapidity and with the application of little power. It has been adapted to horse power also, and to different sections of the country, where different varieties of corn are raised, and to shell one or two ears at the same time. Its economy of time and labor is such as, upon large farms where the product is large, to pay for itself in a single year.

The hay-cutter is another machine of modern invention. Wherever a large stock of cattle is kept, especially where a considerable number of horses are wintered, it is often thought to be good economy to feed out more or less of the coarser feeding substances of the farm, as straw, corn-stover, the poorer qualities of hay, &c., by mixing them, either with the better qualities of hay or with some sort of concentrated food, like meal. The hay-cutter is adjustable so as to cut at different lengths, according to the wants of the stock for which it is designed. The point is to cut short and with perfect regularity, and when this quality is attained in a machine, uniting strength, simplicity, durability, and safety to the operator, it is estimated that there is a gain of about 25 per cent. in the economy of feeding, in the increase of thrift secured, and the positive advantage to be derived in the manure. There is a difference of opinion upon this point, to be sure, but notwithstanding that, the use of some form of the hay and straw cutter has become nearly universal and is generally regarded as quite indispensable upon most well-conducted farms. Machines for this purpose are made to be worked by hand, upon small farms, and by horse or steam power upon larger ones, where they are capable of reducing to chaff a ton and a half of hay or straw per hour.

VI. VIEWS ON AGRICULTURE

A. Southern and Northern Agriculture Compared, 1840, 1850, 18601

The United States, before the war, was essentially an agricultural nation. Both the north and the south had their chief interests in the soil, and any acceleration or retardation, therefore, of its development along this line was of the greatest importance. The relative importance of the two sections of the country was as follows:

1 Hunt's Merchants' Magazine (New York, 1860), XLII, 168–70.