Year: 1876

rarts and are not half so well qualified to
Ind,ye iustlv as a majority of the farmers who
usa these machines. Il is rare that even one
expert can be found upon any committee, or
that the award made at such trials command
General confidence. Apropos OF this subject,
q story is told, which, II not true, at least
rsnrasents truly the popular belief. 1t is
ala that Mr.. Landreth, the superintendent
al agricultural hall, wrote to Mr.. Reynolds,
of Chicago, secretary Of the great American
Industrial exposition company there, asking
lin, what he thought would be the effect of
holding competitive trials of agricultural
machinery, and bestowing awards. MIR:
REYNOLDS it Is said, replied that 1t would
work great injury but for one reason, and
that was, that nobody now was fool enough
to care anything for such awards.


In addition to the incompetency of the
Judges, there is the liability to be influenced
to render partial Judgment to taVorites'
Wealthy machine makers have had long eX-
perience in this business, with medals and
stars emblazOned all over their banners, as
the trophies of former contests enter the field
deternined to win new laurelS, and are not
always over scrupulOus as to the means of
obtaining the victory. Indeed, the renowned
commanders of well-disCiplined armies might
take lessons in strategetic tactics, and In the
art of mining and sapping, of these veteran
knights of the harvest field. And the
Judges, sometimes in the innocence Of their
souis. aud sometimes with sinister motives,
scarcely concealed, walk right into the trap
set for them, and often render verdict that
has no more relation to the facts of the trial,
than proposition in Euclid has to the fables
of Esop. These judges are eften appointed
by the influence of prominent manufacturers,
and there is often as much partisanship
manifested at these trials, as in political
caucus. speak of what l have seen and
what l know.


The field selected for the trial was very
large one, and the grain on the south side
stood upright, but that on the north and west
part was quite crimpled with heads inter
locked, and some OF it was badly lodged.
And the grain was too ripe and the straw
very brittle. Any fair reaper can cut and
Law decently upright grain; but the test is,
will it do the work well in grain in bad con-
dition. Few of those on the ground could
cut and deliver lodged grain. Most OF them
cut upright grain well enough, but only
small number laid the punches smoothly and
evenly. Indeed, all of the revolving arm
rake reaPers lay the bottom OF the bundle
Crosswise ,as any one can see by eXaminingit it.


But reaper have had their day. and hence
forth harvesters and binders are to take the
lead, A good harvester saves the labor of
twOmen, for two men can bind as fast as a
harvester can cut, but it takes four men to
bind after reaper. The imperfectiOn of all
harvesters here, except one, are. that they
do not separate the bundles, and hence Sin
binding, there is always some scattering and
waste that they all use canvass with belts
and rollers to carry the grain, and as the
canvass stretches in dry, and shrinks in
damp weather, and the straw winds around
the rollers, and the leaves and fine straw
clogs the gudgeons, they are continually
getting out of order and cause much delay
in adjusting and cleaning


My conviction is, that we have not reached
perfection in harvesting machinery. We
must nave in the future, what we have not
now, harvester and binder that will cut
and bind grain in all stages, unless badly
lodged, and deliver it in good condition
without waste Such machine is demanded.
Such machine we must and doubtless shall
have at no distant day. The best machines
we now have are merely indices of what are
to be. s. NJ b.