sions made around me, I was satisfied they had no confidence in the reaper. They said, after the first trial, "It is as we expectedthey will not work until perfected by an English mechanic." The laboring men, too, when the first one was started, seemed perfectly astonished, fearing their vocation was gone-but when it failed to work, they brightened up and would doubtless have given vent to their feelings, if another one had not been found ready for the trial, and might succeed. It can well be imagined that the Americans, of whom only three were present, beside myself, were in quite as great a state of excitement as the others. The machine was started. After it had passed its length, the clean path made by the reaper-the grain falling from its side, showed that the work was done, and the reaper was successful. After proceeding as far as was deemed necessary, the team was stopped, and Mr. Mechi jumped upon the platform and said, "Gentlemen, here is a triumph for the American Reaping Machine. It has, under all its disadvantages, done its work completely. Now let us, as Englishmen, show them that we appreciate this contribution for cheapening our agriculture, and let us give the Americans three hearty English cheers." They were given, and with a fourth added, satisfying all that they were heartily given. Another trial was then had, and the reaper timed-cutting, in 70 seconds, 74 yards in length, entirely clean, and to the satisfaction of the Jurors and the gentlemen present. The Jurors recommended the award of a Medal to Mr. McCormick.

The result of this trial gave a new turn to affairs, and on the return of the Reapers to the Palace, crowds were continually examining them, and the American department from this time to the closing of the exhibition, was no longer the "Prairie ground," but was thronged with inquiring visitors. The London Times, whose Agricultural reporter was present, gave a very full account of this successful trial; and in an article published soon after the trial, it was said, "That every practical success of the season belonged to the Americans, their consignments showed poorly at first, but came out well upon trial." And again, "it will be remembered that the American department was the poorest and least interesting of all foreign countries. Of late, it has justly

assumed a position of the first importance, as having brought to the aid of our distressed agriculturists, a machine, which if it realizes the anticipations of competent judges, will amply remunerate England for all her outlay connected with the Great exhibition. The reaping machine from the United States is the most valuable contribution from abroad, to the stock of our previous knowledge, that we have yet discovered."

Previous to the trial of the reaper, the same observations as to the value of the reaper if successful, were made to me by several distinguished agriculturists of Great Britain. An attempt has been made since the close of the Exhibition, to show that the reaping machine is an English invention, and that those from this country are mere imitations of theirs. It requires no great sagacity however to perceive, that so far as grain reapers were a pructical reality, they were unknown in Great Britain, until the successful trial of those from this country. For surely the London Times, ever posted up on every thing that pertains to the advance of England, would not have hazarded the assertion, "that the American Reaper will amply remunerate England for all her outlay connected with the exhibition;" if, England had anything like a living, working reaper, known among her distressed agriculturists. The truth is, that until the Aiperican reapers were exhibited with their improvements, reaping by machinery was not even spoken of among the agriculturists of Great Britain, so far as I had an opportunity of ascertaining. The unbelief in the success of the reapers must satisfy every one, that there was no expectation in England of a reaper to do their work unless ours succeeded. If England had a practical working reaper in use, one would have supposed that it would have been on exhibition at the Palace, and that Garret, one of the most celebrated implement makers in England, would have exhibited an English grain reaper, instead of one copied from Hussey's American reaper, and which he is now manufacturing and vending as the American Reaper.

The late Chancellor of the Exchequer, Earl Granville, one of the Royal Commissioners, who devoted himself constantly to his

duties as Commissioner, and to whom the exhibition is greatly indebted for its success; in speaking of the success of the Americans at the exhibition, alludes to "two other American gentlemen, who, are at present teaching us how to cut corn, an act which we have been practicing for some hundreds of years in this Island, but of which it appears, we are ignorant of the first principles."

Subsequent to the trial at Mr. Mechi's, another trial was had before the Chairman of the Jury, Hon. Mr. Pusey, Mr. Miles, M. P. and Baron Hlubeck, of Austria; I give the report of Mr. Pusey, the Chairman, in which it will be noticed, that he speaks of an English machine, as too intricate, and that it had fallen into disuse 50 years since.

MR. PUSEY'S REPORT." At the opening of this century it was thought that a successful reaping machine had been invented, and a reward was voted by Parliament, to its author. The machine was employed here and abroad, but from its intricacy fell into disuse. Another has lately been 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 their wheat, but performed the work with the neatness and certainty of an old and perfect machine. Its novelty of action reminded one seeing the first engine run on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1830. Its perfection depended on its being new only in England, but in America the result of repeated disappointment, untired perseverance. The United States Patent Commissioner says of Mr. McCormick's reaping machine :

"In agriculture it is, in my view, as important, as a labor saving device, as the Spinning Jenny and Power Loom in Manufactures. It is one of those great and valuable inventions which commence a new era in the progress of improvement, and whose beneficial influence is felt in all coming time."