s at work on the reaper for many years; and either he or his
son stated to me that C. H. McCormick had been _improving_, _changing_ or
_inventing_ various parts until they had (as they thought) perfected the
machine. * * * I disliked the labor _imposed on the hand who had to walk
and remove_ the wheat from a platform seven feet in width, and urged
Messrs. McCormick to attach another contrivance so as to enable the raker
to ride and perform his arduous task; the old gentleman contended that
that could never be accomplished, but that a self-operating appendage
could be constructed to remove the grain, but that would be uncertain,
and entirely unreliable. During my visit, he pointed out to me _one_ or
_more_ fixtures they had tried for the raker to ride on. I think one was
on one wheel, and the other on two.

[Sidenote: Mr. Hite Suggests a Seat]

I yet contended that it could be accomplished; if by no other means, by
changing the construction of the machine, and remarked to him, if I were
a mechanic, and understood the construction of the machine well enough
to venture to alter its parts, I was certain I could so arrange it, and
requested him to urge his son to make the effort; he replied that it
would be useless; that they had tried every imaginable way or plan
before placing the machine before the public, and that they regarded it
as an impossibility, successfully, and properly, in any other way than
on foot, and said it was necessary for the heads to be brought round to
the right, in which I fully agreed; but contended it could be done while
the raker was riding or standing in an erect position.

[Sidenote: McCormick Condemns]

After this unsatisfactory interview I returned home, and at the close of
the next wheat harvest I had a small carriage, about 3 feet by 3-1/2
feet, constructed on two wheels, and connected underneath the platform,
by means of shafts to the back part of the head of the machine; this
during the cutting of my oat crop answered every purpose, so far as the
raker was concerned, but there was a difficulty in turning. C. H.
McCormick came to see this combination sometime during the year, and
condemned it in toto. But by the next harvest I had it so constructed, as
to be drawn by an iron bar so shaped, appended and supported on the
underneath part of the carriage, as to admit of the machine turning in
any direction, and the carriage would follow just as the two hind wheels
of a wagon do; the carriage