many others, and principally from Maryland and Ohio. It is considered
unnecessary to extend the list, for the operation and character of the
machine is too well and too widely known at this day to render it
necessary to the intelligent farmer and general reader, in any grain
growing section of the country.[8]

[8] With the view of determining as far as possible which was the
best Reaping and Mowing Machines for the farmer to purchase, the
Maryland State Agricultural Society in 1852 offered a prize of one
hundred dollars--the largest yet offered in the country--for the
best machine, to be tested by a committee appointed by the
Society; a large committee of men of the first standing in the
State, and all large wheat growers, was appointed, and extended
notice published of the trial to take place at "Wye," the seat of
Col. Edward Lloyd, Eastern Shore, Md., in July.

Every effort was made by the Society and Committee to give a fair
and satisfactory trial; as the extent of crops in that fine wheat
growing region, and extensive level face of the country, are
unsurpassed anywhere for such an exhibition.

But two machines were entered for competition, McKeever's and
Hussey's. The prize was awarded unanimously to Hussey. Why no
others could be induced to attend was a matter of surprize at the
time, and so remains with many.

"Harewood,
"12mo., 8, 1852.

"Having used one of O. Hussey's Reaping and Mowing Machines during
the last harvest (1852) I can state that in cutting wheat, oats
and cloverseed--also in mowing my crop of grass--it has fully
answered my expectations, doing the work better than I ever had it
done by the scythe, and at much less expense. The machine has been
tested by cutting some fifty to sixty acres of grass--quite
sufficient to prove its complete adaptation to mowing as well as
reaping.

"EDWARD STABLER."

"Wye House,
"Dec. 20, 1852.

"Dear Sir:--Having worked your Reaper for many years I have fully
tested its merits. It has proved itself to be not only a wheat
saving implement but a labor and time saving one--these are all
important to the farmer.

"It does its work completely, regardless of the position of the
wheat, if in condition to bind.

"Those you sent me in the spring worked well through the harvest,