AGRICULTURAL MECHANICS AND RURAL ECONOMY. 113 



the greater the expense — important items for farmers who must use these machines. Each 

 machine is represented to have its peculiar merits. Manny's patent is accompanied by a 

 reel, designed to give an inclination to the grass favorable to easy cutting; it has also a side 

 wheel, which would seem to aid in diminishing the side draft. On the other hand, Ketchum's 

 mower boasts of some features which are claimed to be equally valuable. It has a curve or 

 arch under the main beam which is said greatly to facilitate the escape of the previous 

 swath (if of swath we may speak) under the machine. It was remarked by many during 

 the trial that owing to this or other reason this one of the four competitors seemed to clog 

 less than the others. The advocates of this machine also plead that placing, as this patent 

 does, the knife-finger in a line with the axle of the carrying-wheel, gives it an advantage in 

 reaching the bottom of furrows and other depressions across which it passes ; as when the 

 wheel sinks the knives must sink also, and there seems to be some reason in the claim. 



" With regard to the weight of the several machines, we cannot accurately speak. That is 

 a consideration of far less importance than the requisite power of draft; with regard to this 

 we had no opportunity of judging, except from the appearance of the horses employed. 

 They seem to give in every case an involuntary testimony to the fact that mowing has not 

 yet ceased to be hard work. In behalf, therefore, of the animals on which we propose 

 henceforth to throw the labor of mowing, we send in to the manufacturers a most respectful 

 and earnest petition that mowing nachines may in some way be made of easier draft ; that 

 in saving the men we may not murder the horses. There seemed to be no great difference 

 between Manny and Ketchum in this respect. The expense was also understood to be about 

 the same. If, then, the question were narrowed down simply to this : Which of the two 

 would you purchase, if either? probably most or all of the committee, from what they saw 

 this day, would incline in favor of Ketchum's improved mowers of 1855, but not Ketchum's 

 mower of 1854, which is said, like some crops, to have been a failure." 



The committee further suggest that a very desirable improvement in mowing machines 

 would be an arrangement whereby two horses or one may be employed upon them at 

 pleasure. "We are satisfied, from what we have seen, that two horses, such as live with 

 most farmers in this vicinity, would find ample employment with a single cutter." 



Trial of Reapers and Mowers at the French Industrial Exhibition o/1855. — The final trial of 

 all the reaping and mowing machines of the Exhibition came off on the 2d of August, and 

 is thus reported in the Paris Constitutionnel : — 



There were ten machines in the Exposition ; nine of them were sent out by the Imperial 

 Commissioners to the place of trial, about forty miles distant from Paris ; this was a field 

 of oats, of about fifteen acres, standing up well, and divided into lots or pieces of about an 

 acre each, by swaths being cut through at a given distance parallel with each other, each 

 piece being numbered, and one machine allotted to each piece. At the beat of the drum, 

 three machines started off together. J. S. Wright, of Chicago, Illinois, managed by his 

 agent, Mr. Jewell; Patrick Bell's machine, by Mr. Fourent; and a machine from Algiers. 

 These machines were calculated to do their own raking by machinery. Wright's machine 

 cut his piece in twenty-four minutes, Bell's in sixty-six minutes, and the Algiers machine in 

 seventy-two minutes. The raking or discharging of the grain from all of the three machines 

 was badly done, the grain being much scattered in its delivery upon the ground, Wright's 

 doing much the best. The cutting, however, was well done. The mechanical movement of 

 the automaton raker of Wright's machine was truly wonderful. The operation of the 

 machine was highly successful. Bell's machine, by Fourent, did the cutting and gathering 

 of the grain in a very neat manner; the grain was delivered freely to one side of the ma- 

 chine for the binders. After the jurors had carefully noted the trial thus far, the signal 

 again was given, and off started three other machines, J. H. Manny's, of Rockford, Illinois, 

 managed by Mr. Mabie ; Bell's, by Croskill ; and a French one-horse reaper. Manny's cut 

 its piece in twenty-two minutes ; Bell's, by Croskill, and the one-horse French reaper, both 

 failed to cut their pieces ; while Manny's did its work in the most exquisite manner, not 

 leaving a single stalk ungathered, and it discharged the grain in the most perfect shape, a-s 

 if placed by hand, for the binders. It finished its piece most gloriously. Again, after the 

 jury had taken further notes of the trial, the signal was given, and three other machines 



8 



