SECRETARY'S REPORT. 1|9 



obstructions, find the independent or -wheel-rake much more satis- 

 factory. The estimates furnished rne by practical farmers, as to 

 the saving effected by the use of the horse-rake, varies so much, 

 viz : from a third to three-fourths, as to suggest a great difference 

 of value in the implements used. 



Spring Tooth Horse Rake> 



The spring tooth horse-rake is, by some farmers, considered a 

 desirable instrument upon new and rough grounds. It requires 

 considerable strength to be applied by the holder, and is more liable 

 than the above named to collect bits of loose turf, dust, &c., among 

 the hay. 



In what I may have to say about mowing-machines, it will be no 

 part of my object to attempt to prove that any one is better than 

 all others, or that any are perfect, or so good, or so cheap, as they 

 probably will be a few years hence ; but rather to state my convic- 

 tion, and if possible, to enforce it as a fact, that the best machines 

 of to-day, are so good and so cheap, that no farmer, who cuts fifty 

 acres of grass upon land in tolerable condition for a machine to work 

 upon, can afford to forego its advantages, even if he be obliged for 

 this alone to become the owner of one. Nor is this always neces- 

 sary, for in every neighborhood some one can be found of more than 

 usual mechanical ingenuity and fitness, to use a mower, who might 

 be entrusted with one purchased with the joint funds of several, and 

 cut the grass for each, to the mutual benefit of all. Mowing- 

 machines are not so great a novelty as some suppose. Many years 

 ago, attempts were made in England to construct machines for mow- 

 ing and reaping by horse power ; but these first attempts generally 

 met with very indifferent success. About 1805, Samuel Adams of 



