SECRETARY'S REPORT. 175 



field of it by mowing too close and early, and I consider the 

 four inches at the bottom of coarse Timothy of little value." 



If the seed is allowed to ripen it exhausts the soil far more 

 than if cut in the blossom. 



MOWING MACHINES. 



We now come to the methods of cutting grass. As this crop 

 is one of the most important and valuable in the whole range 

 of farming products, any practicable means offered to facilitate 

 its harvesting in the best manner, and at the least expense, will 

 naturally excite the interest of the progressive farmer. The 

 ordinary method of cutting by the hand scythe is already too 

 familiar to every one in New England to need a moment's 

 notice in tliis connection, and I propose only to allude to a com- 

 paratively new method of mowing by horse or ox power, and 

 chiefly to the success which has attended the use of machinery 

 during the past season as indicated in the returns to the circu- 

 lar already given, and in reply to the second question, " Have 

 you used a mowing machine, if so, what patent, with what 

 power, and with what advantage ?" 



The inducements held out by the Massachusetts Society for the 

 Promotion of Agriculture, by an offer of a premium of $300, in 

 the year 1855, to the one who should make the most successful 

 experiments in cutting grass by machinery, and of tSil,000, to 

 be awarded in 1856, to the inventor or manufacturer of the best 

 mowing machine, very naturally led our farmers to hesitate in 

 procuring machines till the results of these trials were known. 

 The number of affirmative answers to the above question was, 

 notwithstanding, very considerable, and generally wherever 

 used, the testimony is strongly in favor of the use of machinery. 



In speaking on this subject I shall state simply the facts 

 which have been returned to me by practical farmers, without 

 expressing any personal preferences for any particular patent. 

 By so doing, I shall give the farmer who designs to purchase a 

 machine the means of forming his own judgment without the 

 necessity of any bias from mine. I will simply state that my 

 observation of these machines and their work has been exten- 

 sive during the two past seasons, and that the improvements 



