174 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



chine. It was said, that it could not be used in our fields ; that 

 it would be too heavy, and always oiit of order ; that it would 

 ruin the horses, which, in their turn, would ruin the grass by 

 trampling it down. A great amount of cheap wisdom was 

 employed to prove that it could not be. used ; and when it was 

 successfully used, then the objection was, that the-expense was 

 ruinous, that small farmers would be excluded from its benefits. 

 This objection is now removed, as we shall presently show by 

 tliis year's experience. The mower has triumphantly established 

 itself, and maybe regarded as a fixed fact until something better 

 shall displace it. No doubt it will be improved, will bo cheaper, 

 lighter, and capable of doing more work at less expense. That 

 it will do it better, seems hardly possible. Enough has been 

 done to show, that the principle of its construction is sound, and 

 tliat, with more or less modification, it may be profitably em- 

 ployed on small farms. Several instances of its successful 

 operation have fallen under our observation, but, inasmuch as 

 the committee of the State Society are preparing a detailed 

 report upon this subject, we forbear to mention them. A single 

 case may be given as an example. 



Mr. W. Salisbury, of Medfield, informed us that Mr. Joel 

 Morse, with one of Allen's machines, mowed for him twelve 

 acres of grass in a day. The grass made twelve tons of hay. 

 Mr. Salisbury said that he was perfectly satisfied with the man- 

 ner in which the work was done. The grass was cut more 

 uniformly smooth than the best mower could have done it with 

 a scythe. 



We have heard many farmers express a determination to use 

 the machine next hay-time. As full statements of the compara- 

 tive excellence of the different machines may be expected in tlie 

 report already alluded to, we do not consider it expedient to be 

 more particular in this notice. 



The late Hon. John Lowell relates an experiment which he 

 made with plaster, with very satisfactory results. " I had a 

 field which had been laid down to grass more than seven years, 

 and was very much sward-bound. I began on the worst part of 

 the ground, and the person employed to sow it with plaster, 

 instead of three bushels on an acre, as I directed, put the three 

 bushels on a fourth of an acre. The elfect was so surprising, 

 that when the trustees of the society were at my house, I asked 



