FARM IMPLEMENTS. 297 



very different in construction, we regard the Allen and the 

 Manny machines as very nearly alike in point of merit, and if it 

 had so happened that it was necessary for us to decide between 

 those two machines, our judgment would have been made up 

 cautiously and with much hesitation, for each has points of 

 excellence which the other does not possess. Both these 

 machines did their work generally well, but not so well as the 

 work done by the Heath machine. 



This, like the Manny machine, has a wheel at the end of the 

 finger-bar. Like that, too, it has a reel, which may or may not 

 be used, as circumstances require. But its cutting arrangement 

 differs entirely from either of the other machines. They each 

 have a single knife, with the blades riveted to the plate, and 

 operating through cast iron fingers or guards, which, especially 

 when the knife is dull, may be liable to get filled up, and thus 

 clog the l)lades. Instead of these, this machine has virtually a 

 double set of cutters, the under set being stationary, projecting an 

 inch beyond the upper, and thereby acting in the double capacity 

 of guard and cutter. These, as well as the upper blades, are 

 each independent of the other, and each attached to its bar by 

 a screw bolt. The upper set of blades is held down by a spring 

 pressure bar, so that the operation is similar to that of shears, 

 the grass being cut between two sharp edges, and the machine 

 working nearly as well at one rate of speed as another. In case 

 of accident, therefore, a blade can be removed by any body and 

 another substituted, in an instant of time. Both the upper and 

 lower cutters are made like the best edge-tools in use, of the best 

 cast-steel, with wrought iron backs. The iron furnishing 

 strength, the steel can be made as hard as desirable, without so 

 much danger of breaking by use, and being made hard, do not 

 require to be so often ground. The lower cutter, or guard, as 

 you may please to call it, is half an inch thick and one and one- 

 fourth inches wide. The upper blades are about twice as thick 

 as those used on any other machine. This machine very evi- 

 dently required less power of draught than either of the others, 

 and did its work the best. The Manny machine weighed about 

 600 lbs. This weighs about 850 lbs. In its cutting apparatus, 

 which is, perhaps, the most important feature of a mowing 

 machine, we regard it as very much superior to either of the 

 others. In its ease of draught, perhaps the next most important 



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