68 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the cutting was performed by circular knives, fastened on the 

 periphery of a horizontal wheel, five feet in diameter. The 

 wheel was suspended on a perpendicular iron shaft which hung 

 on a lever, by means of which the driver could elevate or lower 

 the knives at will. The motion was given by gearing connected 

 with the wheels on which the machine rested. It was operated 

 by two horses, and was capable of mowing ten acres a day. 



Wilson's machine was very successful in experiments made 

 in 1837. It could be operated by one horse walking behind the 

 machine. The grass was so left as not to need spreading. 



Another horse-mowing machine, that of Huzza, of Cincinnati, 

 met with a limited success as early as 1836. 



But it was not till a very recent date that the machine was 

 constructed in a manner to give confident hope of its ultimate 

 and perfect success. 



The experiments made with mowing machines have at least 

 demonstrated, beyond a doubt, that grass can be cut quickly and 

 economically by horse or ox power, and the objections which are 

 most commonly made to them are such as can easily be obviated 

 by a more perfect manufacture, and by more skill on the part 

 of the operator. It is, indeed, a mortifying fact, that they have 

 been, in many cases, very imperfectly made, and the fact that 

 many now in use have so often got out of order has thrown 

 doubts upon their utility as a whole, and retarded their intro- 

 duction very greatly. But this difficulty does not arise from 

 any defect in the principle of the machine, and many failures, 

 no doubt, are to be ascribed mainly to the impatience or 

 stupidity of the operator. 



It is not unfrequently the case that a man purchases a new 

 machine or borrows one, and on starting off without sufficient 

 care, finds himself brought to a stand with, perhaps, a broken 

 machine, and instead of seeking the cause and repairing the 

 damage, and starting anew, throws it aside as entirely worth- 

 less, and condemns the implement at once. Some of our most 

 useful and now familiar farm implements have been repeatedly 

 thrown aside at first by the fault mainly of the operator. A 

 machine ought not to be condemned till after a complete and 

 full trial. But enough of these machines have succeeded to the 

 perfect satisfaction of the community to show that whatever 



