SECRETARY'S REPORT. 77 



" A man that can grind the common scythe well, and drive a pair of 

 horses well enough to make good work with the plough, if he is pos- 

 sessed of ordinary Yankee skill and judgment, after one day's prac- 

 tice with a man experienced in the use of the mower, can work a 

 Manny machine, if as well made as the one I have, without any diffi- 

 culty, and on land well laid down, will cut the grass better and closer 

 than it is usually done with the common scythe. The cost of repairs 

 on my machine the past season, was much less than it would have 

 been for the common scythe to cut the same number of acres. You ask 

 me if I would advise the farmer to buy and use the machine, instead 

 of cutting his grass with the scythe. Much will depend on the num- 

 ber of acres he has to cut, and the manner in which his lands are laid 

 down to grass. If he has forty or more acres to cut, and his lands 

 are in the condition every farmer's ought to be, I should advise him 

 to use the machine. I am confident he can save more than one-half 

 the cost of cutting his grass. 



" There is room for improvement in the best mowing machine I have 

 seen. I think if steel was used instead of wood, for the finger-bar of 

 the Manny machine, it would satisfy g,ny man." 



Nor is the testimony of individuals, complete and valuable as 

 it is on this point, the only means we have at command for 

 forming a judgment on the question of the economy of the use of 

 the machine and hand labor. In one instance, reported by the 

 committee of the Worcester society, John Brooks, of Princeton, 

 chairman, where a machine was owned and worked by Mr. 

 Barrett, having a cutter-bar five feet in length, and with horses 

 weighing in harness 1,968 pounds, driven at a moderate speed, 

 only equal to 20 rods a minute, or 3| miles an hour, a half-acre, 

 20 rods by 4, with a burden of 2,400 pounds of hay to the acre, 

 was cut in fourtten swaths, an average of 4:^^ feet, in eighteen 

 minutes, including the turnings. This would be 2^^ miles 

 the hour, including the turnings. At this rate 1,210 square 

 feet of grass were cut in a minute. At the same time a good 

 mower cut a swath 168 feet long and 7 feet wide, making 1,176 

 square feet in 3^ minutes ; or, at the rate of 336 square feet in 

 a minute, allowing no time for rest or to sharpen the scythe. 

 Now, allowing the machine no time for rest or turning, it cut 

 a swath 4:^-^^ feet wide and 20 rods long, equal to l,554j-^^ 

 square feet in a minute, or 43^^^^^ times more than a good 

 mower with a scythe in the same time. It is natural to sup- 

 pose that a man mowing with such a competition and a large 

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