82 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



One competitor, in his returns made to the committee, says :- 



" I have not aimed at, nor do I claim to have accomplished, any very 

 remarkable day's work with my machine ; indeed, the haying season 

 has been such that I have not deemed it *prudent to cut a large num- 

 ber of acres at a time. But in what I have done, I think I have 

 convinced those who have Avitnessed the operation of my machine 

 this season, that good mowing can be well done with a machine on 

 tolerably smooth land, and as well done as the best of work with a 

 scythe, and that the machine worked by a pair of horses and a man 

 of ordinary skill, Avill cut on an average one acre per hour, fair work. 



" I have met with no accidents or breakages this season nor last ; but 

 I was greatly annoyed in my first attempt to mow last season, by the 

 failure of my machine to operate as I had expected, which brought 

 down no small amount of ridicule and wise sayings from lookers on. 

 However, I soon found out the want of success was owing to imper- 

 fect castings or gearings, which were then put into the machine. After 

 they were replaced with those of a more perfect manufacture, the 

 machine has come nearer to my expectations. The great improve- 

 ments now to be made are in the form of the cutter-bar, the fingers 

 and the knives. In all these I think there may be many desirable 

 improvements made. But in whatever improvements are attempted, 

 I hope machinists will keep in mind, that a cutter-bar which can be 

 safely approached Avhile the machine is in motion, is always desirable. 

 Then, again, with a very little alteration in the plan of the frame 

 work, it can be so arranged as to be easily shifted, so as to use either 

 one or two horses as convenience might require. When there are 

 many turns to make in consequence of unevenness of ground, trees, 

 rocks or other obstacles, it would be desirable to use one horse and 

 a short cutter-bar. 



"My horses were no 'fancy-matched nags;' they were such as I 

 had, and as they worked very well together, though of considerable 

 difference in weight, I have learnt from this circumstance, that a 

 horse of medium weight, say between nine and ten hundred pounds, 

 will perform his share of the work the easiest, as he walks easier and 

 more safely on the sward, particularly when it is soft and Wet." 



Another competitor says : " The time was carefully meas- 

 ured by a watch, and was daily set down with the work done 

 in my farm diary. I took, myself, a general superintendence 

 of the time and the work done, which was satisfactory, and pro- 

 nounced by farmers far better than could be done by the com- 



