SECRETARY'S REPORT. 88 



mon scythe. Neither of the horses was less than twenty years old, 

 and they weighed about one thousand nine hundred pounds. No 

 accident occurred during the proceedings, except the breaking, 

 at different times, of ten teeth of the machine, which were imme- 

 diately and readily repaired. The general average of the work 

 in point of time, was, that an acre was mown in forty-three 

 minutes." 



From what has already been said, and from the testimony of 

 many practical farmers, as stated above, it appears that the esti- 

 mate already made, requiring five men to do the work of one 

 man, machine and team, or six men, including the spreading, 

 is a very reasonable one, since, in the cases stated, no allowance 

 is made for the want of endurance of the men at the rate at 

 which they worked in the experiments named. 



Other considerations give further credit to the machine, since 

 the grass was mown better than the average of good mowers, 

 while it is easy to see that it was spread better by the machine, 

 thus making a saving in the quality of the hay cured. 



The cost of a man, macliine and horses for a day, according 

 to what has been said, would be not far from 14.50, while the 

 cost of their equivalent in men would be not far from $9. This 

 calculation is based on the cost of keeping the team, and price 

 of labor on the small farms of New England, and it seems to 

 show the economy of machine laljor there. How much more 

 valuable may it not be on the large farms of the Middle and 

 "Western States ? 



But, with regard to the economy of the use of the macliine, it 

 seems to me, that even if the cost per acre were the same as by 

 hand labor, — and all unite in putting it less, — we should, nev- 

 ertheless, consider it a great and clear gain to have it in our 

 power to substitute machinery which will cut grass well and 

 rapidly at a time when labor is very difficult to obtain, without 

 paying an exorbitant price for it. And even supposing the 

 money cost of hand and horse labor to be the same, there is 

 still this further consideration in favor of the machine, that, as 

 a general rule, every mechanical operation which can be aflected 

 at all by machinery will be performed more accurately, more 

 uniformly, and therefore more economically, than by hand 

 labor. , 



Among the important lessons taught us by the use of the 



