SECRETARY'S REPORT. 



87 



ordinarily, and the team will do that without over-urging, if the 

 driver be skilful. 



Other things of minor importance will suggest themselves 

 after a little practice. But it is especially important to have 

 patience and perseverance, and not to give up in discourage- 

 ment on account of a failure at the outset, nor even if there 

 should be a second or a third mishap ; for if proper care was 

 taken in selecting the machine, these difficulties show either 

 the want of sufficient study of all its parts or some mistake in 

 putting it together. Many will give up in despair, if they have 

 met only with some one of the slight accidents to which every 

 new implement is liable, particularly when time presses and 

 things go wrong. 



That some degree of skill is necessary for the proper use of 

 the mowing machine is no objection to it, since even the com- 

 mon scythe requires skill, and it is rare that any man who has 

 failed to obtain that skill by practice, when young, ever be- 

 comes a good mower. If the machine were so complicated 

 that only a mechanic could operate it, no doubt the fact that it 

 was so would be a serious obstacle to its introduction. But 

 this is not the case, and it is the general testimony that any 

 farmer of ordinary capacity can very soon learn to work it suc- 

 cessfully. 



Nor have the improvements in raking hay been less marked 

 than in mowing. The horse-rake, at first received with cau- 

 tion, as if an encroachment, with the expectation that its use 

 would be a ruinous innovation, is now almost universally found 

 on the farms of New England, and I suppose in other parts of • 

 the country. 



RevolTing Uorse-rake. 



