132 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



Like all other competitors, Mr. Noble was cautioned in the 

 outset to show how well, and not how quickly he could do his 

 work. The whole time occupied in cutting the half acre was 

 thirty-five minutes, inclusive of stoppages, of which there were 

 six in number, and the number of swaths was twenty. The 

 width of knife-bar was four feet, and the weight of horses, with 

 harnesses on, 1,850 lbs. 



The grass in Berkshire county not being as yet fully grown, 

 and one of the competitors being unprovided with a machine, 

 the undersigned assented to an arrangement proposed by Mr. 

 John Wilkinson, and Berkshire county was left to be revisited 

 at a later date. 



Proceeding to Hampshire county, the undersigned reached 

 Northampton, and in company with Paoli Lathrop, Esq., one of 

 the Hampshire County Society committee, at once visited the 

 " meadow," where he had learned the various resident compet- 

 itors would be found engaged in their work. S. Parsons & 

 Sons had entered as competitors. The machine was in charge 

 of the son, Mr. Joseph Parsons, who exhibited a liigh degree of 

 skill in its management. Mr. Parsons had cut some eighty 

 acres, and all of it, upon examination, proved to have been 

 well cut. 



Mr. Parsons was also subjected to a trial of his skill upon a 

 plat of four rods by twenty. The surface of the land was 

 smooth, bearing a fair burden of herds-grass, with but little of 

 the finer growth usual at the bottom. The mowing was done 

 smoothly and evenly, without interruption of any kind, in seven 

 and one-fourth minutes, the cut of the machine being five feet 

 and four inches. His machine was in fine condition. Mr. 

 William Strong was visited, but he had concluded to withdraw 

 from competition. The machine of H. W. Parsons was at 

 work in charge of the young man. Some thirty-five acres 

 had been cut over, but no account of the number of days, 

 the number of hours in any one day, and in fact none but 

 guessing account of any thing required in the trial could be 

 given. 



Mr. Parsons was informed that no notice could be taken of 

 work done so loosely ; but that he could compete without taking 

 into account the Avork already executed. Mr. Parsons, after a 

 ni::,ht's reflection, determined to abandon the trial. '^ 



