134 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



hill sid.3, lay mixod with tin coarse yot softar grasses of tlia 

 swalo. 



It was a place wlioro hardly any thing save, the mania, a ?noiii- 

 ing machine^ would have dared to venture ; yet this spot, as in 

 fact all otliers, gave proof of the superiority of machine over 

 scythe mowing. His machine showed marks of very hard 

 usage. 



Mr. Thomas J. Field, of Northficld, in the county of Frank- 

 lin, was next visited. 



The examination of the land mowed by Mr. Field, about 

 sixty acres, was made in company with Cliarles Fomeroy, Esq., a 

 member of the Fj-anklin Society's committee. The varieties of 

 grass usual to. cultivated land had been cut. As a whole, the 

 surface over which the mowing iiad been done, was smooth, and 

 the Avork had been generally well done, though not so satisfac- 

 torily as in some other instances. 



Mr. Field was subjected to a trial upon a smooth and level 

 plot of four by twenty rods, bearing an average burden, princi- 

 pally of herds-grass, with some fine grass at the bottom. His 

 machiuo, cutting a swath of five feet and four inches, was un- 

 der tlic management of Mr. Walter Field, and the work was 

 done in seventeen and three-fourths minutes. 



Tlio mowing was good, as a whole, the only failure being in 

 pointing out. 



Upon a subsequent visit to Mr. Field, on the 22d day of 

 Auguf-,t, an examination was made of much of the land which 

 had been mowed by him subsequent to the time first named. 

 The lands which had been cut over were principally in the 

 Connecticut bottom, the surface generally undulating, and in 

 places broken by abrupt swells. In the opinion of the luider- 

 signed, the work was not so good as the first, after making the 

 allowance proper for the ditference in the surface of the land 

 and +he kind of grass to be cut. Still it was better cut than a 

 gang of hands would have done it. 



Mr. Field had cut over about one hundred and sixty acres, 

 and in tlio execution of this work his horses had gained sixty- 

 eight pounds in weight. 



The first farm visited in Worcester county was that of 

 Walter liii^elow, Esq., of Worcester. 



Mr. Walter Bigelow, Jr., had, in person, charge of the ma- 



