138 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



hands of a common laborer, who had apparently paid little or 

 no attention to the condition of the implements of his labor. 



Mr. G. "W. Williams, of Tannton, was next visited. This 

 gentleman had finished his mowing, having cut over some 

 thirty-five acres. His work was principally in one large field, 

 its surface level and smooth, save from the " dead and ridge 

 furrows " of former ploughing. 



Mr. Williams expressed great satisfaction with this, to him, 

 novel method of mowing, expressing a confident belief that he 

 had effected a great saving of grass, as well as labor, by substi- 

 tuting the machine for scythe work, and although the under- 

 signed is not disposed to controvert this position, he feels con- 

 strained to say, that the saving of grass was not so great as he 

 had found upon other fields, nor was the appearance of the 

 field so uniformly good as from the surface of the land and the 

 quality and burden of the grass it should have been. 



Upon inquiry of the officers of the county society, assurance 

 was given that Mr. Rodman, of New Bedford, was not a competi- 

 tor ; and therefore no visit was made to the farm of that gentle- 

 man. 



Reaching Salem, in Essex county, the next day, an arrange- 

 ment was made with the committee of the county agricultural 

 society, to join them at a subsequent day in the examination of 

 the work which had been done in that vicinity. 



Proceeding to Newburyport, the undersigned learned to his 

 regret that Mr. Winkly, of that place, had not engaged in the 

 competition for which he had entered, and after an examination 

 of the fields of Col. Newell, and others in Newbury, which 

 had been mowed by Mr. W. F. Porter, of Bradford, he returned 

 to Salem, joining the Essex county committee. The farm of 

 Mr. H. Ware, in Marblchead, was first visited. A portion of 

 Mr. Ware's mowing was well done, although there were more 

 numerous proofs of defective cutting than had been found upon 

 the land of any other competitor. This was more particularly 

 the case upon a piece of reclaimed land upon Mr. Ware's own 

 farm. The surface of the land did not in some instances afford 

 cause sufficient to account for this defect in the proper opera- 

 tion of the machine. A portion, and perhaps much of it, might 

 be attributed to the yielding nature of the ground, causing an 

 uncertain tread, and perhaps, consequently, more imperfect cut. 



