174 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



well. It preserved its ancient reputation very well in the trial, 

 although the impression very generally prevailed, that it had 

 been surpassed in several points : for example, by the Manny 

 machine, in the lightness and facility of its motions, and by the 

 Russell machine, in the closer shaving and the more even sur- 

 face of stubble, after the passage of the knives. This supposi- 

 tion was confirmed by the operation of a machine of this patent 

 on the west of the court house, while the Russell was perform- 

 ing on the east side. It mowed imperfectl}^, as if the knives 

 had become dull. The gentleman who had purchased the hay, 

 that was to be, Avas led, by the circumstance, to intimate that 

 he should not obtain quite as much as legitimately belonged to 

 him. It is not our purpose to intimate that the Ketchum 

 patent suffered in general reputation on the occasion, as " acci- 

 dents will happen in the best-regulated families." The mowing 

 machine, although it was known in England a century and a 

 quarter ago, is still but a new and imperfect thing in our coun- 

 try to-day. Its lever power is yet to be vastly multipled, and 

 locomotive facilities are yet to be greatly increased, before it will 

 become that perfect blessing which some, and especially those 

 engaged in its manufacture, claim it to be. Vaucanson, the 

 silk-loom inventor and improver, of Lyons, was a greater man 

 than Jacquard, who distinguished himself in the same line ; but 

 it was necessary for the perfection of his instrument that the 

 latter should live and labor after him. 



The sixth half-acre lot was occupied by a machine of Manny's 

 patent, manufactured and entered by J. P. Adriance & Co., of 

 Worcester. It was a medium size — between the single-horse 

 machine of three-feet cutter, and the largest of their manufac- 

 ture, which has a cutter of four feet and nine inches. This ma- 

 chine, like all, we believe, of the same patent, on the ground, was 

 made with a reel. It moved with such facility, and with such 

 comparative ease, at the tread of the beautiful and finely trained 

 horses attached to it, tliat it appeared more like an ancient war 

 chariot — moving at a peaceful triumph where the victories of 

 Ceres instead of Mars were celebrated — than a simple weapon 

 of the farmer. The spectators seemed at once to be charmed 

 with its performances, and for a time, at least, it took the lead 

 in the popular estimation. The machine, great as are its real 

 merits, was fortunate in its proprietors and managers, who were 



