AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY. 429 



are always more or les.s detentious with them. There can be no economy in 

 thus combining the two machuies, and if the farmer will look at the state of 

 facts as they exist he will never be induced to purchase them. 



The tendency of the former is to run after expensive implements, but he 

 does not always count their cost and the value they are to him. Two hundred 

 acies of grass may be said to be a fair estimate for the use of a mower in one 

 season. The cost of a mower is, say, $80. The interest, repairs, and deteri- 

 oration will be about twenty-five dollars a year, or about ten cents an acre, 

 assuming the machine to last ten years. We know one farmer who cut twelve 

 hundred acres of meadow with four mowers the past season. These were 

 drawn by two horses each, and driven by boys of fourteen to sixteen years of 

 age. To have cut this amount of grti.ss with combined machines would have 

 required four additional span of horses and expert drivers in place of the four 

 boys. We do not think a combined machine would stand more than two sea- 

 sons' work at this rate, when the account would be as follows : 



Use of mower, at 10 cents per acre $120 00 



Fonr teams, 30 days each, 120 days TiO I'O 



Four boys, 30 days each, 120 days 120 00 



360 00 



Or, thirty cents an acre. 



Four combined machines, $120 each $480 00 



Half charged to reaping 240 00 



$240 00 



Half their value for one year 120 00 



120 UO 

 Repairs and interest 20 00 



140 00 



Or, say twelve and a half cents an acre ; but the difference does not stop 

 here : 



Cost of machine - $140 00 



Eight span of horses, 30 days each, 240 days 240 00 



Four men, 30 days each, 120 days 240 00 



620 00 



Or a total cost of fifty-one and a half cents an acre — nearly double that of 

 the single mower. We think no one can cavil at the above comparisons. We 

 say the above deliberately, after nearly twenty years' experience with the 

 reaper and fifteen of the combined machine and single mower. It has been 

 too much the practice with small farmers to own a combined machine, and as 

 these are seldom housed the loss is a large one. Last season the cost of ma- 

 chines was much above the figures given ; but as the patents expire they must 

 be cheapened, even below the above figures. It is not so material that the 

 exact price in making the comparison should be given so long as the relative 

 difierence remains the same. We are glad to see a growing demand for reap- 

 ers and mowers independent of each other, and we trust that it will not stop 

 until the last combined reaper and mower is thrown aside as a dead weight on 

 the operations of the farmer. 



HAY RAKES. 



The hand rake is now little used for any purpose, and not at all in gather- 

 ing the crops of hay. Revolving rakes are vet largely used for their cheap 



