44 TRANSACTIONS OF THE A^IEEICAN INSTITUTE. 



made by jour committee, they deem it a very useful instrumerrt 

 for garden culture, and recommend the silver medal to be awarded 

 to the inventor. 



Signed, SOLON ROBINSON, 



N. H. GALE, 



Committee. 



Report on Whittemore Bros'. Chaff Cutter. 



The special committee, to whom was referred Whittemore Bros. 

 Chaff Cutter, respectfully report : 



That they have examined this machine and find it novel in its 

 construction, and perfectly well suited to the purpose for which 

 it is intended. It has been long known in England, that twenty- 

 five pounds of hay in the natural state, nineteen pounds cut one 

 inch long, and thirteen and one half pounds finely chaffed, are 

 equal in value as food for horses, cattle, etc. ; but the cost of the 

 English chaffing machine has been entirely too great to engage 

 the attention of American farmers. The chaff cutter, however, 

 is of but small cost, and embraces all the advantages called for. 

 It is composed of two rollers, the one armed with shear steel 

 edges, and the other with corresponding knives, sustained in 

 their relation to each other by the casting of the ends, which 

 insures very equable relative positions in the rollers, so that 

 they shall be always in the proper position for cutting. This 

 casting is arranged, however, so that its upper end sustaining 

 the shear cylinder is permanent. The lower end, or that sustain- 

 ing the cutting knives, is attached to two sectors that are held 

 to the two sides of the machine by thumb-screws. 



These sectors are movable, so that the perfect cylinders may 

 keep in position in relation to the shorn cylinder between the 

 vertical and the horizontal, and tliat each change of their rela- 

 tive position the length of the cut is altered, so that the machine 

 is capable of cutting straw of all lengths, from mere chaff to an 

 inch and a half long, thus enabling the farmer to select such 

 length as he may prefer. It is also equally applicable to the 

 cutting of cornstalks. 



Your committee would rccommerxd that a diploma be awarded 

 for this machine. 



Signed, SOLON ROBINSON, 



N. H. GALE, 



Committee. 



