FARM IMPLEMENTS. 117 



to a spring bar bolted to the underside of tlie left front corner 

 of the frame. The connections on the shoe are by joints which 

 allow the bar to be turned up to a perpendicular position. The 

 outer shoe is sharp on the under side to part the grass, and has 

 a wheel five inches in diameter adjustable to regulate the height. 

 The holders on the finger bar arc chilled at the bearings of the 

 cutter bar. The guard fingers are made of malleable iron and 

 faced with steel, securely riveted in. The cutter bar is raised 

 with great ease to enable the machine to pass an obstruction. 

 Lightness of draught is secured by a simple and direct applica- 

 tion of power, all needless parts being dispensed with, so as to 

 lessen the friction. The machine is light and elastic, and yet 

 strong enough to stop the strongest team. Simplicity of con- 

 struction insures durablity. 



This machine cuts with remarkable smoothness and uni- 

 formity, and is not liable to clog. It is manufactured by the 

 "Wood Mowing Machine Company, at Hoosick Falls, New 

 York. About seventeen hundred machines a month on an 

 average have been made at the old works, employing five hun- 

 dred hands. The capacity of the works is now doubled. • Fully 

 one hundred thousand machines have been built, and fifty 

 thousand were in the harvest fields last year. The sale abroad 

 is also very large. 



American Hay Tedder. The mower was an irameasura 

 ble step in advance upon the older methods of cutting grass. 

 It comes in at a time when the work of the farm is peculiarly 

 laborious ; when labor is held at even higher than the usual 

 high rate of wages, when the weather is often fickle and pre- 

 carious, generally oppressively hot and trying to physical 

 strength, and it relieves the severest strain upon the muscles 

 during the time of harvest. 



The invention of the horse rake preceded it in point of time. 



