396 



SCIENCE OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part IL 



Sect, VI. Of Machines for reaping and gatliering the Crop. 



2591. The horse machines of harvest and hay time are chiefly the threshing madiine, 

 the hay tedder, and horse rakes. 



SuBSECT. 1. Of Horse Rakes and Haymaking Machines. 



2592. Raking machines are not in very general use ; but where corn is mown, they 

 are successfully employed in drawing together the scattered stalks, and are also of great 

 use in hay-making. The saving in both cases ^^^ 

 consists in the substitution of animal for manual 

 labor. 



2593. The common or Norfolk horse-rake (fg. 

 334.) is employed for barley and oat crops, and 

 also for hay. One man, and a horse driven by 

 means of a line or rein, are capable of clearing 

 from twenty to thirty acres, in a moderate day's 

 work ; the grain being deposited in regular rows 

 or lines across the field, by simply lifting up the 

 tool and dropping it from the teeth, without the horse being stopped. 



2594. The horse stubble rake {fg. 335.) is a large 

 heavy kind of horse rake, having strong iron teeth, 

 fourteen or fifteen inches in length, placed at five or 

 six inches from each other, and a beam four inches 

 square, and eight or ten feet in length. In drawing 

 it two horses are sometimes made use of, by which it 

 is capable of clearing a considerable quantity of stub- 

 ble in a short time. In general, however, it is much 

 better economy to cut the stubble as a part of the 

 straw. 



2595. The couch-grass rake differs little from Uie 

 last, and is employed in fallowing very foul lands, to 

 collect the couch-grass or other root weeds. It may 

 be observed, however, that where a good system of 



cultivation is followed,, no root weeds will ever obtain such an ascendancy in the soil, as 

 to render an implement of this kind requisite. 



2596. Weirs imjyroved hay or com rake {Jig. 336.) is adjusted by wheels, and is readily 



put in and out of gear, by means of the handles (a, a) and bent iron stays (b,b). 

 It is drawn by one horse in shafts (c), and is a very elFoctive implement. 



2597. The hay tedding machine (jig. 337.), invented about 1800, by Salmon of Wo- 

 burn, has been found a very useful implement, especially in making natural or meadow 

 hay, which requires to be so much more frequently turned, and thinner spread out, than 

 hay from clover and rye grass. It consists of an axle and pair of wheels, the axle 

 forming the shaft of an open cylindrical frame, formed by arms proceeding from it, 

 and from the extremities of which bars are fixed, set with iron prongs, pointing outwards, 

 and about six inches long and curved. There is a crank by which this cylinder of prongs is 



