Book IV. 



RAKES AND REAPING MACHINES. 



337 



397 



raised from the ground, when the machine is going to, and returning from, the field ; or when 

 it is not wanted to operate. It is drawn by one horse, and, on 

 the whole, answers as a tedding machine perfectly- In the 

 neighborhood of London, where meadow hay is so exten- 

 sively made, it is found to produce a great saving of labor, 

 and is now coming into very general use. 



2598. The hay swoop or swee^) {fig. 338.) is an implement 

 for drawing or sweeping accumulations of hay to the cart 

 or rick, or to any larger accumulations. Sometimes a rope 

 is merely put round the heap, especially if it has been a 

 few days in the cock, or piled up ; but the most gene- 

 ral hay-swoop consists of two curved jjieces of wood, six 

 or eiglit feet long, joined by upright pieces, so as to form 

 something like the back of a chair. To the four corners 

 of this, ropes are attached, which meet in the hook of a 

 one horse Whipple tree {a). 



SuBSECT. 2. Reaping Machines. 



2599. Though reaping machines, as we have seen (133.), are as old as the time of the 

 Romans, one of an effective description is yet a desideratum in agriculture. The high 

 price of manual labor, however, will probably in time call forth such a reaping machine 

 as may be employed in all ordinary situations, and this is, perhaps, all tliat can be desired 

 or expected. Corn laid down, or twisted and matted by wind and rain, or growing 

 among trees, or on very irregular surfaces, or steep sides of hills, will probably ever 

 require to be reaped by hand. But independently of the high price of labor, despatch, 

 as an able author observes (Svpp. Encyc. Brit. i. 118), is a matter of great importance in 

 such a climate as that of Britain. In reaping corn at the precise period of its maturity, the 

 advantages of despatch are incalculable, especially in those districts where the difficulty 

 of procuring hands, even at enormous wages, aggravates the danger from the instability 

 of the season. It cannot, therefore, fail to be interesting ; and we hope it may be also 

 useful, to record some of the more remarkable attempts that have been made towards an 

 invention so eminently calculated to forward this most important operation. 



2600. The first attempt at a reaping machine, so far as we have learned, was made by Boyce, who 

 obtained a patent for a reaping machine fifteen or twenty years ago. This machine was placed in a 

 two-wheeled carriage, somewhat resembling a common cart, but the wheels were fixed upon the axle, so 

 that it revolved along with them. Acog-wheel, within the carriage, turned a smaller one at the upper end 

 of an inclined axis, and at the lower end of this was a larger wheel, which gave a rapid motion to a pinion 

 fixed upon a vertical axis, in the fore part of the carriage, and rather on one side, so that it went before 

 one of the wheels of the carriage. The vertical spindle descended to within a few inches of the surface 

 of the ground, and had there a number of scythes fixed upon it horizontally. This machine, when 

 wheeled along, would, by the rapid revolution of its scythes, cut down a portion of the corn growing upon 

 the ground over which it passed, but having no provision for gathering up the com in parcels and laying 

 it in proper heaps, it was wholly unsuited to the purpose. 



2601. An ifnprovetnent on this attempt was made by Plucknet, an agricultural implement maker, of 

 London, some years afterwards. The princii^al alteration he made, was in substituting for the scythes a 

 circular steel plate, made very sharp at the edge, and notched at the upper side like a sickle. This plate 

 acted in the same manner as a very fine toothed saw, and was found to cut the corn much better than the 

 scythes of the original machine. 



2602. A machine, invented by Gladstones, of Castle Douglas, in the stewartry of Kircudbright, operated 

 upon nearly the same principles with Plucknet's ; but Gladstone's made its work much better by intro- 

 ducing a circular table, with strong wooden teeth notched below all around, which was fixed immediately 

 over the cutter and parallel to it. The use of these teeth was to collect the corn and retain it till jt was 

 operated on by the circular cutter. The corn, when cut, was received upon this table, and, when a suffi- 

 cient quantity was collected, taken away by a rake or sweeper, and laid upon the ground beneath the 

 Boachine, in separate parcels. To this machine was added a small circular wheel of wood, covered with 



