FOR PROMOTING AGRICULTURE 137 



large/' permit the date of the new order of things in 

 haymaking, in this State, to be fixed with tolerable 

 precision; for, when the record is referred to, it ap- 

 pears that the number competing was forty. If this, 

 after the special incentive, suggested in the words 

 just quoted, had had time to take effect, could be 

 deemed a large number, the possessors of mowing 

 machines in the State prior to 1855, by fair inference, 

 were but few. The condition of things is, in a certain 

 way, indicated in the statistics given in the report of 

 the committee of award. A condition named was that 

 each competitor should mow a measured half-acre in 

 the presence of the society's representative, upon a 

 day appointed by him. It was deemed to be the fair- 

 est method that one member of the committee should 

 see the working of all the machines, rather than that 

 the supervision should be shared ; and that the whole 

 committee should make the award upon his testimony, 

 aided by information derived from returns, the blanks 

 for which were provided, and were to be filled by the 

 several competitors. The return of these filled blanks 

 was made imperative, else the party was not to be con- 

 sidered in making up the award. In consequence, 

 only sixteen competitors had to be taken into account 

 in making the award. The others, with one exception, 

 made no returns, not being well satisfied, probably, 

 with their own performance. The exception was 

 George W. Lyman, the recording secretary of the 

 society, w^ho did not desire the award, if entitled to it, 

 but wished the committee to have the benefit of any 

 knowledge derivable from the working of his machine. 

 Among the statistics of the operation of the seventeen 

 machines are these: Fingers broken or lost (which, in 

 this case means fingers of the machines, not the oper- 

 ators') , 93 ; knives broken or lost, 18 ; pins, screws and 



