No. 4.] EVOLUTION OF FARM MACHINES. 255 



machine : " It would do good work while going ahead, but 

 was difficult to turn and almost impossible to back, it not 

 being provided with ratchet and pawl gear." For reaping 

 there was a reel and table attachment to receive the grain, 

 and an additional seat for a man, who raked off the bundles. 

 The modern reaper is an improved form of this machine, 

 with automatic raking device. The invention of the two- 

 wheeled hinge bar mower has proved more convenient for 

 cutting grass. 



R. T. Osgood of Maine, in 1852, invented a machine with 

 two driving wheels on a common axle, with ratchet and pawl 

 gear, so that each wheel would be in gear when turned 

 back. This machine was provided with hinged bar and 

 lever, so that the driver could raise and depress the bar 

 while the machine was in motion. Lewis Miller of Canton, 

 O., invented the plan of taking power from the main axle 

 instead of from cogs on the driving Avheel, a plan generally 

 adopted in the best mowers of to-day. He also, from 1856 

 to 1858, improved upon the hinged bar arrangement, and 

 invented the peculiar folding bar and adjustable pawls known 

 in the Buckeye type of mowers. The hinged bar proved an 

 advantage in point of convenience in operating, but lost in 

 economy of power as compared with single-wheel machines ; 

 and, while the latter often cut five or six feet, it was found 

 that only four or four and one -half feet with the hinged bar 

 that dragged heavily on the ground was practical. By 

 supporting the bar on the driving wheels and on a small 

 wheel at each end, and l)y careful adjustment of the pitman 

 so that it will be in line at all positions of the bar and not 

 bind on the crank pin at any time, what is known as the 

 floating bar has been introduced by leading manufacturers, 

 so that now a mower cutting five or six feet is easily handled 

 by an ordinary farm team. A farmer who has fifteen or 

 more acres of grass to mow in a season is no longer justified 

 in using a four-foot cutting bar. The addition of first cost 

 is of trifling consideration , as compared to the saving of one 

 to one and one-half hours for a man and team in the forenoon 

 during the busy season of haying. I have used a six-foot 

 bar for several years, and figure it has cost about twenty- 

 five cents an acre for use of the machine. 



