120 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



March 



The Horse-Rake he considered among the great- days in succession last Spring, and sold the ma- 

 est improvements of the age. No one implement chine when he got through for all it cost. He had 



is helping farmers so much. He preferred the re- 

 volver. No man has said so many good things by 

 way of suggestion to farmers as the horse-rake has 

 said. It suggests the removal of stones from the 

 surface of the land, and of stone walls which are 

 now used to partition off mowing lots, so as to 

 bring them into one, and thus restore the land to 

 use, which is now occupied by them. And when 

 the land is thus prepared for the horse-rake, it is 

 also prepared for mowing machines. He under- 

 stood that this rake, though claimed as a Yankee 

 invention, was really the invention of a Congo 

 negro, who whittled out one with a jack-knife. 



As to the pitch-fork of old times, we have not 

 bone and muscle enough now to use one such as was 

 used in 1796 ; and as to the wooden plow, such a 

 one as he could take from his hen-roost, the man 

 could not be found who could push it into the 

 ground. To use one needed severe labor, and 

 practice from boyhood. Holding a breaking-up 

 plow was once spoken of as the most severe kind 

 of labor. But it is not severe labor to put a Michi- 

 gan plow into the soil to the depth of 11^ inches 

 He liked to bring up the soil from that depth, and 

 put the worn-out soil underneath. He preferred 

 the earth thus brought up for his compost heap, 

 to any washes he could fiud on his farm. 



Mr. Brooks again spoke. He wanted some gen- 

 tleman to give a reason why the modern plow run 

 easier than an ancient one — of the same construction. 

 The plow with a small angle, and wedge-shaped, 

 will run easier ; but it does not do the work well 

 if it is narrow behind. The modern plow does not 

 run any easier than an ancient one, he repeated, 

 because the rubbing surfaces are the same, and it 

 is heavier. It runs as much harder as it is heavier. 

 He had seen no reason to show that there has been 

 any improvement in plows. Gentlemen had onlj' 

 made assertions. He again cautioned against buy- 

 ino- plows or other farming tools merely on the rec- 

 ommendation of some one man. He once bought 

 a plow for $15, and a few days after offered to sell 

 it to the maker for $3, and he would not take it. 

 He paid $141 for a mowing machine, and could not 

 sell it to the maker for $40. 



Mr. SrRAGUE doubted whether a plow M-ent any 

 easier for being narrow behind, as Mr. Brooks had 

 suggested. 



Mr, S. L. Parsons, of Northampton, said that a 

 plow, "of the same construction," would be the 

 same plow, and, therefore, there was no real com- 

 parison between an ancient and a modern plow, by 

 the gentleman from Princeton. He considered the 

 Corn Planter and Fertilizer as one of the most 

 economical and useful implements. A machine 

 costs $15; and a man and horse can plant from 

 hix to eiiiht acres in a day. He did it for several 



used a mowing machine three seasons. He cut 

 grass enough for other people, in the first season, 

 to pay for it. The second season he cut 180 acres 

 with it, and would not sell it for $1000, if he could 

 not get another. One pair of horses, with Ketch- 

 um's new machine, will mow as much as two with 

 the old one. Last season he mowed 225 acres at 

 a cost for repairs of $1,25, or less than a cent an 

 acre. It cost $100. He found no difficulty in 

 keeping the men, necessary to get the hay in, em- 

 ployed during the rest of the day. The most he 

 had ever cut with a machine in a day, was 12 acres 

 in 6| hours. The fastest that he had ever mowed 

 with it was in cutting 4 acres in one hour and fifty- 

 seven minutes. The fields in Northampton are 

 smooth and large, sometimes long and narrow, so 

 that the machine can go 160 rods in one direction. 

 He used Ketchum's new mower last year. The 

 crop would vary from one to three tons to the acre. 

 Could cut short, fine grass, or rowen, perfectly well. 

 Last season mowed 60 acres of rowen, at the rate 

 of one acre in 33 minutes and 17 seconds. The 

 maker of the Corn Planter is E. C. Fairchild. 



Mr. W. J. Buckmixster added some testimony 

 to tlie facility with which rowen could be cut with 

 a mower. 



General Sutton, of Salem, had used Ketchum's 

 Machine, It cost $125. The repairs the first sea- 

 son amounted to two or three dollars ; last year, 

 not a cent, and it is now in good order. 



Mr. Brooks preferred Manny's Machine, because 

 it does its work as well, and draws easier. 



Mr, BuCKMiNSTER spoke of witnessing the work- 

 ing of Manny's Machine in a field of Mr. Porter, in 

 Essex county. Mr. Porter uses both Ketchum's and 

 Manny's, and says that Manny's can be used with 

 two-thirds the power required for Ketchum's. 



Mr. Whitney, of Ashburnham, spoke of plows, 

 and thought one reason why the modern plow jiro- 

 duced less friction than the old one, was because 

 the share was of cast iron instead of wrought iron. 

 On old plows with wooden monld-boards, there 

 used to be strips of iron, which produced fric- 

 tion. 



Mr. P^uisoNS, of Ludlow, thought the discussion 

 of the evening had proved that a plow of modern 

 construction would have run as easy seventy-five 

 years ago as it will now ! 



Dr. Fisher, of Worcester, thought the principle 

 on which the plow works the land to be wrong, 

 and that some other mode of doing it will yet be 

 invented. The spade operates on the true princi- 

 ple, by loosening all the soil and hardening none. 



Mr, Brooks congratulated himself that the last 

 gentleman was approaching to his own 

 admitting that tlie plow was not perfect 



