370 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Aug. 



clear and easy under such circumstances as these, 

 and cuts the grass just as smoothly as though it 

 were red-top or herds-grass with straight stems 

 standing two feet high. 



The above are the principal points of excellence, 

 indispensable in a good machine, and from the 

 closest scrutiny of the principles of the one in 

 question, and from a personal practical application 

 of it to the work of mowing, we are confident that 

 it possesses them all. With a trifling amount of 

 mechancal skill, one may set it up and drive it 

 with complete success. Such should be the ma- 

 chine ; now let us consider for a moment whether 

 it may be used with comfort and profit by such 

 farmers as have land in a condition to receive it. 



1. To spread grass as it ought to be, where there 

 is more than one ton to the acre, it will cost at 

 least 25 cts. per acre, and we assume from this, 

 that on any farm where twenty to thirty head of 

 cattle are kept, the cost of spreading alone, which 

 is done by the machine, and done infinitely bet- 

 ter than it can be done by hand, in ten years 

 will pay for the machine and the interest upoii the 

 purchase moneij ! Another advantage is that the 

 grass is spread just as fast as it is cut, and being 

 cut within a short space of time, is all drying 

 alike and at the same time. 



2. With a machine, grass may be cut so rapid- 

 ly that the whole pi'ocess of haying may be car- 

 ried on evenly, and no day or half day of brilliant 

 sunshine lost. 



3. The mowing may also be done by those who 

 are not able, or do not care to perform the labor 

 of a full hand — by an elderly or infirm person, or 

 by a smart boy who would not be expected to en- 

 ter the field as a mower. 



4. It may be done on moderately sized farms 

 after five o'clock in the afternoon, in the cool of 

 the day, and the grass be ready the next morn- 

 nig for the action of the sun, not having wilted 

 sufficiently the evening before to harm it in the 

 least. 



5. It may be done on most farms without any 

 extra cost for team, as oxen work the machine 

 well where horses are not conveniently at hand. 



We do not wish to be understood that there is 

 to be no further improvement in mowing ma- 



chines, — not at all, — we believe there will be; 

 but only this, that up to this time, the new Eagle 

 mower seems to us to he of the easiest draft, — to 

 do the most work and in the best manner of any 

 macliine in our knowledge. We have spent much 

 time and thought over it, aided by a tolerable 

 knowledge and appreciation of mechanical prin- 

 ciples, and are happy to give the readers of the 

 Farmer the result of our investigations. But we 

 cannot forbear to urge them, as far as is possible, 

 to see the machine in operation for themselves, 

 and then reject or purchase upon their own judg- 

 ment. 



This machine is equally well adapted for a 

 Reaper as for a Mower, and we give a cut of 

 each showing the diff'erence between them. 



On the 23d of June we put in operation 

 one of these machines, which was taken at 

 random from among several hundred, and 

 sent to us without any special preparation 

 whatever, — was put together and immedi- 

 ately taken to the field and put into grass 

 that would give about two tons of hay pex 

 acre. Two rather light horses were hitched 

 to it, and the work went on without inter- 

 ruption until the piece was finished, cutting 

 the grass and spreading it, with an evenness that 

 no hand of man could imitate. The team was 

 repeatedly stopt in the middle of the thickest 

 grass, and started again without backing, and 

 the corners turned with regularity and certainty, 

 without pressure either on horses, machine or 

 driver. 



The next field into which it was taken present- 

 ed a much severer test — the grass was thin, wiry 

 June grass, yielding 500 or 600 lbs. per acre,while 

 the bottom was a bed of "old fog." The compa- 

 ny of farmers present admitted that a good mow- 

 er with a keen scythe could scarcely go more 

 than ten rods in such a place without whetting, 

 while the machine cut the last swath of the acre 

 and a half just as evenly as it did the first! 



The approbation of the lookers-on was univer- 

 sal — they had witnessed nothing equal to it be- 

 fore in any machine — for while the draft is light, 

 they said, it does more work than other machines 

 by cutting a swath five feet across. But we will 

 not go into details of the trial to-day, and have 

 only room left to advise those who contemplate 

 purchasing a mowing machine to see this one in 

 operation before making a selection. 



This is the machine to which was awarded the 

 premium of $1000 by the Massachusetts Society 

 in 1856. 



Barley. — It is stated that the first barley sown 

 in this country, was upon the ■ island of Mar- 

 tha's Vineyard, in 1602, by a man named Gos- 

 neld, who introduced this and other varieties- of 



