418 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Sept. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 SCYTHE PHIIjOSOPHY. 



Dear Farmer : — Have we no scythe philoso- 

 phy, no system for fitting up the most important 

 tool tlie farmer uses, the scythe ? One prefers a 

 long scythe, crooked at the heel and straight at 

 the point ; another prefers it crooked at the point, 

 and straight at the heel ; some short, &c. The 

 same opinions prevail with regard to snaths, so 

 that a scythe maker may make a lot of scythes 

 of all lengths and shapes, expecting they will suit 

 some one. When the mower goes for a scythe 

 and snath, if he has any scythe philosophy in his 

 head, he goes to the loft with hammer and wrench, 

 and commences measuring and trying, hanging 

 and unhanging, trying which long scythe is the 

 crookedest, and which stiff snath has the least 

 unnecessary crooks. Go amongst the mowers, 

 and no two scythes are alike, so each one must 

 get used to his own scythe, and no other. Now 

 the whole thing is wrong. Each and every man 

 needs a scythe and snath alike, except a little dif- 

 ference in length of geer, to proportion it to the 

 length of the man. Scythes and snaths should 

 be number one, two and three, and fitted before 

 they leave the scythe manufactory, so that they 

 will go together without fitting or altering. 

 Scythes should be crooked alike, from heel to 

 point, and be made more crooked than they are ; 

 the snaths should have two crooks, all others are 

 unnecessary. A crook at the right hand nib to 

 fetch the hands nearly level when the scythe rests 

 upon the ground, and the man that holds it stands 

 erect ; the other near the lower end, to turn the 

 edge down so low as to make it range with the 

 left hand nib, or a little inside of it, that the cut 

 and draught shall agree. 



A snath for a man 5 feet 11 inches, or over, in 

 height, should be 2 feet 8 inches from the right 

 hand nib to the lower end, and the scythe for 

 such a snath should be 4 feet 3 inches long on 

 the edge before it is bent ; the bend should be a 

 circular bend till the edge in the middle is 6 inch- 

 es from a right line with the edge at both ends. 



No. 2 scythe, 2 feet 6 inches from lower nib to 

 end of snath, scythe 4 feet edge, bent 5i inches, 

 for men from 5 feet 8 to 5 feet 11. 



No. 3, for short men and boys ; snath 2 feet 4, 

 scythe edge 3 feet 9 or 10 inches, crook in pro- 

 portion to others. 



The benefits resulting from such arrangements 

 must be evident to all. One of our greatest dif- 

 ficulties arises from the weakness or elasticity of 

 the snath. Norman can mow fast or easy, with a 

 scythe that springs, or tumbles in the grass. If 

 the iron snath made by Lamson, Goodnow & 

 Co., was bent as it should be, and the patent 

 heel rigging left off, and a good wrought iron 

 heel put in its place, it would be far superior 

 to any thing of the kind. It is well known that 

 there are certain men that can cut as much grass 

 in one day as other men of equal strength can in 

 two. That is owing to two things, namely ; skill 

 in rigging up the scythe, and second, in striking 

 it into the grass. Some of the readers of your 

 paper may i-ecollect two men that mowed for 

 Erastus Swift, of Addison, Vermont, in 1830, by 

 the acre, and he paid them for mowing 7| acres 

 a day, for every working day, till his hay was cut. 

 Those men mowed with No. 1 scythes as above 

 mentioned. 



Now, if a little skill can save one-third to one- 

 half the labor of mowing, 'tis worth looking af- 

 ter. A question arises with me, and perhaps with 

 others, who is to get up the alteration in the 

 scythe, and write out a scythe philosophy to di- 

 rect the young mower how to strike the scythe 

 into the grass ? 



Too many mowers stand too far off from the 

 grass, and strike too rounding a stroke. Some 

 weight is necessary in scythe and snath to give 

 stability to the motion. Green Mountain. 



Middlehury, Vt., July, 1858. 



■WILLIS' IMPROVED STUMP MACHINE. 



Some two or three years ago we witnessed the 

 operation of this machine, and then spoke at some 

 length of the wonderful power it possesses, and 

 of the great facility and ease with which it moves 

 extremely heavy bodies, or those which are fast- 

 rooted into the earth. Since that time it has re- 

 ceived some improvements, and repeatedly new 

 tests have been made with it, which places it be- 

 yond all doubt at the head of any machinery 

 within our knowledge for extracting stumps, 

 transplanting large trees, or removing large rocks 

 or buildings. 



It is simple in its construction, and its leverage 

 power is so great that a single horse can easily 

 draw from three hundred to five hundred tons. 

 It must be of great importance to railroad con- 

 tractors. 



Our own opinion of the machine now being 

 understood, we will give that of one or two oth- 

 ers. The Republican Citizen, published in Mary- 

 land, says : — It did not only perform all that the 

 inventor, Mr. Willis, had notified the public 

 that it would, but executed its Avork in such a 

 manner as to produce astonishment and delight ; 

 and the general impression was, that a resistance 

 could scarcely be opposed to it that it could not 

 overcome. Trees, stumps and rocks, were re- 

 moved from the places where they have rested 

 for centuries, with very little regard to their size 

 or weight — the power seeming almost unlimited. 



The Philadelphia Public Ledger, speaking of a 

 trial of the Extractor near that city, says : — Two 

 old chestnut trees, each one three feet in diame- 

 ter, were removed in 8 minutes ; one of them in 

 4i minutes, by the aid of six men, and the other 

 in 3i minutes with two horses. 



Mr. Leonard Ward, of Orange, Mass., says : 

 — I have recently moved a meeting-house in Or- 

 ange the distance of 240 feet, on an inclined plane 

 of 19 feet. The time occupied, in using Willis' 

 machine, was one day. With the machine I 

 turned the house one-quarter round. It was 

 judged to weigh from 75 to 100 tons. 



Some fifteen of these machines have been or- 

 dered from Chili, in Peru, where the article of 

 fuel is extremely scarce and high, and an ordina- 



