274 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



two large tarnipf>,whole, but dean, niglit and morn- 

 ing, unless doing heavy work, wlien they have a 

 feed of oats in tlie morning instead of the turnips. 

 They are very fat and full of life. 



2d. My calves and lambs got turnips sliced with 

 a machine twice a day, about half a gallon to each, 

 and some hay. My sheep get them in the same 

 way (once a day this winter,) with pea or oat straw 

 only, until March, when I begin to give thein hay. 



3d. The young stock, one and two-year olds, get 

 turnips once a day, sliced as above, and straw until 

 near spring, when they get hay ; and they are in 

 good growing condition — many farmers would say 

 fat — all through the season. 



I have raised mangel wurzel for my milch cows, 

 .•is the turnips give tlie butter a strong flavor, espe- 

 cially during the first half of the winter, after 

 which I have found them less objectionable on this 

 account. A bushel a day between three cows has 

 been my allowance. If you want good beef, shut 

 up a lean ox, give him three bushels a day of tur- 

 nips and a little hay or cut oat sti-aw for ten weeks, 

 and then, for the last fortni/^ht of his life, a gallon 

 of barley or corn meal a day, sprinkled over his 

 turnips, and if there is any disposition about him 

 to fatten you will get as tender and juicy meat as 

 any one can desire. joun mackeloan, m. d. 



AwMSUr, C. IK, 1859. 



CUTTING GRASS BY MACHINERY. 



Editors Genesee Faumek: — In the July number 

 of the Farmer we find a second article from the 

 pen of Mr. Bundt, which rather culls for a reply. 



In the January number of the Farmer for 1858, 

 may be found an article on tlie " Advantages < f 

 Cutting Grass and Grain by Machinery," written 

 by us, and to which the gentleman made such an 

 absurd reply that we thought it unworthy of an 

 answer; and especially after John JonxsTox gave 

 him such a "dab." But as he thinks he has either 

 convinced us of our error or frigliteneil us away, 

 we will write again upon the subject, that our 

 belief is more firmly established than ever of the 

 utility of machinery in the harvest field. 



Mr. BuNDY commences his last article thus: 

 "During the season of 1858, I improved an oppor- 

 tunity, in reply to Mr. Street, of Ohio, and several 

 others in dilierent sections of the country, to show 

 the impropriety of the general introduction of 

 mowing machines in the State of New York, as 

 the means of saving either labor or money to the 

 farmer." Now we would inform the gentleman 

 that he is entirely off the question. We know but 

 little about the *■'■ State of New JorA-," but wrote 

 of the advantages of harvesting iy viachincry, and 

 we challenge the gentleman to prove that this mod- 

 ern method has not great advantages over the 

 scythe, cradle, and hand-rake. We thought upon 

 reading his article in the April number of 1858, 

 that he was entirely ignorant upon the subject, and 

 knew nothing about the mower and horse-rake; 

 and are yet of that opinion, or ho could not advo- 

 cate the old system so strongly. 



Last season we cut a piece of very heavy clover 

 and timothy — at least two tons per acre — at the 

 rate of an acre per hour, and it was no harder for 

 the team than plowing stubble. 



We have just had nine aores cut by a machine 



of the same pattern, (the Buckeye Mower) in nine 

 hours, and cut as well as a man with a scythe could 

 have done it. The first piece we cut with our own 

 team; the last was done by an itinerant mower, 

 who makes it a business to cut grass for others at 

 G2^ cents per acre. The same machines have a 

 reaper attachment, and yesterday two of our neigh- 

 bors cut ten acres of wheat with one of them, 

 better than the best of cradles could have done it. 



The same farmers have about an hundred acres 

 of meadow to mow, and keep six or eight horses 

 on their farms; and any one acquainted with the 

 operations of harvest machinery must see at once 

 that to such farmers it is of the greatest advantage. 



Mr. BuNDY says that in his locality "three aver- 

 age hands will in one day cut down with their 

 scythes, make, get up, and put into the barn, three 

 acres of good grass with much ease." "And in- 

 stances are common where extra driving hands do 

 about double that amount in a single day." Now, 

 if this is true, the grass he calls "good," we would 

 call in Ohio, good for nothing. It must stand so 

 thinly on the ground as not to be worth cutting, 

 and nmst be so dead ripe as to be no better than 

 stici-s for stock, or else he expects it all to spoil in 

 the barn. In a field of what we call "good grass," 

 we will let ofi:' the best Chenango county mower if 

 he will cut with a scythe from an acre to an acre 

 and a half per day. We cut our clover when 

 about half tlie heads are ripe, and our timothy 

 when the blossom is ready to fall ; and if the 

 weather is good it will do to haul in on the follow- 

 ing day. Some of it may do before that time, but 

 we can find better employment for our hands in 

 raking and "cocking up," and never object to one 

 night's exposure in this form. 



If farmer Bitndy was my neighbor, we would 

 ai'gue the subject with much greater freedom ; for 

 he makes such (to me) extravagant assertions that 

 we must conclude we know nothing about Che- 

 nango county meadows. He attempts to ridicule 

 Mr. Nichols, the Michigan " boy," and ourself. 

 This we consider too little to deserve our notice. 

 Let him come out in manly argument, or we shall 

 not answer him, as we are not willing to be sar- 

 castic and impolite to a stranger, or any one else, 

 when we can avoid it; but certainly this cowardly 

 barking is used only because he can say nothing 

 else, and we would, if possible, convince him that 

 reiiKon only, and 7wt blind assertions nor ungentle- 

 manly ridicule, will decide the matter truthfully. 



Wo do not presume to say that every farmer can 

 make a mower pay, but we do claim for it many 

 advantages. W^here clover is very heavy and 

 lodged, it will cut it better than it is possible for a 

 scythe to do it; and every farmer who has ten 

 acres of heavy clover to cut annually, should have 

 one, if he can spare the eapitnl, and can not get it 

 cut by an itinerant mower, llands with a scythe 

 charge seventy cents per acre for mowing — we 

 have to board them : it takes one ten times as long 

 to do it; the hay has to bespread and perhaps 

 turned, for a mower does it better than a pitchfork. 

 There is another important consideration to us; 

 perhaps not to Mr. Buxdy. We consider eight or 

 ten harvest hands, week after week, a great impo- 

 sition on the female part of the household, if by a 

 slight expense it can be avoided. Sometimes it fcema 

 necessary, and then they will do it cheerfully; but 



