FARM IMPLEMENTS. 81 



don it. I then commenced with Ketchum's machine, the fifty-one 

 and one-half acres of whose working are contained in the above 

 record, and which I enter for premium. 



The land upon which I used the machine is by no means well 

 adapted to the purpose. It is in many places uneven with hill and 

 valley, and in almost all places rough and stony. The substratum 

 is clay, and the soil is so heavy and springy that it is very diflScult 

 to preserve a smooth surface from the action of frosts and thaws, 

 and from the passage of cattle and wheels upon it. On this account 

 there is hardly a field on the farm possessed of a smooth and even 

 surface. A portion of the grass was cut upon reclaimed meadow, 

 which had not been ploughed since it was laid down for the first 

 time, about five years ago, and which presented a very bad surface 

 of furrows, ditches, holes and hammocks. The grass in some 

 parts of the meadow was heavy, from two to two and a half tons 

 to the acre, with a very thick close bottom. 



In such mowing as this, I have found no great difficulty in using 

 the Ketchum machine. It was seldom clogged, the draught has 

 neverbeen greater than my horses could endure, at an easy pace 

 all day, and it has adapted itself to the uneven surface with perfect 

 success. 1 have had it driven steadily, and at, a rate of speed 

 always within the power of the horses to continue hour after hour. 



The chief difficulty I have met with has been the insufficient 

 strength of the knife-bar. It will be noticed in my record that I 

 have had frequent accidents — to be accounted for mostly by the 

 roughness of the land. But I have found that in heavy grass, 

 which was very firm and ripe, with a thick bottom, and on a rough 

 surface, the fingers are quite liable to be warped and bent, even when 

 they do not encounter stones or other such obstacles. In such 

 grass, and on such a surface, the knife-bar itself was found to have 

 been somewhat bent. The knives worked well, and in spite of de- 

 fects in the bar and fingers, they succeeded always in cutting the 

 grass. I grant that the land upon which I used the machine was 

 a severe trial to it, but I conceive that it is to be made perfect thro' 

 just such trials. 



The breaking of the pin which holds the connecting rod to the 

 knife-bar was a source of considerable annoyance to the driver, and 

 11 



