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appointed at the request of " The State Society for the Promotion 

 of Agriculture," on its offer of a premium of six hundred dollars 

 for the best experiment of a mowing machine, on fifty acres, within 

 the State. It was found impracticable to carry out the design 

 completely, in consequence of the great labor and expense of su- 

 perintending the numerous trials, in various places, that would be 

 requisite to a proper understanding of the merits of the various 

 machines entered for premium. 



The single trial, however, was well conducted, and afforded an 

 interesting and useful spectacle to a large company of visitors, 

 many of whom had never before witnessed the operation of that 

 invention, which is to cause a revolution in the mode of hay gath- 

 ering in all parts of the country, and especially in those States 

 where the fields are extensive, and unobstructed by stones and 

 stumps, and other impediments that would interfere with the wide 

 and rapid sweep of the instrument. 



A report of the trial, by one of the Committee, was published 

 at the time, in one of the county newspapers, the " Dedham Ga- 

 zette," which, being supposed to convey, in brief, the general 

 impressions of the Committee, is inserted, as follows, as a part of 

 this report. 



THE MOWING EXHIBITION. 



The first public trial, or contest, for the premium offered by the 

 Massachusetts Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, for the 

 best experiment in mowing wdth machines worked by horse or ox 

 power, was held at Dedham on Tuesday last. A very respecta- 

 ble concourse of people assembled to witness it, but not half as 

 large as the rarity of the exhibition and the importance and value 

 of the invention warranted. Something of this deficiency was 

 owing probably to want of information. A few small circulars 

 had been distributed among distinguished farmers, which amount- 

 ed to almost nothing, as public notice, and the advertisements and 

 communications in the county papers, so far as a considerable por- 

 tion of the inhabitants were concerned, might have as well been 

 printed in Kamschatka. Some gentlemen from Worcester and 

 Essex, interested in agricultural pursuits, were present, and con- 

 tributed much to the interest of the occasion. The following are 

 the entries for the premium of the Massachusetts Society : 



