224 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Mat 



For the New England Farmer. 



■w:ethebei.l's house hoe. 



Mr. Brown : — In compliance with your re- 

 quest, I write you my experience and views in the 

 use of Mr. Lorin Wetherell's Hoeing Ma- 

 chine. I have used one of his machines the past 

 three years, with the greatest profit and satisfac- 



is well to stir the ground with the horse hoe or 

 cultivator, as you would for hoeing with the hand 

 hoe, for the reason that the double plow does not 

 enter the hard soil readily. The rows for this ma- 

 chine should be about three and a half feet apart, 

 and I contend that a man can do better work with 

 this machine in a potato field than he can with a 

 hoe ; and a man and horse, under favorable con- 

 ditions, can hoe eight or ten 

 acres in a day; therefore the 

 machine will pay for itself in 

 two or three days' work, which 

 is more than any other ma- 

 chine that I know of will do. 



The price of this machine is 

 twenty-five dollars. It seems 

 a high cost, but compared with 

 its utility, it is the cheapest 

 machine that I ever bought. 



It is not easily got out of 

 order, as mine has been in use 

 three years, and loaned more 

 or less every year, (and the 

 fii-st year to all my neighbors,) 

 since which the most of them 

 have bought one, and there 

 has been no expense yet, in re- 

 pairs. 



The other pattern is a single 

 mould-board plow and one gear 

 wheel. It hoes one half of a 

 row at a time ; and as I have 

 been informed by those who 

 have used both machines, that 

 the single machine needs no 

 pi'evious preparation of the 

 soil, as the plow is so con- 

 structed that it readily enters 

 ordinary soil, and does its own 

 digging and hoeing at the same 

 time. As it hoes but half a row 

 at a time, it is adapted to rows 

 of any width. 



In the experience of those 

 that have used them both, 

 (which I have not,) the prefer- 

 ence is with the single ma- 

 chine, the cost of which is fif- 

 teen dollars. 



Horace Ware. 

 Marhlehead, April, 1862. 



Remarks. — In a conversa- 

 tion with Mr. Ware upon the 

 use of labor-saving implements 

 upon the farm, he spoke of the 

 horse hoe, of which he has 

 given an account above. We 

 had examined the implement 

 tion of any machine or implement that I ever ^^..^j.^! times, but had never seen it at Avork so 

 used on my tarm. 1 have used mowmg machines ^ i. • • c -^ -^ ht itr . 



the last eight years, and intend to obtain and use : ^' ^o form an opinion of its merits. Mr._ Ware s 



all implements that are profitable in the saving of 

 labor. 



Mr Wetherell, of Worcester, is the inventor 

 and manufacturer of this machine of which he has 

 two patterns. The double machine, as repre- 

 sented in the cut above, has two sets of gear 

 wheels and a double mould-board plow, and does 

 the work on one half of two rows at a time. It 



great experience and skill in his profession ena- 

 bles him to judge accurately of the value of any 

 implement used on the farm. Our impression is 

 that he had, last season, some ten acres in car- 

 rots, as many more in beets, cabbages and other 

 vegetables, and twelve or fifteen in early potatoes! 

 He not only superintends the labor necessary to 



