TIME PER ACRE. 319 



attained, or at least till an approximation is made to 

 thorough tillage. 



The average time required is about forty-five minutes 

 per acre. I have known eight acres, yielding sixteen 

 tons of hay, to be cut in three hours and forty minutes, 

 or at an average rate of twenty-seven minutes per acre. 

 After making all necessary allowance for stoppages to 

 rest the team, and occasionally to repair the machine, 

 we may reasonably estimate the work which could be 

 done, without over-urging, at an acre per hour. 



As to the power required, all the reports concur in 

 saying that there is less labor for the horses than in 

 ploughing. In most cases the horses actually gained in 

 weight while they worked with the machine. This is 

 the testimony, not only of competitors, but also of com- 

 mittees of various agricultural societies. One of these 

 committees says, " The team used may be called a fair 

 average of farm-horses, the pair weighing about two 

 thousand pounds. They required no urging, so far as 

 we could observe, but performed their daily work on 

 the machine with ease, and, could they give an opinion, 

 your committee have no doubt they would consider 

 mowing the most agreeable part of the harvest labor." 



It is also the opinion of most who have used the 

 machine that horses of medium size, say from nine to 

 ten hundred pounds in weight, do their work, on the 

 whole, with greater ease and safety than larger ones. 

 This is especially the case on soft or wet ground. 



Much observation leads to the belief that, at the rate 

 of an acre per hour, including all ordinary stops, a good 

 pair of horses could continue the work so as to cut, 

 without undue exertion, from ten to twelve acres a 

 day. 



Many think it to be far more economical to use oxen 

 than horses on small farms, and hence many farmers 



