ECONOMY OF MACHINE LABOR. 315 



The uext, open and turn it, if necessary, then rake it 

 and cart it. 



" Now, one man with a machine and horses, in the 

 forenoon, and one horse and rake three hours after 

 dinner, can put five or six acres of grass into the wind- 

 row every day, if he chooses, which is as much as ordi- 

 nary farmers in this vicinity wish to do, as our hay has 

 to be carted from one to two miles, and that takes time. 

 How many men will it take to do the same work? Any 

 one can answer this to his own satisfaction ; and, as 

 labor differs in price in almost every section of the 

 country, the actual cost would vary somewhat. But 

 here it would take from five to ten men to do the same 

 work, varying as the burden of grass does per acre ; for 

 in lodged grass ten would hardly do. 



" Then the advantage of having it done in good 

 weather, and cutting the grass when he chooses, 

 whether in blossom or after it is fully ripe, I think 

 can be safely put down at ten per cent., and some 

 call it as high' as twenty per cent." 



Prom what has already been said, and from the tes- 

 timony of many practical farmers, it appears that the esti- 

 mate which has been made, requiring five men to do the 

 work of one man, machine, and team, or six men, includ- 

 ing the spreading, is a very reasonable one, since, in 

 the cases stated, no allowance is made for the want of 

 endurance of the men at the rate at which they worked 

 in the experiments named. 



Other considerations give further credit to the 

 machine, since the grass was mown better than the 

 average of good mowers, while it is easy to see that it 

 was spread better by the machine, thus making a saving 

 in the quality of the hay cured. 



The cost of a man, machine, and horses, for a day, 

 according to what has been said, would be not far from 



