MEN AND HORSES. 313 



rate, be seventy-five cents for the half-day. The keep 

 of the horses, at seventy-five cents per day, would be 

 equal to thirty-seven and one-half cents, and, allowing 

 for the use of the machine a dollar a day, which is, per- 

 haps, a fair charge, we have, for the cost of machine 

 labor, one dollar and sixty-two and one-half cents, 

 instead of four dollars and a half, or, adding a dollar 

 more for the interest on cost of horses, and we have 

 two dollars and sixty-two and one-half cents to compare 

 with four dollars and fifty cents, the cost of men. 



In another instance, where a four-feet eight-inch cut- 

 ter-bar was used, instead of five-feet, the horses weighing 

 1,820 pounds, instead of 1,968, the trial was made on 

 a piece similar to the last, 4 rods by 20, having a burden 

 equal to 2,700 pounds of hay to the acre ; the machine 

 made 17 swaths, averaging S-^j^g feet to each, mowing 

 the half-acre in 19 minutes, at a speed, including turn- 

 ings, of 3^^ miles an hour, cutting l,146xffV square 

 feet of grass a minute, including the turnings. A good 

 mower, on the same field, cut a swath 20 rods or 330 

 feet long and 6J feet wide, or 2,145 square feet, in 7J 

 minutes, or 286 square feet in a minute, allowing no 

 time for rest or sharpening the scythe. Here the 

 machine cut 4j§x5- times as much as the man ; or, allow- 

 ing the machine no time for rest or turning, it cut 

 1,270^ square feet a minute, or 4^V times more than 

 the man in the same time. In the first instance, 4-^^V 

 times, with the five-feet cutter-bar. 



Many similar experiments, in different parts of the 

 country, have come within my knowledge, where the 

 results were so nearly alike as to lead to the conclusion 

 that the above is a fair calculation for lots similarly 

 situated. 



" The gain in cutting the grass," says an experienced 

 practical farmer, "must be apparent to all who have 

 27 



