THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



Ill 



not have been a peck of seed to the acre; at 

 least the land never produced any to my know- 

 ledge, previous to my liming; nor in fact half 

 a crop of any thing else for me, except briars, 

 broom sedge and. sassafras bushes. And what 

 is quite as much to the purpose, this single 

 crop of seed amply repays me for all the lime, 

 bones, and other manures used in renovating 

 the land. To judge by the general appearance 

 of the crop, probably two-thirds of the seed, 

 or some three to four bushels to the acre, was 

 grown on about eight, of the seventeen acres; 

 it being the first crop of seed, and having one 

 hundred and fifty bushels of lime to the acre, 

 in two applications ; and on this portion of the 

 land, doubling the lime has certainly more than 

 doubled the product in grass and seed; — in 

 fact, of all the crops. And secondly, to the 

 use of this most valuable implement, the mow- 

 ing machine. 



In this crop of seed, and the grass crop, 

 just preceding it, the saving was not less than 

 $50 — I think more, and that it is susceptible 

 of easy demonstration. To have secured the 

 seed crop with the scythe, would have cost me 

 one dollar an acre, besides the cost of hand 

 raking; added to this, is the loss in seed from 

 shattering off, and certainly not less than one 

 peck to the acre, -or four and a quarter bushels; 

 equal to $50 in wages and loss of seed, before 

 leaving the field. Now with the machine, two 

 hands cut the whole in a day and a half, saving 

 the raking entirely, and consequent loss ; doing 

 the work m from one-eighth to one-tenth part 

 of the time, and doing it much more perfectly, 

 and with materially less loss in seed, than was 

 possible with the cradle or scythe, and rake. 



If " Poor Richard " said truly in his Alma- 

 nac, that "a penny saved is two pence clear," 

 my case is nearly made out : but permit me to 

 recur again to the grass crop on the same 

 ground, and including two or three acres more 

 than was cut for seed. This was much heavier 

 by reason of the timothy, and even worse lodg- 

 ed than the seed crop; generally estimated by 

 those who saw it, to yield two and a half tons 

 to the acre, or some forty-five to fifty tons. 

 The whole was cut in about one and three- 

 quarter days — it was cut by horses, raked by 

 horses, and unloaded in the barn by horses, 

 without oppression to man or beast, and with- 

 out costing me a single dime for harvest wa- 

 ges ; in fact, during the whole of the hay har- 

 vest, we were short by one hand of what we 

 often have hired at other times. Nor is this 

 all; but for my machinery, probably half the 

 crop would have been spoiled, or greatly less- 

 ened in value; as owing to the dry weather the 

 crops of grain and grass generally ripened at 



the same time, and the supply of hands was 

 not half equal to the demand. Besides secur- 

 ing our own crops in fine order and in due sea- 

 son, we had leisure to help out a neighbor or 

 two; one of whom remarked, that if I could 

 not cut his grass, or some eight or ten acres of 

 it, he must leave it uncut, as he could not pro- 

 cure hands. 



I am therefore satisfied that in the grass and 

 clover seed crops alone, the past season, the 

 machine has saved me fully half its cost; to 

 say nothing of any gain by its use in the grain 

 crops, or the feeling of independence, and the 

 satisfaction of having the work done at the 

 proper time. 



The two past seasons, we have cut over one 

 hundred and thirty acres of grass; two crops 

 of wheat, and two of oats; quite sufficient I 

 think to test fairly the merits, and to prove 

 the economy of the mowing machine over the 

 scythe, either on small or large farms. The 

 machine has been carefully used, and has not 

 cost twenty-five cents in repairs, for all this 

 work. It has not been, as I have repeatedly 

 seen Hussey's reaper, forced over stone heaps, 

 pitched into gullies with the knives cutting 

 through banks of earth, and all brought up 

 standing by driving against rocks and stumps ; 

 and to my amazement, when I expected a com- 

 plete wreck, the machines were backed off with 

 as little ceremony as an ox cart, the horses 

 whipped into a trot, and the work resumed, as 

 perfectly as if no impediment had occurred. 



The great difficulty with many who are dis- 

 posed to use machines, is as to the best selec- 

 tion, when so many new inventions and alleged 

 improvements are being made. Without in- 

 tending to detract from the merits of any, I 

 will remark, that I visited the Crystal Palace 

 at New York, last fall, mainly with the view 

 to examine the many reaping and mowing ma- 

 chines on exhibition. The result of my obser- 

 vation was, for strength, durability, and effi- 

 ciency as a combined machine, I saw none that 

 was preferred to my own, improved as it now 

 is. The reaper, however, is not considered 

 complete, until hand raking is, superseded by 

 machinery, and delivering at the back or side 

 at pleasure, and without the reel; which is 

 strongly objected to as cumbersome, very liable 

 to get out of order, and shattering much grain 

 when fully ripe. Whoever can effect this at 

 the least cost, and most durability, will be well 

 paid for his ingenuity and skill; as it will pro- 

 bably be the means of introducing ten machines 

 where one is now in use. 



With a scarcity of hands in harvest, it is at 

 times very desirable to deliver the grain at the 

 side ; we now do it very satisfactorily with one 



