24 
BULLETIN 814, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
these factors into account in the tables below. The average yield 
per cutting of all hay as given in these reports was 1-6 tons per acre. 
MOWING. 
Table XXIV gives the average acreage per day cut by 5 and 6 
foot mowers. Only about 1 farmer in 40 reported the use of a 7- 
foot mower, and not one stated he was using an 8- foot machine. 
It will be seen that there are more than three times as many 5- foot 
mowers in use as 6-foot machines. As compared with the 5-foot 
mower, the 6-foot implement increases the efficiency of man and 
horse labor by about 15 per cent, and the 7 and 8 foot sizes would 
result in correspondingly greater increases. However, when mowing 
hay is such a small task, many farmers saying they have never used 
a mowing machine a full day, they evidently consider the invest- 
ment in the larger and more expensive machines inadvisable. The 
smaller sizes are also more satisfactory for mowing weeds at the 
roadside and along fence rows. 
Table XXIV. — Mowing machine. 
Width of 
swath. 
Number 
of reports. 
Acres per day. 
Average. 
Acreage most often 
reported. 
Feet. 
5 
6 
322 
101 
10.4 
11.9 
10 (158 reports). 
/10 (S5 reports). 
\15 (27 reports). 
TEDDING. 
About one-third of the farmers use hay tedders. Those reported 
range from 5 to 12 feet in width, and two horses are used on nearty 
all of them. An average day's work for the 8 and 10 foot widths 
is shown in Table XXV. There were not enough reports on any of 
the other sizes to give reliable averages. As both the 8- and 10-foot 
machines cover on an average a little over 2 acres per day per foot 
of width, the 10-foot tedder covers about 1 acres more per day than 
the 8-foot machine. 
Table XXV. — Tedder (2 horses). 
Width. 
Number 
of reports. 
Acres per day. 
Average. 
Acreage most ofcen 
reported. 
Feet. 
8 
10 
77 
58 
17.0 
20.8 
(15 (20 reports). 
\20 (26 reports). 
/20 (27 reports). 
\25 (13 reports). 
