68 
'FKe Evolution of Agricultural Implements. 
having to deliver as well as cut the grain, is still an improvable 
machine, while the latter was practically perfected a good many 
years ago. 
Haymaliing-machines. -^The first attempt at mechanical hay- 
making was made by Robert Salmon, who, in 1814, patented a 
hay-tosser which did not differ in essentials from the haymaker 
of the present day. It is only within the last twenty years, how- 
ever, that the hay-fork has been generally abandoned ; but the 
introduction of the mowing-machine has made the tedder a 
necessity, the farmer being ranable to command labour enough 
to follow the mower, and unwilling, if he could get men, to let 
tliem lie idle in the event of his operations being stopped by 
wet weather. 
The valuable constituents of grass consist chiefly of mucilage 
and sugar, which are not only soluble, but liable to ferment in 
the presence of water, and the object of haymaking is to 
retain these substances in the greatest possible integrity by de- 
priving the grass of moisture. This can be effected perfectly 
only by the action of artificial heat, whose use is economically 
impossible in haymaking. The simpler process of sun-drying 
has therefore to be resorted to, and that system of hay tossing 
is the best which most fiicilitatcs the evaporation of water from 
the cut grass. 
The haymaking-machine only simulates the action of a 
hay-fork, but its rapidly revolving teeth throw the swathe 
higher into the air, separate it much more t borough h', and lay 
it much more lightly on the ground than can be done by manual 
labour. Hence its greater efficiency in assisting the process of 
sun-drying, while it is also indirectly valuable by economising 
time and thus lessening the chance of damage from change of 
\veather. The haymaker has suffered no change in principle 
since its earliest introduction. It is only in matters of detail 
that the most eminent makers have effected any substantial 
improvements in this class of implement. 
Horse-rakes . — Just as the mowing-machine postulates the 
haymaker, so the haymaker demands the horse-rake, for manual 
labour would fail tlie farmer if he attempted to follow these 
implements with the hand and drag rake. 
Grant in 181-1, Garrett in 1842, and Ransome in 184J, 
were the earliest patentees and makers of horse-rakes, but, as 
in the case of the tedder, it is only during the last twenty years 
that they have come into general use. There is, however, no 
field implement which has been more improved in construction 
during that time than the horse-rake. 
Formerly only a rude adaptation of the hand-rake to hoi'se 
