i 860 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
QQ1 
Who Invented the Mowing Machine ? 
Not the machine as now improved, and sweep¬ 
ing down a whole harvest in a day, but the in¬ 
strument as first devised and patented. If a 
writer in one of our cotemporaries speaks cor¬ 
rectly, the honor belongs to a Mr. Enoch Ambler, 
of the town of Root, Montgomery Co., N. Y. A 
patent was issued to him, Dec. 23d, 1834, for “a 
machine for cutting hay or grain.” We can not 
now go into the particulars of his invention, but 
those who have examined the descriptions of the 
original patent, affirm that it contains the essen¬ 
tial features of all the machines since made. 
The modifications and additions since attached 
by other patentees are certainly of great value, 
but if there is any special honor due to one who 
strikes out an original idea of great practical val¬ 
ue to the public, it surely belongs in this case to 
Mr. Ambler. We understand that he is a plain 
wagon-maker, in moderate circumstances, having 
never received much profit from his invention ; 
that his own patent expired long ago by limita¬ 
tion, and that he derives no benefit from the sale 
of the many machines based on his invention. 
Let him at least have the honor justly due. * 
Improved Hor se Po wer Pitchfork. 
Every man who has pitched a load of hay over 
the “ big beam ” on a hot Summer day will, we 
think, study the accompanying illustrations with 
pleasure. No more tugging to loosen the fork- 
full from the load, no more lifting and straining 
to raise it so as to clear the beam, but simply to 
ride a horse back and forth, and guide the direc¬ 
tion of the great masses of hay which are so 
easily deposited in their place. The wonder is, 
that so desirable an arrangement has not long 
since come into general use ; inventions of the 
kind having been made several years ago. In 
some sections they are already adopted. A 
Pennsylvania farmer said to us last year, “ a 
man is considered behind the times in our sec¬ 
tion who unloads hay with the hand pitchfork.” 
The implement here shown, manufactured by 
Herald & Tompkins, Tompkins Co., N. Y., is the 
simplest we have seen. Fig. 1 shows the con¬ 
struction of the fork. It is made with four, 
heavy, steel tines, the two middle ones sixteen 
inches, and the outer ones fifteen inches long. 
These pass through a hollow cast iron head, h, h, 
and are fastened by nuts screwed upon their up¬ 
per ends. They are made of unequal lengths, to 
Fig. 2. 
enable the operator to work the fork into the hay 
more easily. Two staples, s, s, cast solid 
with the head, receive the hooks by which the 
fork is attached to the hoisting rope. The handle 
a, merely a stout straight stick, is inserted in a 
hollow projection of the head, h,h. It is five feet 
long, only part of it being shown, to save space. 
A light rope is attached to its upper end, by 
which the operator holds the fork in a position 
to retain the hay while being elevated. 
The manner of working is shown at Fig 2. 
The rope g attached to the loaded fork, passes 
through three pullies, viz : b, hung from the second 
or third rafter from the large beam ; c, attached 
to the plate; d, fastened to the foot of the post at 
the side of the doorway. Boards, e, e, e, e, to the 
width of eight feet, standing on the floor and in¬ 
clined against the large beam, /, allow the hay 
to slide up easily by the side of the mow, and 
over the beam. The workman on the load, en¬ 
ters the fork, and depresses the end of the handle, 
and keeps it in this position by the hand-rope, 
k, until the horse has drawn it up over the mow ; 
then by slacking the hand-rope, the hay drops by 
its own weight, and the horse is backed to lower 
the fork for another portion. A load can thus be 
easily taken off in much less time than by hand 
pitching. The price for fork, pullies, ropes, etc., 
complete, we believe is twelve dollars. 
There are several modifications of these horse- 
pitchforks. We saw a very good one on exhi¬ 
bition at the N. Y. State Fair, last Autumn, which 
is made in Pennsylvania, in Bradford county, we 
believe, but we do not recall the manufac¬ 
turer’s name. This has a hinge between the fork 
and handle, which can be thrown out of gear 
with a hand rope when the hay is elevated, mak¬ 
ing it very convenient for use, especially in a 
small space. The one here shown is very good 
for ordinary purposes. Any one of these horse- 
pitchforks will be found a great labor-saving, 
time saving, and expense-saving implement. 
---—n«>Dp~-*-c»- 
Overdoing. 
Some men—young men especially—are proud 
of great feats of strength and endurance. They 
are not satisfied with ordinary labor faithfully 
performed ; they must be doing some wonderful 
thing to excite attention and secure praise. Such 
men may be good enough in their way, but are 
not generally the most useful in society. For all 
ordinary purposes, they are apt to be lazy, and 
vain, and unstable. 
In the playfulness of youth, or the vigor of 
early manhood, it is natural for one to love to 
try his strength or his agility, just for the fun of 
it. Ordinarily, no harm comes from such per¬ 
formances; yet 
we must be al¬ 
lowed to say, be 
careful in your 
gymnast ics. 
Not a few 
young farmers 
and mechanics 
have, by the 
excesses of a 
single day, laid 
the foundations 
of disease or 
infirmity for a 
whole life. In 
the present sea¬ 
son of haying 
and harvesting, 
a word of cau¬ 
tion here may 
be timely. 
Young men, don’t be ambitious to do a great 
day’s work. At all seasons of the year, move 
will be accomplished by doing regularly a fixed 
and moderate amount of work, than by overtax¬ 
ing yourself at any one period. The work will 
be better done, and you will be likely to live 
longer to enjoy its fruits. 
— < .aMi i «- . 
Shall I Buy a Mower ? 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist: 
Would it be true economy for a farmer that cuts 
but twenty or thirty tuns of hay to make an in¬ 
vestment in a mowing machine. The view I 
take is, a machine would save the labor of hand 
mowing. Good mowers being scarce and their 
wages high, I could hire a cheaper set of hands 
to take care of the grass if it was cut with the 
mower. A farmer hires a gang of hands for the 
haying season, who can cut as much grass in 
the morning while the dew is on, as they can 
take care of during the day, and this is all that 
could be done with the mower, for it would not 
do to get down more than can be .attended to. 
If the grass is cut with a machine, the hands 
would be idle for three or four hours in the morn¬ 
ing. Those who hire out for haying will do no 
other work, and if they would, there would not be 
much to do, as all farmers calculate to “ hoe 
out” and do their work all up before haying. If a 
mower were used there would be three or four 
hours in the morning besides every cloudy day 
lost on every man. I do not think there is so 
much in getting down the grass as there is in 
taking care of it after it is down. 
Farmers that depend upon their farming for a 
livelihood must be economical. If a mower will 
pay the interest upon the amount of money in¬ 
vested of course it is the interest of every farmer 
to have one. Mr. Editor I would like to see a 
statement of your views in the American Agri¬ 
culturist in regard to mowingmachines versus the 
scythe. A Young Farmer. 
Remabks. —By the use of the mower, the farm¬ 
er having not more than thirty tuns of hay to cut 
can secure his crop without employing extra 
hands, that is, with the help ordinarily employed 
on a place where that amount is gathered. The 
time saved in mowing can be employed in secur¬ 
ing that previously cut. No spreading is re¬ 
quired after the mower, which also saves time, 
and the hay makes more rapidly than if left part 
of the day in the swath after the scythe. There 
will always be employment enough to keep the 
hired man at work during the two or three hours 
that the farmer is taking his morning ride on the 
mower, with which he cuts easily what he and 
