Mowing machine

“ The mowing-machine drive wheel travels around in a circle behind the mule turning the shaft which works the walking-beam and operates the pump. It would be difficult to design another horse or mule power so cheap and simple and effective. The mule grows wise after a while, so it is necessary to use a blindfold, or he will soldier on the job. With a little encouragement from a whip occasionally a mule will walk around and around for hours pulling the mowing-machine wheel after him. ”

“ Dear Sir:—I received your Reaping and Mowing Machine in time for harvest, and used it for harvesting and for mowing. I am fully satisfied that your machines are the best yet offered to the farmers of this State. I have mowed about four hundred acres, a great portion of which was wild prairie, very frequently running against stones and ant heaps with sufficient force to throw both driver and raker off the machine, without injury to the machine. ”

“ The bearings of mowing machines and reapers often suffer excessive wear because the owner neglects to keep them properly oiled. Often a wheat drill, a mowing machine, a threshing machine, or an engine is left out of doors for a whole year, or for several months after the farmer has ceased to use it. A good piece of machinery, if judiciously used, properly lubricated, and put away in a dry place, may last from ten to twenty years, while the life of such machinery will only be about half as long without proper care. ”

“ Careful farmers do not cut down much grass at one time. The tedder scatters two mowing swaths at once. In fact the mowing machine, hay-tedder and horserake should all fit together for team work so they will follow each other without skips or unnecessary laps. The dividing board of the mowing-machine marks a path for one of the horses to follow and it is difficult to keep him out of it. But two horses pulling a hay-tedder will straddle the open strip between the swaths when the tedder is twice the width of the cut. ”

“ Figure 13.—Flop-over hay rake. (Catalog No. 136.)
137. Victor Mowing Machine, 1880. USNM 213356; 1958. A one-horse, front-cut mowing machine similar to the Buckeye mower. The cutter bar can be raised and lowered parallel to the ground for desired cutting heights, and it can be lifted and fastened in an upright position for transport to and from the field. Mowers cut more rapidly and lower than did reapers, and thus they used a different gear ratio; however, farmers sometimes used reapers for mowing. Gift of New York Historical Association, Cooperstown, New York. ”

“ The ordinary mowing machine is one of the most unsatisfactory devices used for harvesting this crop, as the subsequent handling necessary to place the plants in windrows or cocks causes much of the seed to shatter. ”

“ The machine was designed to set out cabbage and tomato plants, but works equally well with trees. It is about the size of an ordinary mowing machine and is operated by three men and two horses. One man drives the team while the other two handle the seedlings. The machine makes a furrow in which the trees are set at any desired distance, and an automatic device indicates where they should be dropped. ”

“ The solitary reaper alone in the great field goes round and round, the red fans striking beside him, alone with the sunlight, and the blue sky, and the distant hills; and he and his reaper are as much of the corn-field as the long-forgotten sickle or the reaping-hook.
The sharp rattle of the mowing-machine disturbs the corncrake in the meadow. Crake! crake! for many a long day since the grass began to grow fast in April till the cowslips flowered, and white parsley flourished like a thicket, blue scabious came up, and yonder the apple trees drop their bloom. ”

“ Is it not enough to drive a saint out of his patience? Of course the larger farmers who can afford it have the resource of the mowing-machine, but there are hundreds and thousands of farms upon which its sharp rattle has not yet been heard. There is still a great divergence of opinion as to its merits, many maintaining that it does not cut so close to the ground, and therefore wastes a large percentage of the crop, and others that the action of the scissor-like knives bruises the grass, and prevents it growing up into a good after-math. ”

“ The field headers are mowing machines that go along in front of the horses instead of behind them, as is usual with mowing machines in the East, and as it cuts the wheat down—it simply cuts off the tops or heads of the wheat, hence the name header—the wheat falls on to a long cloth roller that revolves at right angles to the direction the machine is going. ”

“ In the cutting and handling of hay there has been as great improvement as in any portion of the farm. A first-class mowing machine, new from the shop, can now be bought for $40 or less, and with it the farmer can drive to the field after supper, in the cool of the day, and in an hour cut more grass, and do it better, than a man could with a scythe by working hard all day. ”

“ Instead of the scythe, for instance, the mowing machine is employed for cutting the crop, and with a modern improved machine taking a swathe as wide as 5 or 6 ft. some 10 acres per day can easily be mown by one man and a pair of horses (figs. 1 and 2) . ”

“ After the reaper, the mowing machine came naturally. Following the binder in easy sequences came the corn binder, push binder, header and harvester thresher.
Every variety of haying machine, from side-delivery rake and tedder to sweep rake and loader, came eventually to make hay-making easy. The thresher, ensilage cutter, riding plow, disk harrow, cream separator, manure spreader and seeding machines succeeded in making the raising of the world’s food a profitable occupation ”

“ These devices are like mowing machines in that they have teeth to grip the crop and make it stand straight for the attack of the knife, but the knife doesn't move in a shuttle like that of the mowing machine—it is stationary, so that you have an arrangement that is a combination of mowing machine and road scraper. ”

“ Let us compare this with the plows now in use and be thankful for what we have. Well may it be said by the inspired writer, "ye have sought out many inventions."
We might take most of the minor implements of the farmer, and speak at length of the glorious improvements in farming utensils for the last fifty years. But we will speak of but one more of this class, and that is, the wonderful buggy or mowing machine, sweeping through our meadows, drawn by horses where fathers and sons, fifty years ago, sweat with an iron hook in hand to mow down their fields. ”

“ Each mower brought with him his scythe, an implement of husbandry which in France is in no danger of being classed with agricultural curiosities of the past. Here the reaping and the mowing machine make very little progress in the competition between manual and mechanical labour. In the southern provinces, few owners of the soil have ever seen such contrivances. ”

“ Should plantains prevail, cut them off close to the soil, whenever they appear—I have known a promising court spoilt by an attempt to dig these weeds out, root and all, with the result that when play commenced, the balls shot at obtuse and unexpected angles. The mowing machine and the roller must be kept in constant use, the former should do its work every day if necessary, after the grass has finished growing, during the process once a week will be sufficient—this, perhaps, is more applicable when grass has been sown. ”

“ A practical home-made power to pump water for live-stock. It is used where the water-table is within 20 feet of the surface of the ground. The drawing shows a post in the center which supports the walking-beam and acts as a fulcrum. A mowing-machine wheel is keyed to one end of a round iron shaft. ”

“ Every one is so ignorant of hay making and I cannot tell them with authority because I know nothing myself except what common-sense dictates. The putting up and starting of the mowing machine was very difficult, but now it is working fairly well, and the weather is perfect for the purpose. The stacking I cannot get properly done—they are accustomed to pile straw in heaps and they will only pile the hay instead of making a compact stack. 119
October 11.
Digging potatoes at Cherokee, eight women with hoes; but they make slow progress. ”

“ When noon came George was tired and heated, and he gladly remained in the house after dinner. Here he found his favorite encyclopedia and was soon hunting up the history of the invention of the mower. He was surprised to learn [Pg 118] how short a time it had been in use. From the beginning of history the crooked sickle and the straighter scythe had been almost the only tools used for cutting grass and grain. Not until about the middle of the present century had practical mowing machines come into use. But now, except on very small or rocky farms, the horse mower is an absolute necessity. ”

“ I can state that in cutting wheat, oats and cloverseed—also in mowing my crop of grass—it has fully answered my expectations, doing the work better than I ever had it done by the scythe, and at much less expense. The machine has been tested by cutting some fifty to sixty acres of grass—quite sufficient to prove its complete adaptation to mowing as well as reaping. ”

“ But if the machine cuts all the grass, the poor mowers will have nothing to do.
Not so. They are all busy enough elsewhere. There is plenty of other work to be done, thank God; and wholesomer and easier work than mowing with a burning sun on their backs, drinking gallons of beer, and getting first hot and then cold across the loins, till they lay in a store of lumbago and sciatica, to cripple them in their old age. ”

“ Talking, however, of these implements of lawn-culture reminds one to remark that with some the scythe and roller are almost discarded, at least in summer. Our own lawn is rolled with an iron roller during the winter and early spring; but when mowing begins, we prefer the new lawn-mowing machines. ”

“ This machine requires three attendant wagons and six men, who thus cut down as much wheat as fifteen men can do in the ordinary way, and stack it to boot. These mowing and reaping machines seem especially intended for the extensive level grain fields of Illinois, 194which would look in vain for reapers and mowers with the old sickle and scythe. ”

“ All summer long, tractors pull mowing machines beside the highways, cutting the grass. Brush and small trees must be kept cleared away so that drivers can see ahead. In winter, the motor graders and the snow plows can keep the road clear. But in places where heavy snow piles up into drifts, caterpillar tractors often push special snow plows that eat through the drifts with powerful whirling blades. With one motion these plows dig out the snow and throw it off to one side of the road.
The caterpillar treads work better in snow than wheels with tires. ”

“ The Americans have also their mowing-machines, drawn by two horses, which mow, upon an average, six acres of grass per day. The haymaking machines, as labour-saving instruments, are not uncommon in England.
Machines for preparing corn for market are amongst the most important inventions of modern times. Here, indeed, agriculture assumes many of the external features of a [Pg 135] manufacture. Steam comes prominently into action. In many large farms there is fixed steam-power; and most efficient it is. But the moveable steam-engine comes to the aid of the small farmer ”

“ Evidently the perfect tool for setting a saw has been developed, and nothing could be simpler. That started me to thinking about all the implements that are in use on the farm, and how simple they are when compared with the first inventions. The first mowers were so big and complex and heavy that they foundered scores of horses every spring. A team could hardly pull them across the field, and they made a noise like a boiler factory. The modern mower is so light and simple that one horse can pull it, and it doesn't make any more noise than a sewing machine. ”

“ If you go into the hardware store and find the man who knows all about lawn mowers, he will be only too glad to show you how to run the machine so that it will do its work and last. It is to his interest to have you recommend his machine. Make yourself familiar with a machine in perfect working order. Your ears and your eyes ought to tell you when it is going wrong.
It is, above all, of greatest importance to know how to adjust a lawn mower. A wrench, a screw-driver, and an oil can should be your constant companions. ”

“ The disk type of plow is used in very dry and hard soil and also in very sticky soil. A rolling disk takes the place of the moldboard and share, and in this way friction is reduced very materially, with the result that less tractive effort is required to draw the machine.
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There is scarcely any agricultural operation for which a machine has not been designed. We cannot attempt to describe them all. For tilling the soil there are plows, harrows, drags, and rollers of many different varieties; for seeding and planting there are grain and seed drills, corn planters, potato planters, etc. ”

“ Every year I used to send my lawn mower to a "tinker" who charged me one dollar and twenty-five cents for sharpening it. I learned one day and it made me sad, that a lawn mower properly cared for keeps itself sharp. Any boy who is strong enough to run a lawn mower ought to be smart enough to take care of one. He needs to know how the machine is put together, what parts do the work and where the wear comes on the parts. The directions which come with a good machine are worth reading. The man who sells the mower may not be able to explain any part you don't understand. ”