1831 Gardeners Magazine
THE
GARDENER'S MAGAZINE,
AND REGISTER OF RURAL & DOMESTIC IMPROVEMENT
CONDUCTED
By J. C. LOUDON, F.L.S. H.S. &c.
AUTHOR OF THE ENCYCLOPAEDIAS OF GARDENING AND OF AGRICULTURE, AND EDITOR OF THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF PLANTS
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR
LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, AND GREEN,
PATERNOSTER ROW
1831.
PART III
MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE.
ART. I. General Notices.
MACHINE for cutting Grass on Lawns and Grass-plots.— On looking over the National Repository, London, with a view to such inventions as might be applicable to gardening or agriculture, we were much gratified to see a machine apparently well adapted for mowing lawns. It is not so ouch an original invention, as a new adaptation of one of the most efficient mechanical contrivances employed for shearing cloth. In general bulk and appearance, the machine may be said to resemble a small cast-iron roller ; when examined, and pushed forward, there is " an obvious fitness for its object, a facility of application, a readiness and nicety of adjustment, and a workmanlike accuracy of execution, that must satisfy every mechanist." The machine has been at work, for nearly four months, in the Zoological Society's gardens in the Regent's Park; and the foreman of the gardens there, Mr. Curtis, informed us (Sept.28.) that he is entirely satisfied with it. With two men, one to draw and another to push, it does as much work as six or eight men with scythes and brooms; not only in mowing, but sweeping up the grass, and lifting it into a box ; performing the whole so perfectly, as not to leave a murk of any kind behind. There is not the slightest difficulty in using the machine: all that is requisite is to have the lawn free from stones or other roughnesses, and the grass perfectly dry. The cutters, we were informed, may require sharpening once in two months; and this is done by oiling them, and drawing the machine back-wards, as they then act like scissors, one blade upon another. What is par-ticularly gruff) ing in the use of this machine is, that the grass is required to be perfectly dry ; so that, where it is used (and we are much mistaken if it dots not soon come into use in all Inge gr Is), men can neither be set to work at it very early in the morning nor late in the evening. Evelyn tells us, that, when he visited Paris in the end of the seventeenth century, all the short grass was cut in the night-time. This is still the ease, though there is not now so much to cot ; and in many places in Britain, short grass is of necessity cut very early in the morning, before the dew is evaporated. Even if a corresponding period of rest be allowed to num thus set to work at unseasonable hours, we still think such a mode of labouring has a tendency to oppression ; and we rejoice to see the means by which gar-deners may in future be emancipated from it. The nearer that all labours are brought to a level, in point of severity as well as skill, the better, for various reasons; and the progress of improvement has decidedly this tend-ency. We rejoice in this machine for another reason, which is, that it will greatly facilitate the keeping, and, in consequence, multiply the number, of grass lawns in warm countries; such, for example, as the continents or Europe and America.
The machine is manufactured by J. Ferrabee, Phoenix Foundery, near Stroud, Gloucestershire; the price is from seven to ten guineas ; and orders are received in London by Messrs. Lewis and Davis, 10. Basinghall Street. We sincerely hope that every gardener whose employer can afford it will procure a machine, and give it a trial, even during the present season. We have little doubt that it will soon be so modified as to be worked by ponies, donkeys, or by small steam-engines; but whether it be or not, it promises, in our opinion, to be one of the greatest boons that science has conferred on the working gardener in our time. We wish we could see as simple, efficient, and cheap machines for cutting grass to be made into hay, and for reaping corn crops. We shall figure the machine for mowing lawns in our next Number.