Article About Mowing Machines in The Cottage Gardener

COUNTRY GENTLEMAN'S COMPANION.               AUGUST 28th  1855

Page 389              MOWING MACHINES.

The mowing machines have lessened the expense of lawns. Where horse-machines can be used, as at Kew, or on the large expanse of turf at Luton Hoo, the expense must be greatly diminished. Even the small hand-machines, held by one man and drawn by another, are a great saving of labour; and, provided the ground is free from hollows, such small ones can go round and between beds in a way that no scythe can do. For verges, the small machines are also most useful. You get rid of the "dod-doding" of the mowing and the sweeping; the grass is cut and thrown into the box, nearly as fast as two men can walk. It is hard, how- ever, to satisfy people. Numerous inquiries have been put to me,-where they could get "a machine that one man could work?-and if any advertisements representing single-handed machines are to be depended on?" All I can say is, that I should not like to work the smallest I have seen; and the smaller they are, from the thin- ness of the knives, the more liable are they to get out of order. To cut well and regularly, the holder must get into the knack of regulating with a firm wrist, and that will prevent him putting forth great pushing power. I have little faith in any machine that does not require the assistance of a man or a stout boy to draw. When two men work such a band-machine on a lawn, or among beds, great relief is obtained by their changing places. When the grass is dry, and other things favour- able, two men will thus mow more of a lawn than six men with their scythes and brooms; and, on verges, they would do very much more.

A gentleman, some time ago, told me that he thus managed the mowing of his verges cleverly; but there was still a vast amount of annoyance with the clipping and the getting up of the grass on the sides, it got so entangled among the little stones and the worm casts, &c. As I expected, the walk was a regular rounded one; high crown and low ditch-like sides, on which, if two people walked abreast, they would experience something of the high-leg or low-leg sensation the landsman feels when he strides along the deck of a vessel having one of its sides well elevated and the other side touching the waves. The walk was levelled, so as to bring the sides within an inch of the top of the verge. The border- side was also elevated in a similar manner. This per- mitted of the verge being mowed several times, without cutting the sides with the scissors; as when the grass grew two or three inches over the walk, so little was the walk beneath it, as to seem like a mere widening of the verge. This was a gain so far, but not quite sufficient. The length of the grass, when cut, permitted of its being easily gathered up by hand in a basket. Still, a few blades would escape, and there was no getting them out of the shingly gravel, of which the walks were com- posed. To solidify that gravel, it was firmly rolled, watered with thickish clay-water near the sides, rolled again, and daubed over with sharpish sand, and rolled again; and since then there has been no difficulty, except from a number of worm heaps which were stopped first by lime-water, and then by salt thrown along the sides. The sides of the walk thus being very smooth, there is no difficulty in getting up every stray blade of grass, either by means of a hair-broom, or a fine birch-broom that has lain in water twenty-four hours before using, so as to render it pliant and soft. Without such contrivances, a man must, indeed, have

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a huge stock of patience to go on whipping up blade after blade of grass from among loose stones, and pre- serve his equanimity unruffled.

I fear I may have been trespassing in introducing these remarks; but a lady informed me, the other day, that such simple affairs as we were apt to overlook, were of great importance to those proprietors of small places who wished to make the most of them; and I shall easily be forgiven by our friend, Mr. Beaton, when I tell him that this very day I have had a basketful gathered of the seeds of the Berberry, as I can see it will be most useful as an edging in many places, and also for giving a more artistic character to beds, when it shall be deemed advisable to give them elevated and wide evergreen margins. R. FISH.