Mowing Machine Ease of Use

MOWING MACHINES.

"Will you oblige me by giving your opinion on Lawn Mowing Machines? What size do you prefer? Can one man actually use a 16-inch one? Are they apt to go wrong? and could an ordinary unskilled labourer use them?

"I keep one gardener always, but have more work than he can do. I assist him with ordinary labourers, and having about an acre of lawn, it would be a relief if I could cut it by these labourers, instead of employing his more valuable time. I suppose a horse would mark the lawn with his feet. Whose machines do you consider best?-A. P."

[It is very wrong to say that a mowing machine has ever been made that can be worked by one man. There is not a man on earth who will work a mowing machine to earn his salt, over and above the work of a third-rate scytheman. It is hard work to pull the easiest mowing machine, and it requires one man to guide it. Budding's Engine is the best for small lawns, and a handy labourer ought to guide it better than the best gardener in London; but it requires some practice, and first to be shown how to "bite" by some neighbour; also how to lower and rise the cutters, and how to oil the engine-there is no more art in pulling it than there is in dragging a harrow. Besides the superiority of the "cut" by the engine, the work may be done in hot, dry days, or in the afternoon, when no scythe could work. Where there is a stock of plants and a nice flower garden to occupy a moderate gardener's time, it is very extravagant to waste his time in mowing with a machine or scythe. Where "help is allowed" it should be for the mowing and other heavy labour; for mowing with the best machine is hard work, except when the lawn and the grass are as even and fine as a Turkey carpet.]