Mower Review by John Spencer of Bowood

The Gardeners Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette         June 28th 1862           Page 598

Mowing Machines.-I agree with Mr. Sheppard in reference to his opinion of Green's mowing machines.. I bought one in 1860, and it has been out of order two or three times since, giving trouble by delaying work, which was badly done, besides adding to the cost by repairs. It is also harder to work than the one I used until 1860, which I purchased of Ferrabee, of Stroud, in 1833, and which worked without trouble or delay for seven years. I bought Green's machines on the report of the judges of the Royal Horticultural Society, and I think that my experience tends to convince me of the comparative worthlessness of trials for show. Henry Fowler, Woodford. [We must say our experience of Green's machines is the reverse of our correspondent's.]

In reference to a notice in one of your late numbers of awards to lawn mowing machines at the Royal Horticultural Society' gardens, we should wish your readers to know that there were no trials, so far as we are aware, of the various machines exhibited. Our | Shanks' Patent Lawn Mowing Machines were sent on the first day for exhibition only, and we intimated this to the secretary of the implement committee. We also more than once distinctly refused on the first day of the exhibition to allow our machines to be tried there on that occasion. We would just add that your corres- pondent "X" in the agricultural portion of your Paper, under the heading of "Show Implement Trials," has already stated facts bearing on the subject; and we quite coincide in the opinions so well expressed 111 that communication. J. B. Brown & Co. 18, Cannon Street, City, June 18, 1862.-As discussion is going on in your pages relative to the comparative merits of several makers' lawn mowers, it is only fair towards Mr. Shanks' machine to say that I have had one of his 42-inch machines in constant use for 15 years, and that at a trifling cost for repairs it has cut over from 40 to 50 acres of lawn annually in a most satisfactory manner; this will afford evidence of the durability and efficiency of Shanks' first made machines, and should be taken into account in weighing their merits. This year we have a new 42-inch machine by the same maker, which is an improvement as regards managing, cutting, and diminishing the draught, and with some little alteration to the delivery box, seems to comprise all that can be done with these useful machines. John Spencer, Bowood, Wilts, June 24.