LIVING THE DREAM FOR A DOLLAR AN ACRE
(Page 2 of 9)
On flat and level ground, the mower proved to cut short
grass well in both the mulch and bag modes, and the powered
wheels and electric start reduced the effort needed to a
minimum, though turning the wide, heavy deck was difficult
in close quarters. Fresh grass cuttings mat down into an
impenetrable sheet-mulch that deters weeds and attracts
fishing worms to the surface all summer. It then
biodegrades into soil nutrients over winter.
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This type of mower is as safe and quiet as man can make it.
With a wire-bale deadman ignition switch, automatic blade
clutch, and key-start on the handle, an operator never has
the opportunity to get a hand near the revolving blades. A
heavy rubber skirt at the rear of the housing keeps feet
from sliding under. The muffler on the efficient,
clean-burning, four-cycle engine is remarkably effective;
the engine purrs.
A broad, four-point stance and high rear wheels let the
mower sail on flat lawns and it navigates fairly well over
the many bumps, ruts, pits, and ditches that kids, pets,
livestock, tractor, cordwood truck, and garden equipment
excavate in any proper country backyard. Cutting short
grass was fine, but in the bagging mode, the discharge
opening clogged up in half high, wet grass, threatening to
choke the engine down. Cutting six-inch-high grass in
mulching mode, it simply clogged and quit. Fortunately, the
safety features force an operator to stop the engine and
halt the blade before trying to clear the clog, and the
electric key makes a restart so easy that not even the most
resolute King of the Hill should be tempted to try to
defeat the safety features.
In sum, this safest and most advanced of homeowner rotary
mowers is suitable only for flat, level lawns free of rocks
and sticks and kept golf-green-short from first greenup in
spring to hard frost in the fall. Of course, that's what
they are designed for: to manicure nice, big, land-wasting
suburban lawns.
They have little place on a real country homestead; they
certainly provide no function that justifies their cost.
Know anyone who wants an overpriced mower?
A Safe Country-Mowing Machine
A small lawn can be kept in trim most safely and cheaply
with an old-fashioned hand-propelled reel mower. Being
manufactured again, new versions of the old, prerotary
designs are being sold today by the mail-order garden-tool
merchants and homestead outfitters, and by a few seed
catalogs. Prices range from about $100 — the cost of
a basic rotary — to twice that. On short grass, a
sharp and properly-adjusted reel-mower hums sweetly as it
works. You'll hum sweetly too — but only so long as
the reel is sharp and properly aligned to a well-honed
cutter bar.
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