1756. The scythe (fig. 394.) is a sharp blade of steel attached to the end of a crooked wooden handle. It varies somewhat, both in size and in the angle made by the plate or knife, which is so contrived as to be regulated at the pleasure of the operator; and, in mowing very short thick grass, it is generally placed so that the plane of the blade may be parallel to the plane of the surface to be mown. Fig. 397. is a small hand-scythe, or rather sickle, called in France a volant, and used in that country, in mowing lawns, for the purpose of cutting grass at the roots of trees and bushes, where the common scythe is too cumbersome an instrument.
