Farm Mechanics Part 14

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 182.--Speed Timers. Two styles. The point is held against the center of the shaft to be tested. The number of revolutions per minute is shown in figures on the face of the dial. The indicator is timed to the second hand of a watch.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 183.--Building Bracket. Made of 2 x 4 pieces put together at right angles with diagonal braces. The supporting leg fits between the four diagonal braces.]

SOIL TOOLS

Soil moisture often is the limiting factor in crop raising. Soil moisture may be measured by a.n.a.lysis. The first step is to obtain samples at different depths. This is done accurately and quickly with a good soil auger. Other paraphernalia is required to make a careful a.n.a.lysis of the sample, but a farmer of experience will make a mud ball and form a very good estimate of the amount of water in it.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 184.--Diagram showing how to cut a plank on a band-saw to form a curved rafter. The two pieces of the plank are spiked together as shown in the lower drawing. This makes a curved rafter without waste of material.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 185.--Breeding Crate for Hogs. The ill.u.s.tration shows the manner of construction.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 186.--Soil Auger. Scientific farming demands that soils shall be tested for moisture. A long handled auger is used to bring samples of soil to the surface. The samples are weighed, the water evaporated and the soil reweighed to determine the amount of moisture.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 187.--Post Hole Diggers. Two patterns of the same kind of digger are shown. The first has iron handles, the lower has wooden handles.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 188.--Hoes and Weeders. The hang of a hoe affects its working. The upper hoe shows about the easiest working angle between the blade and the handle. The difference between a hoe and a weeder is that the hoe is intended to strike into the ground to loosen the soil, while the blade of the weeder is intended to work parallel with the surface of the soil to cut young weeds.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 189.--Manure Hook and Potato Diggers.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 190.--Spud. Certain vegetables are grown for crop and for seed. The green plants are thinned with a spud for sale, leaving the best to ripen for seed. It is also used to dig tough weeds, especially those having tap roots.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 191.--(1) Corn Cutting Knife. (2) Asparagus Knife.]

FENCE-MAKING TOOLS

_Sliding Field Gate._--Each farm field should have a gate, not necessarily expensive, but it should be reasonably convenient. Farm field gates should be made sixteen feet long, which will allow for a clear opening about fourteen feet wide. The cheapest way to make a good farm gate is to use a 10-inch board for the bottom, 8-inch for the board next to the bottom and three 6-inch boards above that. The s.p.a.ce between the bottom board and next board is two inches. This narrow s.p.a.ce prevents hogs from lifting the gate with their noses. The s.p.a.ces widen toward the top, so that the gate when finished is five feet high. If colts run the fields then a bar is needed along the top of the gate. Six cross pieces 1 inch by 6 inches are used to hold the gate together.

These cross pieces are bolted through at each intersection. Also a slanting brace is used on the front half of the gate to keep it from racking and this brace is put on with bolts. Two posts are set at each end of the gate. The front posts hold the front end of the gate between them, and the rear posts the same. There is a cross piece which reaches from one of the rear posts to the other to slide the gate and hold it off the ground. A similar cross piece holds the front end of the gate up from the ground. Sometimes a swivel roller is attached to the rear cross piece to roll the gate if it is to be used a good deal. A plain, simple sliding gate is all that is necessary for fields some distance from the barn.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 192.--(1) Plumb-Bob and Plumb-Line. The line is paid out about 6 feet from the spool and given a half hitch. It may then be hung over the wire and the spool will balance the bob. (2) Bipod. The legs of a fence bipod are cut 6 feet long. The bolt is put through 6 inches from the top ends. By the aid of the plummet the upper wire is strung plumb over the barb-wire in the furrow and 4' 6" above grade. The lower parts of the posts are set against the barb-wire and the upper faces of the posts at the top are set even with the upper wire. This plan not only places the posts in line, both at the top and bottom, but it regulates the height.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 193.--Fence Tools. The upper tool is a round steel pin to twist heavy brace wires. The scoop is for working stones out of post-holes. The steel crowbar is for working around the stones to loosen them.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 194.--Fence Pliers. This is a heavy fence tool made to pull fence staples and to stretch, cut and splice wire.]

CORN SHOCK HORSE

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 195.--Corn Horse. When corn is cut by hand there is no better shocking device than the old-style corn horse. It is almost as handy when setting up the corn sheaves from the corn binder.]

A convenient corn shocking horse is made with a pole cut from a straight tree. The pole is about six inches through at the b.u.t.t and tapers to a small end. About twenty feet is a good length. There are two legs which hold the large end of the pole up about 40" from the ground. These legs are well spread apart at the bottom. Two feet back from the legs is a horizontal hole about one and one-quarter inches in diameter to hold the crossbar. This crossbar may be an old broom handle. The pole and the crossbar mark the four divisions of a corn shock. Corn is cut and stood up in each corner, usually nine hills in a corner, giving thirty-six hills to a shock. Corn planted in rows is counted up to make about the same amount of corn to the shock. Of course a heavy or light crop must determine the number of rows or hills. When enough corn is cut for a shock it is tied with two bands, the crossbar is pulled out and the corn horse is dragged along to the next stand.

HUSKING-PIN

Hand huskers for dividing the cornhusks at the tips of the ears are made of wood, bone or steel. Wooden husking-pins are made of ironwood, eucalyptus, second growth hickory, or some other tough hardwood. The pin is about four inches long, five-eighths of an inch thick and it is shaped like a lead-pencil with a rather long point. A recessed girdle is cut around the barrel of the pin and a leather finger ring fits into and around this girdle. Generally the leather ring fits the larger finger to hold the pin in the right position while permitting it to turn to wear the point all around alike. Bone husking-pins are generally flat with a hole through the center to hold the leather finger ring. Steel husking-pins are shaped differently and have teeth to catch and tear the husks apart.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 196.--Brick Trowel.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 197.--Plastering Trowel.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 198.--Concrete Hog Wallow, showing drain pipe.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 199.--Concrete Center Alley for Hog House. The upper ill.u.s.tration represents the wooden template used to form the center of the hog house floor.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 200.--Sanitary Pig-Pen. One of the most satisfactory farrowing houses is constructed of concrete posts 6" square and 6" square mesh hog fencing and straw. The posts are set to make farrowing pens 8' wide and 16' deep from front to back. Woven wire is stretched and fastened to both sides of the posts at the sides and back of each pen. Straw is stuffed in between the two wire nets, thus making part.i.tions of straw 6" thick and 42" high. Fence wire is stretched over the top and straw piled on deep enough to shed rain. The front of the pens face the south and are closed by wooden gates. In the spring the pigs are turned out on pasture, the straw roof is hauled to the fields for manure and the straw part.i.tions burned out. The sun s.h.i.+nes into the skeleton pens all summer so that all mischievous bacteria are killed and the hog-lice are burned or starved. The next fall concrete floors may be laid in the pens, the part.i.tions restuffed with straw and covered with another straw roof. In a colder climate I would cover the whole top with a straw roof. Sufficient ventilation would work through the straw part.i.tions and the front gate. In very cold weather add a thin layer of straw to the gate.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 201.--Concrete Wall Mold. Wooden molds for shaping a concrete wall may be made as shown. If the wall is to be low--2' or less--the mold will stay in place without bolting or wiring the sides together. The form is made level by first leveling the 2" x 6" stringers that support the form.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 202.--Husking-Pin. The leather finger ring is looped into the recess in the wooden pin.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 203.--Harness Punch. The hollow punch points are of different sizes.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 204.--Belt Punch. Two or three sizes should be kept in the tool box. Belt holes should be small to hold the lace tight.

The smooth running of belts depends a good deal on the lacing. Holes punch better against the end of a hickory block or other fine grained hardwood.]

PAINT BRUSHES

Paint brushes may be left in the paint for a year without apparent injury. The paint should be deep enough to nearly bury the bristles.

Pour a little boiled linseed oil over the top to form a skin to keep the air out. It is cheaper to buy a new brush than to clean the paint out of one that has been used.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 205.--Knots. The simple principles of knot tying as practiced on farms are here represented.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 206.--Sheepshank, two half hitches in a rope to take up slack. The rope may be folded upon itself as many times as necessary.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 207.--Marline Spike. Used for splicing ropes, tying rose knots, etc.]

FRUIT PICKING

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 208.--Fruit-Picking Tray. It is used for picking grapes and other fruits. The California lug box has vertical sides and is the same size top and bottom. Otherwise the construction is similar.]

Apples are handled as carefully as eggs by men who understand the business of getting high prices. Picking boxes for apples have bothered orchard men more than any other part of the business. It is so difficult to get help to handle apples without bruising that many inventions have been tried to lessen the damage. In western New York a tray with vertical ends and slanting sides has been adopted by grape growers as the most convenient tray for grapes. Apple growers are adopting the same tray. It is made of three-eighths-inch lumber cut 30 inches long for the sides, using two strips for each side. The bottom is 30 inches long and three-eighths of an inch thick, made in one piece. The ends are seven-eighths of an inch thick cut to a bevel so the top edge of the end piece is fourteen inches long and the bottom edge is ten inches long.

The depth of the end piece is eight inches. Hand cleats are nailed on the outsides of the end pieces so as to project one-half inch above the top. These cleats not only serve to lift and carry the trays, but when they are loaded on a wagon the bottoms fit in between the cleats to hold them from slipping endways. In piling these picking boxes empty, one end is slipped outward over the cleat until the other end drops down.

This permits half nesting when the boxes are piled up for storage or when loaded on wagons to move to the orchard.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 209.--Fruit Thinning Nippers. Three styles of apple-stem cutters are shown. They are also used for picking grapes and other fruits.]

Apples are picked into the trays from the trees. The trays are loaded on to wagons or stone-boats and hauled to the packing shed, where the apples are rolled out gently over the sloping sides of the crates on to the cus.h.i.+oned bottom of the sorting table. Orchard men should have crates enough to keep the pickers busy without emptying until they are hauled to the packing shed. The use of such trays or crates save handling the apples over several times. The less apples are handled the fewer bruises are made.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 210.--Apple Picking Ladder. When apples are picked and placed in bushel trays a ladder on wheels with shelves is convenient for holding the trays.]

In California similar trays are used, but they have straight sides and are called lug boxes. Eastern fruit men prefer the sloping sides because they may be emptied easily, quickly and gently.

FRUIT PICKING LADDERS