Farm Mechanics Part 15

Commercial orchards are pruned to keep the bearing fruit spurs as near the ground as possible, so that ladders used at picking time are not so long as they used to be.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 211.--Stepladder and Apple-Picking Bag. This ladder has only three feet, but the bottom of the ladder is made wide to prevent upsetting. This bag is useful when picking scattering apples on the outer or upper branches. Picking bags carelessly used are the cause of many bruised apples.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 212.--Tree Pruners. The best made pruners are the cheapest. This long handled pruner is made of fine tool steel from the cutting parts clear to the outer ends of the wooden handles. A positive stop prevents the handles from coming together. Small one-hand pruning nippers are made for clean cutting. The blades of both pruners should work towards the tree trunk so the hook will mash the bark on the discarded portion of the limb.]

The ill.u.s.tration shows one of the most convenient picking ladders. It is a double ladder with shelves to hold picking trays supported by two wheels and two legs. The wheels which are used to support one side of the frame are usually old buggy wheels. A hind axle together with the wheels works about right. The ladder frame is about eight feet high with ladder steps going up from each side. These steps also form the support for the shelves. Picking trays or boxes are placed on the shelves, so the latter will hold eight or ten bushels of apples, and may be wheeled directly to the packing shed if the distance is not too great.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 213.--Shears. The first pair is used for sheep shearing. The second is intended for cutting gra.s.s around the edges of walks and flower beds.]

Step-ladders from six to ten feet long are more convenient to get up into the middle of the tree than almost any other kind of ladder.

Commercial apple trees have open tops to admit suns.h.i.+ne. For this reason, straight ladders are not much used. It is necessary to have ladders built so they will support themselves. Sometimes only one leg is used in front of a step-ladder and sometimes ladders are wide at the bottom and taper to a point at the top. The kind of ladder to use depends upon the size of the trees and the manner in which they have been pruned. Usually it is better to have several kinds of ladders of different sizes and lengths. Pickers then have no occasion to wait for each other.

FEEDING RACKS

Special racks for the feeding of alfalfa hay to hogs are built with slatted sides hinged at the top so they will swing in when the hogs crowd their noses through to get the hay. This movement drops the hay down within reach. Alfalfa hay is especially valuable as a winter feed for breeding stock. Sows may be wintered on alfalfa with one ear of corn a day and come out in the spring in fit condition to suckle a fine litter of pigs. Alfalfa is a strong protein feed. It furnishes the muscle-forming substances necessary for the young litter by causing a copious flow of milk. One ear of corn a day is sufficient to keep the sow in good condition without laying on too much fat. When shoats are fed in the winter for fattening, alfalfa hay helps them to grow. In connection with grain it increases the weight rapidly without adding a great deal of expense to the ration. Alfalfa in every instance is intended as a roughage, as an appetizer and as a protein feed. Fat must be added by the use of corn, kaffir corn, Canada peas, barley or other grains. Alfalfa hay is intended to take the place of summer pasture in winter more than as a fattening ration.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 214.--Horse Feeding Rack. This is a barnyard hay feeder for horses and colts. The diagonal boarding braces each corner post and leaves large openings at the sides. Horses shy at small hay holes. The top boards and the top rail are 2 x 4s for strength. The bottom is floored to save the chaff.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 215.--Corner Post Detail of Horse Feeding Rack. A 2 x 6 is spiked into the edge of a 2 x 4, making a corner post 6"

across. The side boarding is cut even with the corner of the post and the open corner is filled with a two-inch quarter-round as shown.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 216.--Automatic Hog Feeder. The little building is 8' x 12' on the ground and it is 10' high to the plates. The crushed grain is shoveled in from behind and it feeds down hopper fas.h.i.+on as fast as the hogs eat it. The floor is made of matched lumber. It should stand on a dry concrete floor.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 217.--Sheep Feeding Rack. The hay bottom and grain trough sides slope together at 45 angles. The boarding is made tight to hold chaff and grain from wasting.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 218.--Rack Base and Sides. The 2 x 4s are halved at the ends and put together at right angles. These frames are placed 3'

apart and covered with matched flooring. Light braces should be nailed across these frames a few inches up from the ground. The 1 x 4 pickets are placed 7" apart in the clear, so the sheep can get their heads through to feed. These picketed frames are bolted to the base and framed around the top. If the rack is more than 9' long there should be a center tie or part.i.tion. Twelve feet is a good length to make the racks.]

SPLIT-LOG ROAD DRAG

The only low cost road grader of value is the split-log road drag. It should be exactly what the name implies. It should be made from a light log about eight inches in diameter split through the middle with a saw.

Plenty of road drags are made of timbers instead of split logs, but the real principle is lost because such drags are too heavy and clumsy.

They cannot be quickly adjusted to the varying road conditions met with while in use.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 219.--Hog Trough. In a winter hog house the feed trough is placed next to the alley or pa.s.sageway. A cement trough is best. A drop gate is hinged over the trough so it can be swung in while putting feed in the trough. The same gate is opened up level to admit hogs to the pen.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 220.--Reinforced Hog Trough. The section of hog trough to the left is reinforced with chicken wire, one-inch mesh. The trough to the right is reinforced with seven 1/4" rods--three in the bottom and two in each side.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 221.--Double Poultry Feeding Trough with Part.i.tion in the Center.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 222.--Poultry Feeder with Metal or Crockery Receptacle.]

The ill.u.s.tration shows the right way of making a road drag, and the manner in which it is drawn along at an angle to the roadway so as to move the earth from the sides towards the center, but ill.u.s.trations are useless for showing how to operate them to do good work. The eccentricities of a split-log road drag may be learned in one lesson by riding it over a mile or two of country road shortly after the frost has left the ground in the spring of the year. It will be noticed that the front half of the road drag presents the flat side of the split log to the work of shaving off the lumps while the other half log levels and smooths and puddles the loosened moist earth by means of the rounded side. Puddling makes earth waterproof. The front, or cutting edge, is faced with steel. The ridges and humps are cut and shoved straight ahead or to one side to fill holes and ruts. This is done by the driver, who s.h.i.+fts his weight from one end to the other, and from front to back of his standing platform to distribute the earth to the best advantage. The rounded side of the rear half log presses the soft earth into place and leaves the surface smooth.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 223.--Split-Log Road Drag. The front edge is shod with a steel plate to do the cutting and the round side of the rear log grinds the loosened earth fine and presses it into the wagon tracks and water holes.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 224.--Heavy Breaking Plow, used for road work and other tough jobs.]

Unfortunately, the habit of using narrow tired wagons on country roads has become almost universal in the United States. To add to their destructive propensities, all wagons in some parts of the country have the same width of tread so that each wheel follows in paths made by other wheels, until they cut ruts of considerable depth. These little narrow ditches hold water so that it cannot run off into the drains at the sides of the roadway. When a rut gets started, each pa.s.sing wheel squeezes out the muddy water, or if the wheel be revolving at a speed faster than a walk it throws the water, and the water carries part of the roadway with it so that small ruts are made large and deep ruts are made deeper. In some limited sections road rules demand that wagons shall have wide tires and have shorter front axles, so that with the wide tires and the uneven treads the wheels act as rollers instead of rut makers. It is difficult to introduce such requirements into every farm section. In the meantime the evils of narrow tires may be overcome to a certain extent by the persistent and proper use of the split-log road drag. These drags are most effectual in the springtime when the frost is coming out of the ground. During the muddy season the roads get worked up into ruts and mire holes, which, if taken in time, may be filled by running lengthwise of the road with the drag when the earth is still soft. When the ground shows dry on top and is still soft and wet underneath is the time the drags do the best work by sc.r.a.ping the drier hummocks into the low places where the earth settles hard as it dries.

A well rounded, smooth road does not get muddy in the summer time.

Summer rains usually come with a dash. Considerable water falls in a short time, and the very act of falling with force first lays the dust, then packs the surface. The smooth packed surface acts like a roof, and almost before the rain stops falling all surface water is drained off to the sides so that an inch down under the surface the roadbed is as hard as it was before the rain. That is the reason why split log road drags used persistently in the spring and occasionally later in the season will preserve good roads all summer. It is very much better to follow each summer rain with the road drag, but it is not so necessary as immediate attention at the proper time in spring. Besides, farmers are so busy during the summer months that they find it difficult to spend the time. In some sections of the middle West one man is hired to do the dragging at so much per trip over the road. He makes his calculations accordingly and is prepared to do the dragging at all seasons when needed. This plan usually works out the best because one man then makes it his business and he gets paid for the amount of work performed. This man should live at the far end of the road division so that he can smooth his own pathway leading to town.

STEEL ROAD DRAG

Manufacturers are making road drags of steel with tempered blades adjustable to any angle by simply moving the lever until the dog engages in the proper notch. Some of these machines are made with blades reversible, so that the other side can be used for cutting when the first edge is worn. For summer use the steel drag works very well, but it lacks the smoothing action of a well balanced log drag.

SEED HOUSE AND BARN TRUCKS

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 225.--Barn Trucks. The platform truck is made to move boxed apples and other fruit. The bag truck is well proportioned and strong, but is not full ironed.]

Bag trucks for handling bags of grain and seeds should be heavy. Bag truck wheels should be eight inches in diameter with a three-inch face.

The steel bar or shoe that lifts and carries the bag should be twenty-two inches in length. That means that the bottom of the truck in front is twenty-two inches wide. The wheels run behind this bar so the hubs do not project to catch against standing bags or door frames. The length of truck handles from the steel lift bar to the top end of the hand crook is four feet, six inches. In buying bag trucks it is better to get the heavy solid kind that will not upset. The light ones are a great nuisance when running them over uneven floors. The wheels are too narrow and too close together and the trucks tip over under slight provocation. Platform trucks for use in moving boxes of apples or crates of potatoes or bags of seed in the seed house or warehouse also should be heavy. The most approved platform truck, the kind that market men use, is made with a frame four feet in length by two feet in width. The frame is made of good solid hardwood put together with mortise and tenon. The cross pieces or stiles are three-quarters of an inch lower than the side pieces or rails, which s.p.a.ce is filled with hardwood flooring boards firmly bolted to the cross pieces so they come up flush with the side timbers. The top of the platform should be sixteen inches up from the floor. There are two standards in front which carry a wooden crossbar over the front end of the truck. This crossbar is used for a handle to push or pull the truck. The height of the handle-bar from the floor is three feet. Rear wheels are five inches in diameter and work on a swivel so they turn in any direction like a castor. The two front wheels carry the main weight. They are twelve inches in diameter with a three-inch face. The wheels are bored to fit a one-inch steel axle and have wide boxings bolted to the main timbers of the truck frame. Like the two-wheel bag truck, the wheels of the platform truck are under the frame so they do not project out in the way, which is a great advantage when the truck is being used in a crowded place.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 226.--Farm Gate Post with Copper Mail Box.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 227.--Concrete Post Supporting a Waterproof Clothes Line Reel Box.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 228.--Dumb Waiter. The cage is poised by a counterweight. It is guided by a rope belt which runs on grooved pulleys at the top and bottom.]

HOME CANNING OUTFIT

There are small canning outfits manufactured and sold for farm use that work on the factory principle. For canning vegetables, the heating is done under pressure because a great deal of heat is necessary to destroy the bacteria that spoil vegetables in the cans. Steam under pressure is a good deal hotter than boiling water. There is considerable work in using a canning outfit, but it gets the canning out of the way quickly.

Extra help may be employed for a few days to do the canning on the same principle that farmers employ extra help at thres.h.i.+ng time and do it all up at once. Of course, fruits and vegetables keep coming along at different times in the summer, but the fall fruit canning may be done at two or three sittings arranged a week or two apart and enough fruit packed away in the cellar to last a big family a whole year. Canning machinery is simple and inexpensive. These outfits may be bought from $10 up. Probably a $20 or $25 canner would be large enough for a large family, or a dozen different families if it could be run on a co-operative plan.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 229.--Clothes Line Tightener. This device is made of No. 9 wire bent as shown in the ill.u.s.tration.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 230.--Goat Stall. Milch goats are milked on a raised platform. Feed is placed in the manger. The opening in the side of the manger is a stanchion to hold them steady.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 231.--Horse Clippers. Hand clippers are shown to the left. The flexible shaft clipper to the right may be turned by hand for clipping a few horses or shearing a few sheep, but for real business it should be driven by an electric motor.]

ELECTRIC TOWEL

The "air towel" is sanitary, as well as an economical method of drying the hands. A foot pedal closes a quick-acting switch, thereby putting into operation a blower that forces air through an electric heating device so arranged as to distribute the warmed air to all parts of the hands at the same time. The supply of hot air continues as long as the foot pedal is depressed. The hands are thoroughly dried in thirty seconds.

STALLS FOR MILCH GOATS

Milch goats are not fastened with stanchions like cows. The front of the manger is boarded tight with the exception of a round hole about two feet high and a slit in the boards reaching from the round opening to within a few inches of the floor. The round hole is made large enough so that the goat puts her head through to reach the feed, and the slit is narrow enough so she cannot back up to pull the feed out into the stall.

This is a device to save fodder.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 232.--Hog Catching Hook. The wooden handle fits loosely into the iron socket. As soon as the hog's hind leg is engaged the wooden handle is removed and the rope held taut.]