Farm Mechanics Part 5

The gumming is done with the edge of the file while filing the front edges of the teeth. It is finished with the flat side of the file while filing the rear edges of the teeth. The depth, or length, of the teeth should be kept the same as the manufacturer designed them. A wood saw works best when the front edges of the teeth have but little bevel. The back edges should have more slant. The teeth should have three-cornered or diamond-shaped points. Needle points break off when they come against knots or cross-grained hardwood. Short teeth do no cutting. Single cut flat files are used for circular saws. The file should fit the saw. It should be about 1/8" wider than the length of the front side of the teeth. The back edges require that the file shall have some play to show part of the tooth while the file is in motion. Large files are clumsy.

The file should be carefully selected.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 96.--How to Sharpen a Hoe. Grinding a hoe is difficult, but filing it sharp and straight at the cutting edge is easy.

If the hoe chatters when held in the vise, spring a wooden block under the blade. Use false vise jaws to prevent dinging the shank.]

_How to Sharpen a Hoe._--It is quicker and more satisfactory to file a hoe sharp than to grind it on the grindstone. The shank of the hoe must be held firmly in the vise and there should be a solid block of wood under the blade of the hoe, a little back from the edge; to keep the file from chattering. A single cut flat file is the best to use. It should be long enough to be easily held in one position to make a smooth, even bevel at the same angle to the face of the blade all the way across. To make sure not to file a feather edge it is better to joint the hoe to begin with, then to stop filing just before reaching the edge. If the edge be left 1/64" thick it will wear longer and work more easily after having been used an hour or two than it will if the edge be filed thin. This is especially noticeable when the ground contains small stones. Hoes are sharpened from the under side only. The inside of a hoe blade should be straight clear to the edge. Hoes should always have sharp corners. When working around valuable plants you want to know exactly where the corner of the hoe is when the blade is buried out of sight in the ground.

_Shoeing Farm Horses._--Farmers have no time or inclination to make a business of shoeing horses, but there are occasions when it is necessary to pull a shoe or set a shoe and to do it quickly. Shoeing tools are not numerous or expensive. They consist first of a tool box, with a stiff iron handle made in the shape of a bale. The box contains a shoeing hammer, hoof rasp, hoof knife, or paring-knife, as it is usually called, and two sizes of horseshoe-nails. Sometimes a foot pedestal is used to set the horse's front foot on when the horse wants to bear down too hard, but this pedestal is not necessary in the farm shop.

There are flat-footed horses that cannot work even in summer without shoes. Common sense and shoeing tools are the only requirements necessary to tack on a plate without calks. Shoes to fit any foot may be purchased at so much a pound.

A paring-knife is used to level the bottom of the hoof so that it will have an even bearing on the shoe all the way round. It is not desirable to pare the frog or the braces in the bottom of a horse's foot. If the foot is well cupped, a little of the h.o.r.n.y rim may be taken off near the edges. Generally it is necessary to shorten the toe. This is done partly with the hoof chisel and rasp after the shoe is nailed fast. Sometimes one-fourth of an inch is sufficient; at other times a horse's hoof is very much improved by taking off one-half inch or more of the toe growth either from the bottom or the front or both.

Like all other mechanical work the shoeing of a horse's foot should be studied and planned before starting. A long toe is a bad leverage to overcome when pulling a heavy load. At the same time, nature intended that a horse should have considerable toe length as a protection to the more tender parts of the foot. And the pastern bone should play at the proper angle.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 97.--Tool Box for Field Use. The long open side is for tools. On the other side of the center part.i.tion bolts, keys, screws, nails, bits of wire, leather, tin, etc., are kept in the different divisions.]

_Handy Tool Box._--A tool box with a high lengthwise part.i.tion in the middle and a handle in the middle of the top of the part.i.tion is the handiest tool box ever used on a farm. At haying and harvest time it should be fitted with the common tools required about haying and harvest machinery. One side is part.i.tioned into square boxes to hold split wire keys, washers, bolts, rivets, and a collection of wire nails, bits of copper wire, a leather punch, etc. On the other side of the box is an a.s.sortment of wrenches, cold chisels, punches, pliers and hammers. This tool box belongs in the wagon that accompanies the outfit to the field.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 98.--Melting Ladle. Babbitting shaft boxing requires a melting ladle. It should be about five inches across the bowl and about three inches deep. That is a good size to heat in a forge fire.]

_Babbitting Boxings._--Babbitting boxings is one of the repair jobs on the farm. Some men are careless about oiling; sometimes sand cuts them out. Every year some boxings need rebabbitting. The melting ladle should be large enough to pour the largest box. Usually a 5-inch bowl is about right. A large ladle will pour a small box but a small ladle won't pour a large one. In cold weather the shaft and box should be warmed to insure an even flow of metal. Pasteboard is fitted against the shaft when pouring the cap or top half of the box. Pasteboard is fitted around the shaft at the ends of the box to keep the melted metal from running out. Never use clay or putty, it is too mussy and the babbitt is made rough and uneven at the edges. Some skill is required to fit either wood or metal close enough to prevent leaks and to do a neat job.

If the boxing is small, both top and bottom may be poured at once by making holes through the dividing pasteboard. The holes must be large enough to let the melted metal through and small enough to break apart easily when cold.

CHAPTER III

GENERATING MECHANICAL POWER TO DRIVE MODERN FARM MACHINERY

At one time ninety-seven per cent of the population of the United States got their living directly from tilling the soil, and the power used was oxen and manual labor. At the present time probably not more than thirty-five per cent of our people are actively engaged in agricultural pursuits. And the power problem has been transferred to horses, steam, gasoline, kerosene and water power, with electricity as a power conveyor.

Fifty years ago a farmer was lucky if he owned a single moldboard cast-iron plow that he could follow all day on foot and turn over one, or at most, two acres. The new traction engines are so powerful that it is possible to plow sixty feet in width, and other machines have been invented to follow the tractor throughout the planting and growing seasons to the end of the harvest. The tractor is supplemented by numerous smaller powers. All of which combine to make it possible for one-third of the people to grow enough to feed the whole American family and to export a surplus to Europe.

At the same time, the standard of living is very much higher than it was when practically everyone worked in the fields to grow and to harvest the food necessary to live.

Farm machinery is expensive, but it is more expensive to do without.

Farmers who make the most money are the ones who use the greatest power and the best machinery. Farmers who have a hard time of it are the ones who use the old wheezy hand pump, the eight-foot harrow and the walking plow. The few horses they keep are small and the work worries them. The owner sympathizes with his team and that worries him. Worry is the commonest form of insanity.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 99.--Flail, the oldest thres.h.i.+ng machine, still used for thres.h.i.+ng pedigreed seeds to prevent mixing. The staff is seven or eight feet long and the swiple is about three feet long by two and one-half inches thick in the middle, tapering to one and one-half inches at the ends. The staff and swiple are fastened together by rawhide thongs.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 100.--Bucket Yoke. It fits around the neck and over the shoulders. Such human yokes have been used for ages to carry two buckets of water, milk or other liquids. The buckets or pails should nearly balance each other. They are steadied by hand to prevent slopping.]

At a famous plowing match held at Wheatland, Illinois, two interesting facts were brought out. Boys are not competing for furrow prizes and the walking plow has gone out of fas.h.i.+on. The plowing at the Wheatland plowing match was done by men with riding plows. Only one boy under eighteen years was ready to measure his ability against compet.i.tion. The attendance of farmers and visitors numbered about three thousand, which shows that general interest in the old-fas.h.i.+oned plowing match is as keen as ever. A jumbo tractor on the grounds proved its ability to draw a big crowd and eighteen plows at the same time. It did its work well and without vulgar ostentation. Lack of sufficient land to keep it busy was the tractor's only disappointment, but it reached out a strong right arm and harrowed the furrows down fine, just to show that it "wasn't mad at n.o.body."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 101.--Well Sweep. The length of the sweep is sufficient to lower the bucket into the water and to raise it to the coping at the top of the brickwork. The rock on the short end of the sweep is just heavy enough to balance the bucket full of water.]

Modern farm methods are continually demanding more power. Larger implements are being used and heavier horses are required to pull them.

A great deal of farm work is done by engine power. Farm power is profitable when it is employed to its full capacity in manufacturing high-priced products. It may be profitable also in preventing waste by working up cheap materials into valuable by-products. The modern, well-managed farm is a factory and it should be managed along progressive factory methods. In a good dairy stable hay, straw, grains and other feeds are manufactured into high-priced cream and b.u.t.ter.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 102.--Wire Stretcher. A small block and tackle will stretch a single barb-wire tight enough for a fence. By using two wire s.n.a.t.c.hes the ends of two wires may be strained together for splicing.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 103.--Block and Tackle. The rope is threaded into two double blocks. There is a safety stop that holds the load at any height.]

Farming pays in proportion to the amount of work intelligently applied to this manner of increasing values. It is difficult to make a profit growing and selling grain. Grain may sell for more than the labor and seed, but it takes so much vitality from the land that depreciation of capital often is greater than the margin of apparent profit. When grains are grown and fed to live-stock on the farm, business methods demand better buildings and more power, which means that the farmer is employing auxiliary machinery and other modern methods to enhance values.

In other manufacturing establishments raw material is worked over into commercial products which bring several times the amount of money paid for the raw material.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 104.--Farm Hoists. Two styles of farm elevating hoists are shown in this ill.u.s.tration. Two very different lifting jobs are also shown.]

The principle is the same on the farm except that when a farmer raises the raw material he sells it to himself at a profit. When he feeds it to live-stock and sells the live-stock he makes another profit. When the manure is properly handled and returned to the soil he is making another profit on a by-product.

Farming carried on in this way is a complicated business which requires superior knowledge of business methods and principles. In order to conduct the business of farming profitably the labor problem has to be met. Good farm help is expensive. Poor farm help is more expensive.

While farm machinery also is expensive, it is cheaper than hand labor when the farmer has sufficient work to justify the outlay. It is tiresome to have agricultural writers ding at us about the superior acre returns of German farms. German hand-made returns may be greater per acre, but one American farmhand, by the use of proper machinery, will produce more food than a whole German family.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 105.--Two Powerful Winches. The one to the left is used for pulling small stumps or roots in the process of clearing land.

The rope runs on and off the drum to maintain three or four laps or turns. The winch to the right is used for hoisting well drilling tools or to hang a beef animal. The rope winds on the drum in two layers if necessary.]

DOG CHURN

Even the dog works on some farms. A dog is a nuisance among dairy cattle, but he can be made to earn his salt at churning time. All mechanism in connection with dog power must be light. It also is necessary to eliminate the friction as much as possible.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 106.--Dog Churn Power. A wheel keyed to an iron shaft is placed at an angle as shown. The weight of the dog turns the wheel and power is conveyed to the churn by a light rope belt. It is necessary to confine the dog between stationary part.i.tions built like a stall over the wheel.]

The best way to make a dog power is to use a light wooden sulky wheel for the revolving turn table. Next best to the sulky wheel is a light buggy wheel. The wheel is made fast to an upright iron shaft that is stepped into an iron oil well at the bottom and inclined at an angle of about fifteen degrees to give the necessary power. To steady the top of the shaft a light boxing is used, preferably a ball-bearing bicycle race to reduce friction. Power is conveyed to the churn by means of a grooved pulley on the top of the shaft. A small, soft rope or heavy string belt runs from this pulley to a similar pulley connected with the churn.

Dogs learn to like the work when fed immediately after the churning is finished. Dogs have been known to get on to the power wheel to call attention to their hungry condition. This calls to mind the necessity of arranging a brake to stop the wheel to let the dog off. When the wheel is running light, the dog cannot let go.

A spring brake to wear against the iron tire of the wheel is the most satisfactory. The brake may be tripped and set against the tire automatically by a small lever and weight attached to the underside of the wheel. When the speed is too fast the weight swings out and sets the brake. When the speed slackens the weight drops back towards the center and releases the brake. When the speed is about right the weight swings between the two spring catches.

BULL TREADMILL

On dairy farms it is common to see a valuable pure bred bull working a treadmill for exercise and to pump water. Sometimes he turns the cream-separator, but the motion is too unsteady for good results.

Treadmills for this purpose are very simple. The mechanism turns a grooved pulley which propels a rope power conveyor. The rope belt may be carried across the yards in any direction and to almost any distance.

Bull treadmills consist of a framework of wood which carries an endless ap.r.o.n supported on rollers. The ap.r.o.n link chains pa.s.s around and turn two drumhead sprocket-wheels at the upper end and an idler drum at the lower end. The sprocket-wheel drum shaft is geared to an auxiliary shaft which carries a grooved pulley. A rope belt power conveyor runs in this groove and carries power from the bull pen to the pump.

Bull tread powers usually have smooth inclined lags, because a bull's steps on the tread power are naturally uneven and irregular. This construction gives an even straight tread to the travel surface. To prevent slipping, soft wooden strips are nailed onto the lags at the lower edges. Even incline tread blocks or lags are also recommended for horses that are not shod and for all animals with split hoofs. The traveling ap.r.o.n of the power is placed on an incline and the treads are carried around the two drums at the upper and lower ends of the frame by means of endless chains. There is a governor attachment which regulates the speed and prevents the machinery from "running away."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 107.--Bull Tread Power. Treadmills have gone out of fas.h.i.+on. Too much friction was the cause, but a mill like this is valuable to exercise a pure bred bull. Some dairymen make him pump water.]

The simplest governor is made on the two-ball governor principle with weights on opposite levers. The governor is attached to two opposite spokes in the flywheel. As the speed increases the weights move outward because of their centrifugal force. This motion operates a brake lever to r.e.t.a.r.d or stop the flywheel. When the machine stops an opposite weight rests against the flywheel until it starts in motion again, so the ap.r.o.n cannot be moved until the brake is released. This is necessary to get the animal on or off of the platform while it is at rest to avoid accidents. The usual incline is a rise of two feet in eight when power is wanted. This pitch compels the bull to lift one-quarter of his own weight and it may be too severe for a heavy animal. The endless ap.r.o.n is an endless hill climb to the bull. Treadmills are not economical of power because there are so many bearings to generate friction.