Farm Mechanics Part 9

WOOD-SAW FRAMES

There are a number of makes of saw frames for use on farms, some of which are very simple, while others are quite elaborate. Provision usually is made for dropping the end of the stick as it is cut.

Sometimes carriers are provided to elevate the blocks onto a pile.

Extension frames to hold both ends of the stick give more or less trouble, because when the stick to be sawed is crooked, it is almost impossible to prevent binding. If a saw binds in the kerf, very often the uniform set is pinched out of alignment, and there is some danger of buckling the saw, so that for ordinary wood sawing it is better to have the end of the stick project beyond the jig. If the saw is sharp and has the right set and the right motion, it will cut the stick off quickly and run free while the end is dropping to the ground.

The quickest saw frames oscillate, being supported on legs that are hinged to the bottom of the frame. Oscillating frames work easier than sliding frames. Sliding frames are sometimes provided with rollers, but roller frames are not steady enough. For cross sawing lumber V-shaped grooves are best. No matter what the feeding device is, it should always be protected by a hood over the saw. The frame should fall back of its own weight, bringing the hood with it, so that the saw is always covered except when actually engaged with the stick. Saw-mandrels vary in diameter and length, but in construction they are much alike. For wood sawing the shaft should be 1-3/8" or 1-1/2" in diameter. The shaft runs in two babbitted boxes firmly bolted to the saw frame. The frame itself should be well made and well braced.

ROOT PULPER

There are root pulpers with concave knives which slice roots in such a way as to bend the slices and break them into thousands of leafy shreds.

The principle is similar to bending a number of sheets of paper so that each sheet will slide past the next one. Animals do not chew roots when fed in large solid pieces. Cattle choke trying to swallow them whole, but they will munch shredded roots with apparent patience and evident satisfaction. American farmers are shy on roots. They do not raise roots in quant.i.ties because it requires a good deal of hand labor, but roots make a juicy laxative and they are valuable as an appetizer and they carry mineral. Pulped roots are safe to feed and they offer the best mixing medium for crushed grains and other concentrated foods.

FEED CRUSHER

Instead of grinding grain for feeding, we have what is known as a crusher which operates on the roller-mill principle. It breaks the grains into flour by crus.h.i.+ng instead of grinding. It has the advantage of doing good work quickly. Our feed grinding is done in the two-story corncrib and granary. It is one of the odd jobs on the farm that every man likes. The grain is fed automatically into the machine by means of the grain spouts which lead the different kinds of grain down from the overhead bins. The elevator buckets carry the crushed feed back to one of the bins or into the bagger. In either case it is not necessary to do any lifting for the sacks are carried away on a bag truck. We have no use for a scoop shovel except as a sort of big dustpan to use with the barn broom.

STUMP PULLER

Pulling stumps by machinery is a quick operation compared with the old time methods of grubbing, chopping, prying and burning that our forefathers had on their hands. Modern stump pulling machines are small affairs compared with the heavy, clumsy things that were used a few years ago. Some of the new stump pullers are guaranteed to clear an acre a day of ordinary stumpage. This, of course, must be a rough estimate, because stumps, like other things, vary in numbers, size and condition of soundness. Some old stumps may be removed easily while others hang to the ground with wonderful tenacity.

There are two profits to follow the removal of stumps from a partially cleared field. The work already put on the land has in every case cost considerable labor to get the trees and brush out of the way. The land is partially unproductive so long as stumps remain. For this reason, it is impossible to figure on the first cost until the stumps are removed to complete the work and to put the land in condition to raise machine made crops. When the stumps are removed, the value of the land either for selling or for farming purposes is increased at once. Whether sold or farmed, the increasing value is maintained by cropping the land and securing additional revenue.

There are different ways of removing stumps, some of which are easy while others are difficult and expensive. One of the easiest ways is to bore a two-inch auger hole diagonally down into the stump; then fill the auger hole with coal-oil and let it remain for some weeks to soak into the wood. Large stumps may be bored in different directions so the coal-oil will find its way not only through the main part of the stumps but down into the roots. This treatment requires that the stumps should be somewhat dry. A stump that is full of sap has no room for coal-oil, but after the sap partially dries out, then coal oil will fill the pores of the wood. After the stump is thoroughly saturated with coal-oil, it will burn down to the ground, so that the different large roots will be separated. Sometimes the roots will burn below plow depth, but a good heavy pair of horses with a grappling hook will remove the separated roots.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 130.--The Oldest Farm Hoist. The first invention for elevating a heavy object was a tripod made of three poles tied together at the top with thongs of bark or rawhide. When hunters were lucky enough to kill a bear, the tripod elevator was erected over the carca.s.s with the lower ends of the poles spread well apart to lower the apex. The gambrel was inserted under the hamstrings and attached to the top of the tripod. As the skinning of the animal proceeded the feet of the tripod were moved closer together. By the time the head was cut off the carca.s.s would swing clear.]

Dynamite often is used to blow stumps to pieces, and the work is not considered dangerous since the invention of safety devices. In some sections of the country where firewood is valuable, dynamite has the advantage of saving the wood. An expert with dynamite will blow a stump to pieces so thoroughly that the different parts are easily worked into stove lengths. Pitch-pine stumps have a chemical value that was not suspected until some fellows got rich by operating a retort.

FARM ELEVATING MACHINERY

Many handy and a few heavy elevators are being manufactured to replace human muscle. The simple tripod beef gin was familiar to the early settlers and it is still in use. When a heavy animal was killed for butchering, the small ends of three poles were tied together to form a tripod over the carca.s.s. The feet of the tripod were placed wide apart to raise the apex only a few feet above the animal. After the gambrel was inserted and attached the feet of the tripod were moved gradually closer together as the skinning proceeded, thus elevating the carca.s.s to swing clear of the ground.

_Grain Elevators._--As a farm labor-saver, machinery to elevate corn into the two-story corncrib and grain into the upper bins is one of the newer and more important farming inventions. With a modern two-story corncrib having a driveway through the center, a concrete floor and a pit, it is easy to dump a load of grain or ear corn by raising the front end of the wagon box without using a shovel or corn fork. After the load is dumped into the pit a boy can drive a horse around in a circle while the buckets carry the corn or small grain and deliver it by spout into the different corncribs or grain bins. There are several makes of powerful grain elevating machines that will do the work easily and quickly.

The first requisite is a building with storage overhead, and a convenient place to work the machinery. Some of the elevating machines are made portable and some are stationary. Some of the portable machines will work both ways. Usually stationary elevators are placed in vertical position. Some portable elevators may be operated either vertically or on an incline. Such machines are adaptable to different situations, so the corn may be carried up into the top story of a farm grain warehouse or the apparatus may be hauled to the railway station for chuting the grain or ear corn into a car. It depends upon the use to be made of the machinery whether the strictly stationary or portable elevator is required. To unload usually some kind of pit or incline is needed with any kind of an elevator, so the load may be dumped automatically quickly from the wagon box to be distributed by carrying buckets at leisure.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 131.--Portable Grain Elevator Filling a Corncrib.

The same rig is taken to the railway to load box cars. The wagon is unloaded by a lifting jack. It costs from 1c to 1-1/2c per bushel to shovel corn by hand, but the greatest saving is in time.]

Some elevators are arranged to take grain slowly from under the tailboard of a wagon box. The tailrod is removed and the tailboard raised half an inch or an inch, according to the capacity of the machinery. The load pays out through the opening as the front of the wagon is gradually raised, so the last grain will discharge into the pit or elevator hopper of its own weight. Technical building knowledge and skill is required to properly connect the building and elevating machinery so that the two will work smoothly together. There are certain features about the building that must conform to the requirements and peculiarities of the elevating machinery. The grain and ear corn are both carried up to a point from which they will travel by gravity to any part of the building. The building requires great structural strength in some places, but the material may be very light in others. Hence, the necessity of understanding both building and machinery in order to meet all of the necessary technical requirements.

CHAPTER V

WORKING THE SOIL

IMPORTANCE OF PLOWING

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 132.--Heavy Disk Plow. A strong four-horse disk implement for breaking stumpy ground or to tear tough sod into bits before turning under with a moldboard.]

Plowing is a mechanical operation that deals with physics, chemistry, bacteriology and entomology. The soil is the farmer's laboratory; his soil working implements are his mechanical laboratory appliances. A high order of intelligence is required to merge one operation into the next to take full advantage of the a.s.sistance offered by nature. The object of plowing and cultivation is to improve the mechanical condition of the soil, to retain moisture, to kill insects and to provide a suitable home for the different kinds of soil bacteria.

There are aerobic and anaerobic bacteria, also nitrogen-gathering bacteria and nitrifying bacteria which are often loosely referred to as azotobacter species. Few of us are on intimate terms with any of them, but some of us have had formal introductions through experiments and observation.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 133.--Sulky Plow. This is a popular type of riding plow. It is fitted with a rolling coulter.]

THE MECHANICS OF PLOWING

_Walking Plow._--The draft of a walking plow may be increased or diminished by the manner of hitch. It is necessary to find the direct line of draft between the work performed and the propelling force. The clevis in the two-horse doubletree, or the three-horse evener and the adjusting clevis in the end of the plow-beam with the connecting link will permit a limited adjustment. The exact direction that this line takes will prove out in question. The walking plow should not have a tendency to run either in or out, neither too deep nor too shallow. For the proper adjustment as to width and depth of furrow, the plow should follow the line of draft in strict obedience to the pull so that it will keep to the furrow on level ground a distance of several feet without guidance from the handles. In making the adjustment it is first necessary to see that the plow itself is in good working order. All cutting edges such as share, coulter or jointer must be reasonably sharp and the land slip in condition as the makers intended.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 134.--Disk Plow. Less power is required to plow with a disk, but it is a sort of cut and cover process. The disk digs trenches narrow at the bottom. There are ridges between the little trenches that are not worked.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 135.--Three-Horse and Four-Horse Eveners. This kind of evener hitches the horses closer to the load than some others and they are easier to handle than the spread out kinds. The four-horse rig requires the best horses in the middle.]

All plows should have a leather pocket on the side of the beam to carry a file. A 12-inch b.a.s.t.a.r.d file with a good handle is the most satisfactory implement for sharpening the cutting edges of a plow in the fields. A good deal depends on the character of the soil and its condition of dryness, but generally speaking, it pays to do a little filing after plowing a half mile of furrow. If the horses are doing their duty, a little rest at the end of the half mile is well earned.

The plowman can put in the time to advantage with the file and the next half mile will go along merrily in consequence. No farmer would continue to chop wood all day without whetting his axe, but, unfortunately, plowmen often work from morning till night without any attempt to keep the cutting edges of their plows in good working order.

_Riding Plow._--The riding plow in lifting and turning the furrow slice depends a good deal on the wheels. The action of the plow is that of a wedge with the power pus.h.i.+ng the point, the share and the moldboard between the furrow slices and the land side and the furrow bottom. There is the same friction between the moldboard and the furrow slice as in the case of the walking plow, but the wheels are intended to materially reduce the pressure on the furrow bottom and against the land side. Plow wheels are intended to relieve the draft in this respect because wheels roll much easier than the plow bottom can slide with the weight of the work on top. The track made in the bottom of the furrow with the walking plow shows plainly the heavy pressure of the furrow slice on the moldboard by the mark of the slip. To appreciate the weight the slip carries, an interesting experiment may be performed by loading the walking plow with weights sufficient to make the same kind of a mark when the plow is not turning a furrow.

One advantage in riding plows in addition to the relief of such a load is less packing of the furrow bottom. On certain soils when the moisture is just sufficient to make the subsoil sticky, a certain portion of the furrow bottom is cemented by plow pressure so that it becomes impervious to the pa.s.sage of moisture either up or down. The track of a plow wheel is less injurious.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 136.--Three-Section, Spike-Tooth Harrow. The harrow is made straight, but the hitch is placed over to one side to give each tooth a separate line of travel.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 137.--Harrow Sled Long Enough to Hold a Four-Section Harrow.]

Plow wheels should stand at the proper angle to the pressure with especial reference to the work performed. Wheels should be adjusted with an eye single to the conditions existing in the furrow. Some wheel plows apparently are especially built to run light like a wagon above ground regardless of the underground work required of them.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 138.--Corn Cultivator. A one-row, riding-disk cultivator. The ridges are smoothed by the spring sc.r.a.pers to leave an even surface to prevent evaporation.]

Axles should hang at right angles to the line of lift so accurately as to cause the wheels to wear but lightly on the ends of the hubs.

Mistakes in adjustment show in the necessity of keeping a supply of washers on hand to replace the ones that quickly wear thin.

In this respect a good deal depends on the sand-bands at the ends of the hubs. Plow wheels are constantly lifting gritty earth and dropping it on the hubs. There is only one successful way to keep sand out of the journals and that is by having the hubs, or hub ferrules, extend well beyond the bearings. Plow wheel hub extensions should reach two inches beyond the journal both at the large end of the hub and at the nut or linchpin end. Some plow wheels cut so badly that farmers consider oil a damage and they are permitted to run dry. This is not only very wasteful of expensive iron but the wheels soon wabble to such an extent that they no longer guide the plow, in which case the draft may be increased enormously.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 139.--A Combination Riding and Walking Cultivator, showing fenders attached to protect young plants the first time through.

The two bull tongues shown are for use in heavy soils or when deeper digging is necessary.]

_Scotch Plows._--When the long, narrow Scotch sod plows are exhibited at American agricultural fairs they attract a good deal of attention and no small amount of ridicule from American farmers because of the six or seven inch furrows they are intended to turn. In this country we are in too much of a hurry to spend all day plowing three-fourths of an acre of ground. Intensive farming is not so much of an object with us as the quant.i.ty of land put under cultivation.

Those old-fas.h.i.+oned Scotch plows turn a furrow about two-thirds of the way over, laying the sod surface at an angle of about 45 to the bottom of the furrow. The sharp comb cut by the coulter and share stands upright so that a sod field when plowed is marked in sharp ridges six or seven inches apart, according to the width of the furrow. Edges of sod show in the bottoms of the corrugations between these little furrow ridges.