Farm Mechanics: Machinery and Its Use to Save Hand Labor on the Farm.

by Herbert A. Shearer

MISCELLANEOUS FARM CONVENIENCES

FARM OFFICE

Figure 170.—Perspective View of Two-Story Corn Crib. The side of the building is cut away to show the elevating machinery.

Business farming requires an office. Business callers feel sensitive about talking farm or live-stock affairs before several members of the family. But they are quite at ease when alone with the farmer in his office. A farm office may be small but it should contain a desk or table, two or three chairs, book shelves for books, drawers for government bulletins and a cabinet to hold glassware and chemicals for making soil tests and a good magnifying glass for examining seeds before planting. A good glass is also valuable in tracing the destructive work of many kinds of insect pests.

Figure 171.—Floor Plans of Two-Story Corn Crib. The first floor shows the driveway with corn cribs at the sides and the second floor plan shows the grain bins over the center driveway, with location of the downspouts, stairway, etc.

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The office is the proper place for making germination tests of various farm seeds. Seventy degrees of heat is necessary for the best results in seed testing. For this reason, as well as for comfort while working, the heating problem should receive its share of attention. Many times it so happens that a farmer has a few minutes just before mealtime that he could devote to office work if the room be warm enough.

Figure 172.—Economy of Round Barn. The diagrams show that the popular 36′ x 80′ cow stable and the commonest size of round barn have about the same capacity. Each barn will stable forty cows, but the round barn has room for a silo in the center. Both barns have feed overhead in the shape of hay and straw, but the round feed room saves steps.

Figure 173.—Concrete Farm Scale Base and Pit.

Neatly printed letter-heads and envelopes are important. The sheets of paper should be eight and a half by eleven inches in size, pure white and of good quality. The printing should be plain black and of round medium-sized letters that may be easily read. Fancy lettering and flourishes are out of place on business stationery.

Figure 174.—Top View of the Hay-Track Roof Extension, showing the ridgeboard and supporting jack-rafters.

Figure 175.—Side view showing plan for building a Hayfork Hood to project from peak of a storage barn. The jack-rafters form a brace to support the end of the hay-track beam.

Figure 176.—Slaughter House. The house should be twelve feet wide. It may be any length to provide storage, but 12 x 12 makes a good beef skinning floor. The windlass shaft should be ten feet above the floor, which requires twelve-foot studding. The wheel is eight feet in diameter and the winding drum is about ten inches. The animal is killed on the incline outside of the building and it lies limp against the revolving door. The door catch is sprung back and the carcass rolls down onto the concrete skinning floor.

Halftone illustration of farm animals or buildings are better used on separate advertising sheets that may be folded in with the letters when wanted.

Figure 177.—Rule of Six, Eight and Ten. Diagram showing how to stake the foundation of a farm building so the excavation can be made clear out to the corners without undermining the stakes.

Figure 178.—Roof Truss built strong enough to support the roof of a farm garage without center posts.

Figure 179.—Design of Roof Truss Intended to Span a Farm Garage.

Figure 180.—Roof Pitches. Mow capacity of the different roof pitches is given above the plates in figures.

Typewriters are so common that a hand-written letter is seldom seen among business correspondence. A busy farmer is not likely to acquire much speed with a typewriter, but his son or daughter may. One great advantage is the making of carbon copies. Every letter received is then filed in a letter case in alphabetical order and a carbon copy of each answer is pinned to it for future reference.

Figure 181.—Double Corn Crib. Two cribs may be roofed this way as cheaply as to roof the two cribs separately. A storeroom is provided overhead and the bracing prevents the cribs from sagging.

The cost of furnishing a farm office will depend upon the inclinations of the man. A cheap kitchen table may be used instead of an expensive mahogany desk. A new typewriter costs from fifty to ninety dollars, but a rebuilt machine that will do good work may be obtained for twenty.

A useful magnifying glass with legs may be bought for a dollar or two. Or considerable money may be invested in a high-powered microscope.

SPEED INDICATOR

The speed requirements of machines are given by the manufacturers. It is up to the farmer to determine the size of pulleys and the speed of intermediate shafts between his engine and the machine to be driven. A speed indicator is held against the end of a shaft at the center. The indicator pin then revolves with the shaft and the number of revolutions per minute are counted by timing the pointer on the dial with the second hand of a watch.

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.

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 analysis. 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 analysis 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.

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.

Figure 185.—Breeding Crate for Hogs. The illustration shows the manner of construction.

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.

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.

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.

Figure 189.—Manure Hook and Potato Diggers.

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.

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 space between the bottom board and next board is two inches. This narrow space prevents hogs from lifting the gate with their noses. The spaces 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.

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.

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.

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

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 butt 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.

Figure 196.—Brick Trowel.

Figure 197.—Plastering Trowel.

Figure 198.—Concrete Hog Wallow, showing drain pipe.

Figure 199.—Concrete Center Alley for Hog House. The upper illustration represents the wooden template used to form the center of the hog house floor.

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 partitions 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 partitions burned out. The sun shines 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 partitions 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 partitions and the front gate. In very cold weather add a thin layer of straw to the gate.

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.

Figure 202.—Husking-Pin. The leather finger ring is looped into the recess in the wooden pin.

Figure 203.—Harness Punch. The hollow punch points are of different sizes.

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.

Figure 205.—Knots. The simple principles of knot tying as practiced on farms are here represented.

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.

Figure 207.—Marline Spike. Used for splicing ropes, tying rose knots, etc.

FRUIT PICKING

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.

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 cushioned 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.

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

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.

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.

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 illustration 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.

Figure 213.—Shears. The first pair is used for sheep shearing. The second is intended for cutting grass 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 sunshine. 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.

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.

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.

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 fashion as fast as the hogs eat it. The floor is made of matched lumber. It should stand on a dry concrete floor.

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.

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 partition. 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.

Figure 219.—Hog Trough. In a winter hog house the feed trough is placed next to the alley or passageway. 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.

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.

Figure 221.—Double Poultry Feeding Trough with Partition in the Center.

Figure 222.—Poultry Feeder with Metal or Crockery Receptacle.

The illustration 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 illustrations 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 shifts 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.

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.

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 passing 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 scraping 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

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 space 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.

Figure 226.—Farm Gate Post with Copper Mail Box.

Figure 227.—Concrete Post Supporting a Water­proof Clothes Line Reel Box.

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 threshing 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.

Figure 229.—Clothes Line Tightener. This device is made of No. 9 wire bent as shown in the illustration.

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.

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.

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.

STABLE HELPS

Figure 233.—Bull Nose-Chain. Cross bulls may be turned out to pasture with some degree of safety by snapping a chain like this into the nose-ring. The chain should be just long enough to swing and wrap around the bull’s front legs when he is running. Also the length is intended to drag the ring where he will step on it with his front feet. There is some danger of pulling the nose ring out.

Figure 234.—Manure Carriers. There are two kinds of manure carriers in general use. The principal difference is the elevator attachment for hoisting when the spreader stands too high for the usual level dump.

Overhead tracks have made feed carriers possible. Litter or feed carriers and manure carriers run on the same kind of a track, the only difference is in size and shape of the car and the manner in which the contents are unloaded. Manure carriers and litter carriers have a continuous track that runs along over the manure gutters and overhead lengthwise of the feed alleys. There are a number of different kinds of carriers manufactured, all of which seem to do good service. The object is to save labor in doing the necessary work about dairy stables. To get the greatest possible profit from cows, it is absolutely necessary that the stable should be kept clean and sanitary, also that the cows shall be properly fed several times a day. Different kinds of feed are given at the different feeding periods. It is impossible to have all the different kinds of food stored in sufficient quantities within easy reach of the cows. Hence, the necessity of installing some mechanical arrangement to fetch and carry. The only floor carrier in use in dairy stables is a truck for silage. Not in every stable is this the case. Sometimes a feed carrier is run directly to the silo. It depends a good deal on the floor what kind of a carrier is best for silage. The advantage of an overhead track is, that it is always free from litter. Where floor trucks are used, it is necessary to keep the floor bare of obstruction. This is not considered a disadvantage because the floor should be kept clean anyway.

Figure 235.—Cow Stanchion. Wooden cow stanchions may be made as comfortable for the cows as the iron ones.

HOUSE PLUMBING

When water is pumped by an engine and stored for use in a tank to be delivered under pressure in the house, then the additional cost of hot and cold water and the necessary sink and bath room fixtures is comparatively small. Modern plumbing fixtures fit so perfectly and go together so easily that the cost of installing house plumbing in the country has been materially reduced, while the dangers from noxious gases have been entirely eliminated. Open ventilator pipes carry the poisonous gases up through the roof of the house to float harmlessly away in the atmosphere. Septic tanks take care of the sewerage better than the sewer systems in some towns. Plumbing fixtures may be cheap or expensive, according to the wishes and pocketbook of the owner. The cheaper grades are just as useful, but there are expensive outfits that are very much more ornamental.

FARM SEPTIC TANK

Figure 236.—Frame for Holding Record Sheets in a Dairy Stable.

Figure 237.—Loading Shute for Hogs. This loading shute is made portable and may be moved like a wheelbarrow.

Supplying water under pressure in the farmhouse demands a septic tank to get rid of the waste. A septic tank is a scientific receptacle to take the poison out of sewerage. It is a simple affair consisting of two underground compartments, made water-tight, with a sewer pipe to lead the waste water from the house into the first compartment and a drain to carry the denatured sewerage away from the second compartment. The first compartment is open to the atmosphere, through a ventilator, but the second compartment is made as nearly air-tight as possible. The scientific working of a septic tank depends upon the destructive work of two kinds of microscopic life known as aerobic and anaerobic forms of bacteria. Sewerage in the first tank is worked over by aerobic bacteria, the kind that require a small amount of oxygen in order to live and carry on their work. The second compartment is inhabited by anaerobic bacteria, or forms of microscopic life that work practically without air. The principles of construction require that a septic tank shall be large enough to contain two days’ supply of sewerage in each compartment; thus, requiring four days for the sewerage to enter and leave the tank.

Figure 238.—Brass Valves. Two kinds of globe valves are used in farm waterworks. The straight valve shown to the left and the right angle valve to the right. Either one may be fitted with a long shank to reach above ground when pipes are laid deep to prevent freezing.

Estimating 75 gallons daily of sewerage for each inhabitant of the house and four persons to a family, the septic tank should be large enough to hold 600 gallons, three hundred gallons in each compartment, which would require a tank about four feet in width and six feet in length and four feet in depth. These figures embrace more cubic feet of tank than necessary to meet the foregoing requirements. It is a good plan to leave a margin of safety.

Figure 239.—Septic Tank, a double antiseptic process for purifying sewerage.

It is usual to lay a vitrified sewer, four inches in diameter, from below the bottom of the cellar to the septic tank, giving it a fall of one-eighth inch in ten feet. The sewer enters the tank at the top of the standing liquid and delivers the fresh sewerage from the house through an elbow and a leg of pipe that reaches to within about six inches of the bottom of the tank. The reason for this is to admit fresh sewerage without disturbing the scum on the surface of the liquid in the tank. The scum is a protection for the bacteria. It helps them to carry on their work of destruction. The same principle applies to the second compartment. The liquid from the first compartment is carried over into the second compartment by means of a bent pipe in the form of a siphon which fills up gradually and empties automatically when the liquid in the first compartment rises to a certain level. The discharging siphon leg should be the shortest. The liquid from the second compartment is discharged into the drain in the same manner. There are special valves made for the final discharge, but they are not necessary. The bottom of the tank is dug deep enough to hold sewerage from two to four feet in depth. The top surface of the liquid in the tank is held down to a level of at least six inches below the bottom of the cellar. So there is no possible chance of the house sewer filling and backing up towards the house. Usually the vitrified sewer pipe is four inches in diameter, the septic tank siphons for a small tank are three inches in diameter and the final discharge pipe is three inches in diameter, with a rapid fall for the first ten feet after leaving the tank.

Septic tanks should be made of concrete, waterproofed on the inside to prevent the possibility of seepage. Septic tank tops are made of reinforced concrete with manhole openings. Also the manhole covers are made of reinforced concrete, either beveled to fit the openings or made considerably larger than the opening, so that they sit down flat on the top surface of the tank. These covers are always deep enough down in the ground so that when covered over the earth holds them in place.

In laying vitrified sewer it is absolutely necessary to calk each joint with okum or lead, or okum reinforced with cement. It is almost impossible to make a joint tight with cement alone, although it can be done by an expert. Each length of the sewer-pipe should be given a uniform grade. The vitrified sewer is trapped outside of the building with an ordinary S-trap ventilated, which leaves the sewer open to the atmosphere and prevents the possibility of back-pressure that might drive the poisonous gases from the decomposing sewerage through the sewer back into the house. In this way, the septic tank is made entirely separate from the house plumbing, except that the two systems are connected at this outside trap.

It is sometimes recommended that the waste water from the second compartment shall be distributed through a series of drains made with three-inch or four-inch drain tile and that the outlet of this set of drains shall empty into or connect with a regularly organized field drainage system. Generally speaking, the final discharge of liquid from a septic tank that is properly constructed is inoffensive and harmless. However, it is better to use every possible precaution to preserve the health of the family, and it is better to dispose of the final waste in such a way as to prevent any farm animal from drinking it.

While manholes are built into septic tanks for the purpose of examination, in practice they are seldom required. If the tanks are properly built and rightly proportioned to the sewerage requirements they will take care of the waste water from the house year after year without attention. Should any accidents occur, they are more likely to be caused by a leakage in the vitrified sewer than from any other cause. Manufacturers of plumbing supplies furnish the siphons together with instructions for placing them properly in the concrete walls. Some firms supply advertising matter from which to work out the actual size and proportions of the different compartments and all connections. The making of a septic tank is simple when the principle is once understood.

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