To Collect Farm Relics.

F. A. Wirt, who teaches farm mechanics in the Kansas Agricultural College, is planning an interesting collection of machine relics for the college. The first mowing machine in Kansas will soon be on exhibit if his plan works out. He found the sickle bar of this machine reposing in a junk pile near Milford. He is looking for the rest of the machine, and hopes to assemble the different parts. The machine was taken to Kansas in 1850, and was used on the reservation at Fort Riley. It was so heavy that it required six government mules to pull it. The bar weighs 125 pounds and cuts a swath five feet wide. The guards are thirteen in number and are two inches longer than the guards that are used on more modern mowers.

Another interesting relic is the hub of the cart used to haul the logs that were used in building the first Statehouse in Kansas. The hub is twenty-three inches long and eighteen inches in diameter. There are holes for sixteen spokes which were 5 by 11Â½ inches. The wheel was eight feet in diameter and required a tire four inches wide and three-quarters of an inch thick. The logs were suspended under the axle of the cart. The axle had a spindle 7Â¾ by 5 inches.