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

by Herbert A. Shearer

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 quantities 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 crushing 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.

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 carcass 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 carcass would swing clear.