Farm Tools And Machines
Categories: MISCELLANEOUSThe drudgery of farm life is being lessened from year to year by the
invention or improvement of farm tools and machines. Perhaps some of you
know how tiresome was the old up-and-down churn dasher that has now
generally given place to the "quick-coming" churns. The toothed,
horse-drawn cultivator has nearly displaced "the man with the hoe,"
while the scythe, slow and back-breaking, is everywhere getting out of
the way
sweat-drawing grain-cradle is slinking into the backwoods, and in its
place we have the horse-drawn or steam-drawn harvester that cuts and
binds the grain, and even threshes and measures it at one operation.
Instead of the plowman's wearily making one furrow at a time, the
gang-plows of the plains cut many furrows at one time, and instead of
walking the plowman rides. The shredder and husker turns the hitherto
useless cornstalk into food, and at the same time husks, or shucks, the
corn.
The farmer of the future must know three things well: first, what
machines he can profitably use; second, how to manage these machines;
third, how to care for these machines.
The machinery that makes farming so much more economical and that makes
the farmer's life so much easier and more comfortable is too complicated
to be put into the hands of bunglers who will soon destroy it, and it is
too costly to be left in the fields or under trees to rust and rot.
If it is not convenient for every farmer to have a separate tool-house,
he should at least set apart a room in his barn, or a shed for storing
his tools and machines. As soon as a plow, harrow, cultivator--indeed
any tool or machine--has finished its share of work for the season, it
should receive whatever attention it needs to prevent rusting, and
should be carefully housed.
Such care, which is neither costly nor burdensome, will add many years
to the life of a machine.
More
-
A Lesson Of To-day
The current season is quite commonly characterized as the coldest, the hottest, the wettest, or the dryest, that was ever known. Men undoubtingly assert that they never knew a Summer so hot, or a Winter so cold, when in fact several such have occu... About Tree-planting
I have had so little experience in Tree-Planting that I should have preferred to say no more about it; but letters that have reached me imply that the ignorance of others is even denser than mine. For the sake of those only who are conscious that ... Accounts In Farming
Farmers, it is urged, sometimes fail; and this is unfortunately true of them, as of all others. Some fail in integrity; others in sobriety; many in capacity; most in diligence; but not a few in method or system. Quite a number fail because they un... Agricultural Exhibitions
I must have attended not less than fifty State or County Fairs for the exhibition (mainly) of Agricultural Machines and Products. From all these, I should have learned something, and presume I did; but I cannot now say what. Hence, I conclude that... Alkalis Salt Ashes Lime
I do not know a rood of our country's surface so rich in all the materials which enter into the production of the Grains, Grasses, Fruits, and Vegetables, which are the objects and rewards of cultivation, that it could not be improved by the appli... Barley
Barley is one of the oldest crops known to man. The old historian Pliny says that barley was the first food of mankind. Modern man however prefers wheat and corn and potatoes to barley, and as a food this ancient crop is in America turned over to th... Bee Culture
Stock-raisers select breeds that are best adapted to their needs. Plant-growers exercise great care in their choice of plants, selecting for each planting those best suited to the conditions under which they are to be grown. Undoubtedly a larger yie... Birds
What do birds do in the world? is an important question for us to think about. First, we must gain by observation and by personal acquaintance with the living birds a knowledge of their work and their way of doing it. In getting this knowledge, let ... Bones Phosphates Guano
I hate to check improvement or chill the glow of Faith; yet I do so keenly apprehend that many of our people, especially among the Southern cotton-growers, are squandering money on Commercial Fertilizers, that I am bound to utter my note of warnin... Buckwheat
Buckwheat shares with rye and cowpeas the power to make a fairly good crop on poor land. At the same time, of course, a full crop can be expected only from fertile land. The three varieties most grown in America are the common gray, the silver-hu... Budding
If, instead of an apple tree, you were raising a plum or a peach tree, a form of propagation known as _budding_ would be better than grafting. Occasionally budding is also employed for apples, pears, cherries, oranges, and lemons. Budding is done in... Buying A Farm
No one need be told at this day that good land is cheaper than poor--that the former may be bought at less cost than it can be made. Yet this, like most truths, may be given undue emphasis. It should be considered in the light of the less obvious ... Buying A Farm
No one need be told at this day that good land is cheaper than poor--that the former may be bought at less cost than it can be made. Yet this, like most truths, may be given undue emphasis. It should be considered in the light of the less obvious ... Buying A Farm
No one need be told at this day that good land is cheaper than poor--that the former may be bought at less cost than it can be made. Yet this, like most truths, may be given undue emphasis. It should be considered in the light of the less obvious ... Buying A Farm
No one need be told at this day that good land is cheaper than poor--that the former may be bought at less cost than it can be made. Yet this, like most truths, may be given undue emphasis. It should be considered in the light of the less obvious ... Buying A Farm
No one need be told at this day that good land is cheaper than poor--that the former may be bought at less cost than it can be made. Yet this, like most truths, may be given undue emphasis. It should be considered in the light of the less obvious ... Buying A Farm
No one need be told at this day that good land is cheaper than poor--that the former may be bought at less cost than it can be made. Yet this, like most truths, may be given undue emphasis. It should be considered in the light of the less obvious ... Cattle
All farm animals were once called _cattle_; now this term applies only to beef and dairy animals--neat cattle. Our improved breeds are descended from the wild ox of Europe and Asia, and have attained their size and usefulness by care, food, and s... Co-operation In Farming
The word of hope and cheer for Labor in our days is COOPERATION--that is, the combination by many of their means and efforts to achieve results beneficial to them all. It differs radically from Communism, which proposes that each should receive fr... Commercial Fertilizers Gypsum
Prices vary so widely in different localities that no fertilizer can be pronounced everywhere cheapest or best worth buying; and yet I doubt that there is a rood of our country's surface in fit condition to be cultivated to which Gypsum (Plaster o... Corn
When the white man came to this country he found the Indians using corn; for this reason, in addition to its name _maize_, it is called _Indian corn_. Before that time the civilized world did not know that there was such a crop. The increase in the ... Cotton
Although cotton was cultivated on the Eastern continent before America was discovered, this crop owes its present kingly place in the business world to the zeal and intelligence of its American growers. So great an influence does it wield in modern ... Crosses Hybrids And Cross-pollination
In our study of flowers and their pollination we have seen that the seed is usually the descendant of two parents, or at least of two organs--one the ovary, producing the seed; the other the pollen, which is necessary to fertilize the ovary. It h... Draining Generally
Having narrated my own experience in draining with entire unreserve, I here submit the general conclusions to which it has led me: I. While I doubt that there is any land above water that would not be improved by a good system of underdrains, I ... Draining My Own
My farm is in the township of Newcastle, Westchester County, N. Y., 35 miles from our City Hall, and a little eastward of the hamlet known as Chappaqua, called into existence by a station on the Harlem Railroad. It embraces the south-easterly half... Draining The Soil
A wise man was once asked, "What is the most valuable improvement ever made in agriculture?" He answered, "Drainage." Often soils unfit for crop-production because they contain too much water are by drainage rendered the most valuable of farming lan... Esculent Roots Potatoes
In no other form can so large an amount and value of human food be obtained from an acre of ground as in that of edible roots or tubers; and of these the Potato is by far the most acceptable, and in most general use. Our ancestors, it is settled, ... Exchange And Distribution
The machinery whereby the farmer of our day converts into cash or other values that portion of his products which is not consumed in his house or on his farm, seems to me lamentably imperfect. Let me illustrate my meaning: After three all but f... Farm Implements
A good workman, it is said, does not quarrel with his tools--which, if true, I judge is due to the fact that he generally manages to have good ones. To work hard throughout a long day under a burning sun, is sufficiently trying, without rendering ... Farm Poultry
Our geese, ducks, turkeys, and domestic hens are all descendants of wild fowls, and are more or less similar to them in appearance. The earliest recorded uses of fowls were for food, for fighting, and for sacrifice. To-day the domestic fowl has fo... Farm Tools And Machines
The drudgery of farm life is being lessened from year to year by the invention or improvement of farm tools and machines. Perhaps some of you know how tiresome was the old up-and-down churn dasher that has now generally given place to the "quick-com... Farmers' Clubs
Farmers, like other men, divide naturally into two classes--those who do too much work, and those who do too little. I know men who are no farmers at all, only by virtue of the fact that each of them inherited, or somehow acquired, a farm, and hav... Farming On Dry Lands
Almost in the center of the western half of our continent there is a vast area in which very little rain falls. This section includes nearly three hundred million acres of land. It stretches from Canada on the north into Texas on the south, and from... Fences And Fencing
Though I have already indicated, incidentally, my decided objections to our prevalent system of Fencing, I deem the subject of such importance that I choose to discuss it directly. Excessive Fencing is peculiarly an American abuse, which urgently ... Flower Gardening
The comforts and joys of life depend largely upon small things. Of these small things perhaps none holds a position of greater importance in country life than the adornment of the home, indoors and outdoors, with flowers tastefully arranged. Their s... Fruit-trees The Apple
If I were asked to say what single aspect of our economic condition most strikingly and favorably distinguished the people of our Northern States from these of most if not all other countries which I have traversed, I would point at once to the fr... Garden And Field Insects
=The Cabbage Worm.= The cabbage worm of the early spring garden is a familiar object, but you may not know that the innocent-looking little white butterflies hovering about the cabbage patch are laying eggs which are soon to hatch and make the dread... Good And Bad Husbandry
Necessity is the master of us all. A farmer may be as strenuous for deep plowing as I am--may firmly believe that the soil should be thoroughly broken up and pulverized to a depth of fifteen to thirty inches, according to the crop; but, if all the... Good And Bad Husbandry
Necessity is the master of us all. A farmer may be as strenuous for deep plowing as I am--may firmly believe that the soil should be thoroughly broken up and pulverized to a depth of fifteen to thirty inches, according to the crop; but, if all the... Good And Bad Husbandry
Necessity is the master of us all. A farmer may be as strenuous for deep plowing as I am--may firmly believe that the soil should be thoroughly broken up and pulverized to a depth of fifteen to thirty inches, according to the crop; but, if all the... Good And Bad Husbandry
Necessity is the master of us all. A farmer may be as strenuous for deep plowing as I am--may firmly believe that the soil should be thoroughly broken up and pulverized to a depth of fifteen to thirty inches, according to the crop; but, if all the... Good And Bad Husbandry
Necessity is the master of us all. A farmer may be as strenuous for deep plowing as I am--may firmly believe that the soil should be thoroughly broken up and pulverized to a depth of fifteen to thirty inches, according to the crop; but, if all the... Good And Bad Husbandry
Necessity is the master of us all. A farmer may be as strenuous for deep plowing as I am--may firmly believe that the soil should be thoroughly broken up and pulverized to a depth of fifteen to thirty inches, according to the crop; but, if all the... Grafting
By a process known as _grafting_ you can force your tree to produce whatever variety of apple you desire. Many people raise fruit trees directly from seed without grafting. Thus they often produce really worthless trees. By grafting they would make ... Grain-growing East And West
I disclaim all pretensions to ability to teach Western farmers how to grow Indian Corn abundantly and profitably, while I cheerfully admit that they have taught me somewhat thoroughly worth knowing. In my boyhood, I hoed Corn diligently for weeks ... Grasses
Under usual conditions no farmer expects to grow live stock successfully and economically without setting apart a large part of his land for the growth of mowing and pasture crops. Therefore to the grower of stock the management of grass crops is ... Growing Feed Stuffs On The Farm
Economy in raising live stock demands the production of all "roughness" or roughage materials on the farm. By roughness, or roughage, of course you understand that bulky food, like hay, grass, clover, stover, etc., is meant. It is possible to purcha... Growing Timber Tree-planting
In my judgment, the proportion of a small farm that should be constantly devoted to trees (other than fruit) is not less than one-fourth; while, of farms exceeding one hundred acres in area, that proportion should be not less than one-third, and m... Hay And Hay-making
The Grass-crop of this, as of many, if not most, other countries, is undoubtedly the most important of its annual products; requiring by far the largest area of its soil, and furnishing the principal food of its Cattle, and thus contributing essen... Hemp And Flax
In the early ages of the world, mankind is supposed to have worn very little or no clothing. Then leaves and the inner bark of trees were fashioned into a protection from the weather. These flimsy garments were later replaced by skins and furs. As m... Horses
While we have a great many kinds of horses in America, horses are not natives of this country. Just where wild horses were first tamed and used is not certainly known. It is believed that in early ages the horse was a much smaller animal than it now... How A Plant Feeds From The Air
If you partly burn a match you will see that it becomes black. This black substance into which the match changes is called _carbon_. Examine a fresh stick of charcoal, which is, as you no doubt know, burnt wood. You see in the charcoal every fiber t... How Milk Sours
At the left, pure milk; at the right, milk after standing in a warm room for a few hours in a dirty dish, showing, besides the fat-globules, many forms of bacteria] On another page you have been told how the yeast plant grows in cider and causes... How The Plant Feeds From The Soil
Plants receive their nourishment from two sources--from the air and from the soil. The soil food, or mineral food, dissolved in water, must reach the plant through the root-hairs with which all plants are provided in great numbers. Each of these hai... Improving The Soil
We hear a great deal about the exhaustion or wearing out of the soil. Many uncomfortable people are always declaring that our lands will no longer produce profitable crops, and hence that farming will no longer pay. Now it is true, unfortunately,... Insects Birds
If I were to estimate the average absolute loss of the farmers of this country from Insects at $100,000,000 per annum, I should doubtless be far below the mark. The loss of fruit alone by the devastations of insects, within a radius of fifty miles... Insects In General
The farmer who has fought "bugs" on crop after crop needs no argument to convince him that insects are serious enemies to agriculture. Yet even he may be surprised to learn that the damage done by them, as estimated by good authority, amounts to mil... Intellect In Agriculture
If a man whose capital consists of the clothes on his back, $5 in his pocket, and an ax over his right shoulder, undertakes to hew for himself a farm out of the primitive forest, he must of course devote some years to rugged manual labor, or he wi... Irrigation
Irrigation is the name given to the plan of supplying water in large quantities to growing crops. Since the dawn of history this practice has been more or less followed in Asia, in Africa, and in Europe. The Spanish settlers in the southwestern part... Irrigation Means And Ends
While few can have failed to realize the important part played by Water in the economy of vegetation, I judge that the question--"How can I secure to my growing plants a sufficiency of moisture at all times?"--has not always presented itself to th...