FARM MECHANICS: MACHINERY AND ITS USE TO SAVE HAND LABOR ON THE FARM TEXT

using lime to correct the acidity, but the use of lime requires better plowing and better after cultivation to thoroughly mix the trash with the earth to make soil conditions favorable to the different kinds of soil bacteria. Unless we pay special attention to the humus content of the soil we are likely to use lime to dissolve out plant foods that are not needed by the present crop, and, therefore, cannot be utilized. This is what the old adage means which reads: "Lime enricheth the father but impoverisheth the son." When that was written the world had no proper tillage tools and the importance of humus was not even dreamed of. Not so many years ago farm plows were made of cast iron. Then came the steel moldboard, which was supposed to be the acme of perfection in plow making. Steel would scour and turn the furrow in fluffy soils where cast iron would just root along without turning the ground at all. Later the art of molding steel was studied and perfected until many grades and degrees of hardness were produced and the shape of the moldboard passed through a thousand changes. The idea all the time was to make plows that would not only scour but polish in all kinds of soil. At the same time they must turn under all of the vegetable growth to make humus, to kill weeds and to destroy troublesome insects. Besides these requirements the soil must be pulverized and laid loose to admit both air and moisture. These experiments gradually led up to our present high grade plows of hardened steel and what is known as chilled steel. Besides the hardness there are different shapes designed for different soils so that a plow to work well on one farm may need to be quite different from a plow to do the best work in another neighborhood. The furrow slice sliding over a perfect moldboard leaves the surface of the upturned ground as even as the bottom of the furrow. By using a modern plow carefully selected to fit the soil, gravel, sandy, stony or muck soils, or silt loams that contain silica, lime, iron and aluminum oxide can be worked with the right plow to do the best work possible if we use the necessary care and judgment in making the selection. One object of good plowing is to retain moisture in the soil until the growing crop can make good use of it. The ease with which soils absorb, retain or lose moisture, depends mostly on their texture, humus content, physical condition, and surface slope or artificial drainage. It is to the extent that cultivation can modify these factors that more soil water can be made available to the growing crop. There are loose, open soils through which water percolates as through a sieve, and there are tight, gumbo soils which swell when the surface is moistened and become practically waterproof. Sandy soils take in water more readily than heavier soils, hence less precaution is necessary to prevent run-off. Among the thousands of plows of many different makes there are plenty of good ones. The first consideration in making a selection is a reliable home dealer who has a good business reputation and a thorough knowledge of local soil from a mechanical standpoint. The next consideration is the service the plow will give in proportion to the price. DISK HARROW For preparing land to receive the seed no other implement will equal a double disk. These implements are made in various sizes and weights of frame. For heavy land, where it is necessary to weight the disk down, an extra heavy frame is necessary. It would probably be advisable to get the extra strong frame for any kind of land, because even in light sand there are times when a disk may be used to advantage to kill quackgrass or to chew up sod before plowing. In such cases it is customary to load on a couple of sacks of sand in addition to the weight of the driver. When a disk is carrying 300 or 400 pounds besides its own weight the racking strains which pull from different directions have a tendency to warp or twist a light frame out of shape. To keep a disk cultivator in good working order it is necessary to go over it thoroughly before doing heavy work. Bolts must be kept tight, all braces examined occasionally, and the heavy nuts at the ends of the disk shafts watched. They sometimes loosen and give trouble. The greatest difficulty in running a disk harrow or cultivator is to keep the boxings in good trim. Wooden boxes are provided with the implement. It is a good plan to insist on having a full set of eight extra boxes. These wooden boxes may be made on the farm, but it sometimes is difficult to get the right kind of wood. They should be made of hard maple, bored according to size of shaft, and boiled in a good quality of linseed oil. Iron boxings have never been satisfactory on a disk implement. Wooden ones make enough trouble, but wood has proved better than iron. On most disk cultivators there are oil channels leading to the boxings. These channels are large enough to carry heavy oil. The lighter grades of cylinder oil work the best. It is difficult to cork these oil channels tight enough to keep the sand out. Oil and sand do not work well together in a bearing. The manufacturers of these implements could improve the oiling device by shortening the channel and building a better housing for the oil entrance. It is quite a job to take a disk apart to put in new boxings, but, like all other repair work, the disk should be taken into the shop, thoroughly cleaned, repaired, painted and oiled in the winter time. Some double disk cultivators have tongues and some are made without. Whether the farmer wants a tongue or not depends a good deal on the land. The only advantage is that a tongue will hold the disk from crowding onto the horses when it is running light along the farm lanes or the sides of the fields with the disks set straight. Horses have been ruined by having the sharp disks run against them when going down hill. Such accidents always are avoidable if a man realizes the danger. Unfortunately, farm implements are often used by men who do very little thinking. A spring disk scraper got twisted on a root and was thrown over the top of one of the disks so it scraped against the back of the disk and continued to make a harsh, scraping noise until the proprietor went to see what was wrong. The man driving the disk said he thought something must be the matter with the cultivator, but he couldn't tell for the life of him what it was. When farmers are up against such difficulties it is safer to buy a disk with a tongue. _Harrow Cart._--A small two-wheel cart with a spring seat overshadowed with a big umbrella is sometimes called a "dude sulky." Many sensitive farmers trudge along in the soft ground and dust behind their harrows afraid of such old fogy ridicule. The hardest and most tiresome and disagreeable job at seeding time is following a harrow on foot. Riding a harrow cart in the field is conserving energy that may be applied to better purposes after the day's work in the field is finished. KNIFE-EDGE PULVERIZERS A knife-edge weeder makes the best dust mulch pulverizer for orchard work or when preparing a seed-bed for grain. These implements are sold under different names. It requires a stretch of imagination to attach the word "harrow" to these knife-edge weeders. There is a central bar which is usually a hardwood plank. The knives are bolted to the underside of the plank and sloped backward and outward from the center to the right and left, so that the knife-edges stand at an angle of about 45 deg. to the line of draught. This angle is just about sufficient to let tough weeds slip off the edges instead of dragging along. If the knives are sharp, they will cut tender weeds, but the tough ones must be disposed of to prevent choking. The proper use of the knife-edge weeder prevents weeds from growing, but in farm practice, sometimes rainy weather prevents the use of such a tool until the weeds are well established. As a moisture retainer, these knife-edge weeders are superior to almost any other implement. They are made in widths of from eight to twenty feet. The wide ones are jointed in the middle to fit uneven ground. CLOD CRUSHER The farm land drag, float, or clod crusher is useful under certain conditions on low spots that do not drain properly. Such land must be plowed when the main portion of the field is in proper condition, and the result often is that the low spots are so wet that the ground packs into lumps that an ordinary harrow will not break to pieces. Such lumps roll out between the harrow teeth and remain on top of the ground to interfere with cultivation. The clod crusher then rides over the lumps and grinds them into powder. Unfortunately, clod crushers often are depended on to remedy faulty work on ordinary land that should receive better treatment. Many times the clod crusher is a poor remedy for poor tillage on naturally good land that lacks humus. [Illustration: Figure 140.--Land Float. Clod crushers and land floats belong to the same tribe. Theoretically they are all outlaws, but some practical farmers harbor one or more of them. Wet land, containing considerable clay, sometimes forms into lumps which should be crushed.] As ordinarily made, the land float or clod crusher consists of from five to eight planks, two inches thick and ten or twelve inches wide, spiked together in sawtooth position, the edges of the planks being lapped over each other like clapboards in house siding. The planks are held in place with spikes driven through into the crosspieces. FARM ROLLER Farm rollers are used to firm the soil. Sometimes a seed-bed is worked up so thoroughly that the ground is made too loose so the soil is too open and porous. Seeds to germinate require that the soil grains shall fit up closely against them. Good soil is impregnated with soil moisture, or film moisture as it is often called, because the moisture forms in a film around each little soil grain. In properly prepared soil this film moisture comes in contact with the freshly sown seed. If the temperature is right the seed swells and germination starts. The swelling of the seed brings it in contact with more film moisture attached to other grains of soil so the rootlet grows and pushes out into the soil in search of moisture on its own account. A roller is valuable to press the particles of soil together to bring the freshly sown seeds in direct contact with as many particles of soil as possible. Rolling land is a peculiar operation, the value of which is not always understood. The original idea was to benefit the soil by breaking the lumps. It may be of some benefit on certain soils for this purpose, but the land should always be harrowed after rolling to form a dust mulch to prevent the evaporation of moisture. Land that has been rolled and left overnight shows damp the next morning, which is sufficient proof that moisture is coming to the surface and is being dissipated into the atmosphere. In the so-called humid sections of the country the great problem is to retain moisture. Any farm implement that has a tendency to dissipate soil moisture is a damage to the farmer. Probably nine times out of ten a farm roller is a damage to the crop it is intended to benefit because of the manner in which it is used. It is the abuse, not the proper use of a roller, that injures the crop. [Illustration: Figure 141.--Iron Land Roller Made of Boiler Plate.] [Illustration: Figure 142.--Wooden Land Roller.] CORN-PLANTER Corn-planters are designed to plant two rows at once. The width of rows may be adjusted from about 32 to 44 inches apart. When seed-corn is carefully graded to size the dropping mechanism will feed out the grains of corn regularly with very few skips. This is one reason why most farmers plant corn in drills. There are other cultural reasons which do not properly belong to this mechanical article. Hill dropping is considerably more complicated and difficult. After the feeding mechanism has been adjusted to the size of seed kernels to be planted so it will drop four kernels in a hill then the trip chain is tried out to see if it is right at every joint. Dropping in hills is a very careful mechanical proposition. An inch or two out of line either way means a loss of corn in cultivating. In setting the stakes to go and come by, a careful measurement of the field is necessary in order to get the stake lines on both sides of the field parallel. If the ring stakes are driven accurately on the line, then the first hill of corn must come at the same distance from the line in each row. Likewise in starting back from the far side of the field the first hill should measure exactly the same distance from the stake line as the first hills on the opposite side of the field. This is easily managed by counting the number of trips between the stake line and the first row of corn hills. If the two lines of stakes on the opposite sides of the field are exactly parallel it is not necessary to move either line in order to get the proper distance to start dropping, but it must be adjusted by measurement, otherwise the corn hills will be dodged. If the corn hills are to space three feet apart then the first row of hills should come nine or twelve feet from the stake line. Stakes may be measured and set a certain number of inches from the line to make the distance come right. This careful adjustment brings the hills in line in the rows. When the field is level or gently sloping there is no difficulty in making straight rows so far as check rowing is concerned. When the field is hilly another problem crops up. It is almost impossible to run corn rows along the side of a hill and keep them straight. The planter has a tendency to slide downhill. Also the distance across a field is greater where the rows pass over a hill. To keep the rows straight under such conditions allowance must be made for the stretch over the hill as well as for the side thrust of the planter. Where a chain marker is used it hangs downhill and a further allowance must be made for that. A good driver will skip an inch or so above the mark so that the rows will be planted fairly straight. This means a good deal more in check rowing than when the corn is planted in drills. The greatest objection to hill planting is the crowding of four corn plants into a space that should be occupied by one plant. A great many experiments have been tried to scatter the seeds in the hill, so far without definite results, except when considerable additional expense is incurred. However, a cone suspended below the end of the dropping tube usually will scatter the seeds so that no two seeds will touch each other. They may not drop and scatter four or five inches apart, but these little cones will help a good deal. They must be accurately adjusted so the point of the cone will center in the middle of the vertical delivery tube, and there must be plenty of room all around the cone so the corn seed kernels won't stick. The braces that hold the cones in place for the same reason must be turned edge up and supported in such a way as to leave plenty of clearance. The idea is that four kernels of corn drop together. They strike the cone and are scattered in different directions. They naturally fly to the outsides of the drill mark which scatters them as wide apart as the width of the shoe that opens the drill. The advantage of scattering seed grains in the hill has been shown by accurate experiments conducted at different times by agricultural colleges. GRAIN DRILL To know exactly how much seed the grain drill is using it is necessary to know how many acres are contained in the field. Most drills have an attachment that is supposed to measure how many acres and fractions of acres the drill covers. Farmers know how much grain each sack contains, so they can estimate as they go along, provided the drill register is correct. It is better to provide a check on the drill indicator. Have the field measured, then drive stakes along one side, indicating one acre, five acres and ten acres. When the one-acre stake is reached the operator can estimate very closely whether the drill is using more or less seed than the indicator registers. When the five-acre stake is reached another proof is available, and so on across the field. Next in importance to the proper working of the drill is straight rows. The only way to avoid gaps is to drive straight. The only way to drive straight is to sight over the wheel that follows the last drill mark. Farmers sometimes like to ride on the grain drill, which places the wheel sighting proposition out of the question. A harrow cart may be hitched behind the wheel of the grain drill, but it gives a side draft. The only way to have straight rows and thorough work is to walk behind the end of the drill. This is the proper way to use a drill, anyway, because a tooth may clog up any minute. Unless the operator is walking behind the drill he is not in position to see quickly whether every tooth is working properly or not. It is hard work to follow a drill all day long, but it pays at harvest time. It costs just as much to raise a crop of grain that only covers part of the ground, and it seems too bad to miss the highest possible percentage to save a little hard work at planting time. SPECIAL CROP MACHINERY Special crops require special implements. After they are provided, the equipment must be kept busy in order to make it pay. If a farmer produces five acres of potatoes he needs a potato cutter, a planter, a riding cultivator, a sprayer that works under high pressure, a digger and a sorter. The same outfit will answer for forty acres, which would reduce the per acre cost considerably. No farmer can afford to grow five acres of potatoes without the necessary machinery, because hand labor is out of the question for work of that kind. On the right kind of soil, and within reach of the right market, potatoes are money-makers. But they must be grown every year because the price of potatoes fluctuates more than any other farm crop. Under the right conditions potatoes grown for five years with proper care and good management are sure to make money. One year out of five will break even, two years will make a little money and the other two years will make big money. At the end of five years, with good business management, the potato machinery will be all paid for, and there will be a substantial profit. WHEEL HOE In growing onions and other truck crops, where the rows are too close together for horse cultivation, the wheel hoe is valuable. In fact, it is almost indispensable when such crops are grown extensively. The best wheel hoes have a number of attachments. When the seed-bed has been carefully prepared, and the soil is fine and loose, the wheel hoe may be used as soon as the young plants show above ground. Men who are accustomed to operating a wheel hoe become expert. They can work almost as close to the growing plants with an implement of this kind as they can with an ordinary hand hoe. The wheel hoe, or hand cultivator, works the ground on both sides of the row at once, and it does it quickly, so that very little hand weeding is necessary. CHAPTER VI HANDLING THE HAY CROP REVOLVING HAYRAKE About the first contrivance for raking hay by horse power consisted of a stick eight or ten feet long with double-end teeth running through it, and pointing in two directions. These rakes were improved from time to time, until they reached perfection for this kind of tool. They have since been superseded by spring-tooth horse rakes, except for certain purposes. For pulling field peas, and some kinds of beans, the old style revolving horse rake is still in use. [Illustration: Figure 143.--Grass Hook, for working around borders where the lawn-mower is too clumsy.] [Illustration: Figure 144.--Revolving Hayrake. The center piece is 4" x