Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1872-07-01
2feric,tlfural Department
Id. r, COLLINS, Editor.
MENDING TOOLS.

fingers without any clean cause. we
NAV consider well stocked workshop
an indispensable auxiliary to the farm
a place where we can make money by
keeping it in our pocket, and a fine spot
to while away the idle hours of winter.
Enough time is spent lounging in the
tavern and other public places to make
all the gates, bar-posts, whif1etrees, har-
rows, etc., and to do all the repairing
that is needed on any farm. But the
farmer meets one with the common plea
of no skill-no ingenuity. "Why,' he
saws, II cannot whittle good cedar
peg;' how can you expect me to make
repairs on machines % This would
seem to indicate a total lack of manual
dexterity. Such may not be the case,
however, for perhaps he may be one OF
our successful farmers. Success in farm
ing is always the result of skill, differ
ing from mechanical skill only in the
development. What difference is there
in the skill of swinging an ak and the
skill of handling the tools to make the
helve? To do either we'll we need
correct knowledge of what IS to be done.
The idea is this-a full comprehension
of the requirements of tool or machine
will enable three men out of live to re-
pair that machine. The fact is, we have
so long been accustomed to having our
repairing done by outsiders that we
scarcely know whether we have any in
genuity or not. I have heard men tell
about their inability to make repairs
who never made the first attempt in that
direction, always thinking that ''gump-
ton is gift of nature rather than a
talent to be developed by practice.
To make substantial repairs, we need
a good assortment of tools-not the COM
plete set used by the carpenter and ma
chinist, but moderate selection from
each trade-augers and bits, planes,
saws, square and level, drawing knife,
half dozen chisels, box of rivets,
bolts. washers, screws, and a rivetins
l hammer. cold chisels and drills for the
mowing-machine. Most of these farm
: err needs to start with !; as he becomes
= expert in their use, others adapted t
y special purposes may be added to tn
list. Ten or twelve years of farm llt
= will find him in possession of a wei
Il stocked workshop, ready for any job
= woodwork, and considerable repairin;
- in iron. He will be able to make hi
- new roller or harrow, or put tongue /
= the mower, a new frame in the garde
- drill, and beam in the pillow to wor
- out sleigh rack, wagon box or hay-rac
70 and even to build new porch to h
q house. All the barn doors he will kno
how to make and hang in workman
= like manner, to construct the rack
VI stanchions, feed troughs and grain BIZ
10 in the barn, to make his ladders, tobac'
LIZA boxes and stone boat, and to build {
:" ornamental fence in front of the hous
'i' ANY man, of even ordinary ability, W
-, be surprised, after few years of han
~ ling tools, to find how much he is car
> BILE of doing If he is man in t
80 habit of doing his work we'll, he W
also have the satisfaction of knowi
that he has saved himself a round b
'"' at the village shop one which ma
% farmers often find it very hard to p;
'"' and which is many times unjustly lar
" Now that machinery takes such
III prominent place on the farm, one net
." to make the strength of materials an
:" pecial study, so that he can tell at o
hey whether tool is twice as heavy as
eie need be, or how much strain is on
''n different parts of a machine, or bu
ing, so that he can put it together
,.u stantially. Tempering tools is an
which most men can acquire after
~ tient practice, and once learned, it
save them many odd dimes. We
III grind and shape our old files into G
- chisels or drill, and temper them to
Nr better work than half the tools foun
e hardware stores.
,;blo There are dozens of other ways in WI
farmers may exercise their ingenu
and sharpen up their ideas Of mecl
for ism, without taking away time
vo,r field work in the least. By hand
, tho tools we can get brain exercise, ST
mt thing which many farmers know
tho about. We cannot call man shl
hing VINO goes one OF '"o in'i0S W
Who a new whiffletree made, when he c
lind work it out himself in the time he
going to the shop, to say nothing Of
ing to pay for it besides. Sound
would teach us to do the work at b
~, -Erank Graves IN Country G.
mere "'
GROWTH OF NAME AND Tall
49, the following recipe, which |
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