The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1876-02-24
FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.

100 fNdENlOUS.-lt mar Oitcu Uech
suggested, in the scheme of education for
boys, that they be taught the
use of mechanics tools, and then be fur.
nished with set, 30 that they may in
some degree be Independent of the me-
chanics. They are to have a shop where
they can work in bad weather, making
and repairing the machines and i'm
plements of the farm, thus saving great
deal of time and expenses, etc.
Now you had better have caution in
this, and not make your boys too in
genious. A certain degree of acquaint-
ance with mechanics tools is desirable,
and shop is an indispensable room on
farm, where all the necessary tools hang
in their places, and the various pieces OF
timber and of iron are laid up where they
can be found the moment they are
wanted, and the chips and shavings may
fall and lie till gathered up at a con
venient time. The present use of agri.
cultural machinery requires practical
knowledge of bolts, nuts, screws, etc.,
which was not necessary formerly; but
all this is soon required without the boys,
becoming an expert mechanic. If he has
a decided genius that way, let him be
educated for machinest or engineer;
but if he is to be a farmer, let HE
education be in that direction. There
is wide enough field in the farm work
for the development of all those mental
qualities which are displayed in the con-
struction of machinery, or in higher en-
cheering. Observe the practical
superiority, in the execution of ordinary
farm work, of a workman with an intelli-
gent mind and well educated hand.
Whatever he does, is done better and
quicker than it can be done by an unin-
telligent workman. The farmers son
who has been at school, and who has had
his mind and his hand properly educated
on his fathers farm, shows his skill in
driving through pair of bars, in hauling
a load of manure, in pitching on a load
of hay, or driving flock of sheep. There
is more ingenuity requirtd to drive a
flock of sheer than to make shoe, and
it is only an ingenious and well-taught
workman who can harness his team, hitch
to his plew, and adjust the draft of it, all
just right. There is superiority in the
amount and value of the work done
by an ingenious and well-educated
hand, which is scarcely ever duly &C
knowledged.
Now the young farmer, who has these
superior qualifications for his profession,
must not spend too much time in trying
to show what complete piece of cabinet
work he can make. He may shoe his OK
sled, put a handle into the beetle, mend
the wheelbarrow, and keep the doors and
fences in snug repairs, but can be
too nice about it. He had better not try
to make his own carriages or shoe his
own horses.
The over ingenious man has passion
for machinery, and it has fascination
for some boys, who think that what is
done by machine is so much labor saved.
A boy was called on by his mother for
new handle to her stove-lid litter. He
readily obeyed, and as he has turning
lathe attached to the horsepower at the
barn, he meant to make nice one. So
he proceeded to find and chip out a piece
of hard maple, and hitch the pony to the
horsepower, and turned handle worth
seeing. In the meantime, another boy
had sawed off the end of an old rake stale,
which made good handle for the litter,
and the whole thing was done in less than
fifteen minutes.
Especially should the superintendent
of farm not allow his love for mechanics
to divert him from his more impor-
tant labors. If he has farm and stock
which require the labor of two or three
hired men, it is mistaken policy for him
to go into his shop and trihe with some
curious machinery, while his men are
setting themselves to work on the farm.
Does he not know that he can 60 with
one of his men and accomplish twice as
much work as two of them left to them
selves? If he has two or more men en-.
gagged in almost any kind of farm work,
his eye and guiding hand will bring to
pass much more than the hands of any
two of his men, and this, too, without
any disparagement of the faithfulness of
his men. He must not measure the
value of his time by the wages of even
the very best mechanics whom he may
be obliged to employ.
DRILLED OR KILLED Consolidating
corn, L. e., raising it in continuous rows,
about three and one-half feet apart, and
a stalk once in about six inches in q row,
undoubtedly gives more corn and more
stalks to the acre than planting in the
hills three feet apart each way, for the
very simple reason that it il practicable
to raise more plants in drills than in hills.
If the plants are six inches apart, we
will have as many on an acre as we would
if we planted seven kernels in hills.
Seven kernals are too many in one hill,
but when six inches apart in rows, the
roots have much better chance to find
food, particularly during the early
growth of the crop, and this is impor-
tant.
Where the land is in good condition,
and few weeds or foul plants are ex-
pected, drilling is the best method, and
will give sixty bushels about as often as
hills will give fifty bushels to the acre.
If the ground is filled, or much infested
with foul plants, such as quack-grass,
hills are more convenient as being
susceptible of cultivation both ways by
horse power the land can be much more
perfectly titled. High farming admits
of drills, and two of the best farmers this
country ever had-John johnson, near
Geneva, and A. B. Dickinson, formerly of
Steuben county, New York,-both
practiced raising their corn in drills.
But they were in the habit of planting
corn on clean land, preferring to kill
weeds wkile raising crops that required
less manual labor, and admitted of more
horse work.
WASHING FINE UNDERCLoTHING.-
A leading firm, importers and retailers of
hosiery goods in Philadelphia, gives the
Germantown Telegraph the following di-
rections for washing merino, lambs woSl
and silk underclothing, and that paper
bears wintess to itsexcellence: Use one
pound of dissolved soap in four gallons
of warm water, in which rinse well the
articles to be washed, drawing them re-
peatedly through the hand; wiring them
as dry as possible, to remove the soap;
rinse them again briskly in clean, luke
warm water; wiring and stretch them to
their proper shape, and dry in the open
air if possible. The only effects of rub
bing are to shrink and destroy the ma
terial; it should, therefore, never be re-
IL A. Il l.