Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1876-12-21
Care of Tools and Implements.

AS A rule among farmers hand tools
and farm implements rust out more than
they wear out. In other WOrds-rust,
rain and sunshine damage the wood and
iron work more than all the wear and tear
of the various parts while the machines
are in actual use. Let it be an infiexible
rule with every tiller of the soil to have
every tool washed clean, the bright sur
faces wiped dry, then oiled and put under
shelter as soon as the operator has ceased
to use it. Before the team is fed place
the wagon or sleigh under shelter. If the
wheels or runners must rest on dirt floor
let each wheel and runner be raised up
and piece of board put under each one
to prevent rusting of the iron. Never
leave pillow, as is often done, in the field
standing in the furrow, as rust will de-
stroy more metal than friction while ploW-
ing. One will pillow just as much in a
day if he brings his pillow to the tool
house at night. wipes the bright sur
faces clean and smcars them with a
little oil or tallow. If you need room on
some floor for housing machinery bore inch
holes in the posts of the barn and carriage
house, up as high as a mans head, and
hang plows and harroWs on the pins
which are driven into such holes Plows
lllS hdllOHS, WuCu SpOSCtt VI III SuCu ds
manner, will be entirely out of ones way
The upper part of the barn is seldom oc-
cupied with anything. When such is the
case lay some poles from beam to beam or
spike some strong boards from rafter to
rafter, lay on few boards, and with
pulley draw up plows and other nipple
ments and store them where they will be
entirely out of the way and in dry place.
Our own plOWs, horse hoes, seed drill,
Sulky hay rake and some other farm i'm
plements are allsafely stored in the loft of
the barn. 1t required only a few minutes
to take the sulky-rake apart, so that one
man could handle it. In almost every barn
the hay or straw has settled down even
with the purlin beams, so that all the
space above is vacant. If tools need
coat of paint let them be placed in the at
tic story, then give them generous coat
of good paint, which will be as dry and
hard by the next season as the wood
work. There will be no trouble
in letting implements down from the
attic story, as any man can put rope
around the rafter, if he has no pulley,
and let down heavy pillow with ease and
safety. When the box is to be removed
on neighbor or two to aid in lifting it off
Doully, according 10 the prevailing Gus
tom, let it be drawn up to the joists over
head by means of a rope and pulley at
each end of the box. Then the box will
be entirely out of the way and in dry
place. The rigging or shelving for our
two-horse wagon, on which hay, grain,
and other material is drawn, is lifted from
the wagon by means of small pulleys and
ropes at each end secured to the beams of
the barn over the threshing floor. One
man can remove il from the wagon in
less than five minutes. The rigging sus-
pended in such vacant space is always in
dry place, and is never in the way.
When the rigging is needed on the wagon,
by driving the wheeled vehicle or the
traverse sleighs beneath it, one man can
let it down in two minutes with ease. Let
al tools and implements be kept in some
dry place.-N. 7. Herald.