The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1879-10-17
WASTES OF THE FARM.

a contributor to one of our agricul-
tural exchanges writes as follows:
Franklin has given us the familiar proverb,
"a penny saved is two pennies earned, = and
no class of men perhaps need sermon
nreached to them from this text more than /
American farmers. We propose to devote |
a few articles to the above subject, in hopes
of calling attention to it, for we deem it one
of great Importance AS time is money,
and much time is wasted on most farms, we
propose in this paper to speak of waste
time Waste time is lot necessarily spent
in lounging in the shade or at the /
village store-but some of The busiest farm /
ers we know are those who waste the most /
time Farmer A" loses an average of /
twenty minutes day while doing his feed !
ing for the want of few convenieDces. /
Instead of having easy pair of stairs to |
reach the loft where he keeps his hay, he |
has not even decent ladder, but climbs up /
lie corner post and brace, losing not only
time but strength. He seems to have never
thought that few hours spent in rearrang-
ing his stables would he any help, and bis
horses stand so that the hay to be put in the
mangers must be handled two three times.
His crib, instead of being near where it is
wanted, seems to have been built at the
most inconvenient place, and his piggery is
not only badly located but every time he
carries pail of swill TO the pigs he must
climb into the pen to readjust the loose
/ trough which the pigs root about at will.
/ This is not an overdTawa picture many
farms and perhaps there are few which
/ a little thought and planning would not en-
able the farmer to save few minutes each
/ day. Planning and arranging to save time
! in doing work is the way to make rainy
/ days profitable. Often a trap door through
I which hay, or straw, for bedding, may be
dropped just where it is wanted, will save
a great deal Of time when pushed with work
and taxed to the limit of your strength.
If the corn crib is not convenient TO the
Z stable, = small bin may be made to hold
7 single load, near possible to where it
is wanted, which can be filed up some slack
+ day, and then when you come in after the
dinner bell has ruug. instead of going fifty
yards for basket of corn, and having to as
sort 1t, il is the work of a moment to feed
the teams. On many farms there is great
waste of time as well as of temper for the
want of a place for the tools. y hoe rake,
shovel, or something of the kind is wanted
and the entire farm must be ransacked, and
hand of two kept waiting until it is found
Much time is lost for the want of few sim
pie cOnvenieuces for repairing The farmer
, must often stop his team and lose half day
by going to the blacksmith shop, when a
. single bolt open link would have enabled
him to repair the breakage, at least tempor-
. aTily. Another fruitful cause OF waste time
. is falling to have implements in order, or to
have such as are adapted to the work. All
( the tools should be Overhauled during the
winter, 10 see that all the braces, bolts,
[ screws, etc, are sound, and that they are
sharp and in good condition. On many
. farms you can not find decent hoe, but old
battered, bungling affairs, with which ii is
, impossible for a farmer to DO a full day 5
work even though he lay out double strength,
, With light bright, steel hoe he COuld save
: an hour two day.
r The most prolific cause of lost time l think,
however, is the want of planning as to do
, each job of work at the best time. There
are many farmers who seem to interpret lit
orally the text, ''Take thought of the
morrow" il" and without planning for the tu-
ture they do the work each day that happens
to be the most convenient, without a thought
as to whether that is The particular job that
e. ought to be done, or if it could not De post
pOned without detriment, and something else
, which could not be well done in the fu-
/ ture, take its place. The farmer who would
n . econOmize time must change his plans tC
I . suit each emergency. For example, two
p farmers plan a job of hauling for the last
/ week in July, but the Saturday previous q
F heavy rain soaks the fields and puts the road
+ 7 in bad condition. Farmer A. goes ahead
with his hauling although he must take
@ lighter loads and work his team harder
l. ''Farmer b. says, "Boys, start the plow'
n on the wheat land" In a week ne has
Y twenty acres plOwed and in splendid order
5 and the following week, as it. holds dry
q he does his hauling with ease. ''Farme
a" starts the plOws week later thar
# ''Farmer Z, and as it continues hot aut
; dry Saturday night finds him with bu
Il twelve or fourteen acres iuditferently plow
# ed and his teams jaded, and it is the mid
is die of the following week before his twent.
p ( acres are plOwed. Farmer BIS" hands al
is ways know the night before what they ar
e to do the following cay, while "Farme
d a 5" hands often lose half an hour in tn
Y. morning while he is deciding what is to b
1T done that day In the spring Farmer b
in starts the pIow early, and the last week i
re April sees his breaking done, and he
ready to put his crops in early and in goo
u condition, and to give the! e!boys a day 70
IS hunting or fishing, and to take himself I
j. visi. neighbOr. Farmer a" tinker
re around at this and that until the middle {
a April before lie starts his plow: it IL nea
=, o of hpfprp Hp il bra3l
w ing, and then it is drive and bury II
Pr time for a holiday, and but little satsfactio
Id all for the want of planning to save tim
or to do each kind of work at the best tim
n. for it. / have made this one thing matte
i'll of close observation for many years, and al
prepared to say that the time lost by mi!
lg management and want of planning is one
the greatest wastes of the farm