Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1880-02-26
AGRICULTURAL.


Every stock-raiser, rich or poor, should
personally look after the interests of his
stock daily. There may be instances
where careful, kind and attentive
hired hand may be had. But as gen.
eral rule this is not the case. Too fire.
quently the care of stock is entrusted to
bowling, wild, vicious fellows, who beat
and kick. any animal which stands in
their way, or which does not act exactly
as they think is right. From our ex-
perience on this subject, we can scarce
ly write composedly on the matter.
There is not a greater scarcity in any
employment in life than kind, gentle
and careful stockholders. And this is
especially the case in the storms and
bleak winds of winter, when stock need
all the possible care and attention which
can be bestowed on them. Hence we
say that owners must attend to their
own stock. The hired hands can do
the straight work in the barn, fields or
on the road. But when considerate
care and kind attention is needed, there
is the owners place, instead of entrust-
ing it to men who have no interest, and
who only put in their time to get their
wages. In many cases from this cause
alone frequently the best results are not
obtained by investment in various kinds
of stock. Kindness to dumb brutes is
cheap article, yet it yields rich rewards.
But even many owners upon whom the
exercise of such virtue is so important
have frequently but limited stock on
hand. But they may be assured that
the animal which looks kindly for your
coming, and shows it feels pleasure
from your touch, will be more content
ed, and will assimilate its food more to
your advantage. The kind breath of
the owner is a balmy breeze to all do
mestic animals.-IoUa State Register.
Comparatively few farmers have
either mechanical knowledge or skill.
They can not make the simplest imple-
ments they are required to use. They
can not repair any of the machines they
operate in their fields. Their houses
and outbuildings are often in very bad
condition because they are unable to
use the tools used by a carpenter, and
the employment of a skilled mechanic
is attended with too much trouble and
expense. Their wagons and carriages
are rarely in thorough state Of repair
Something is ordinarily the matter with
their harnesses. Their grindstone does
not run true. Their pumps leak. The
handles of their axes, spades, shovels
and hoes are all in bad condition.
A large proportion of the expense of
running a farm is caused by the erection
and repairs of fences. A man without
mechanical skill can not make new
fence or properly repair an old one.
He will ruin the boards he attempts to
cut and break the nails he undertakes to
drive. He can not make a gate. He
can not even hang one so that it will
swing properly after it is made. As
consequence, there are barns instead of
gates on his farm. AS further conse-
quence, the fences afford poor protec-
lection to crops, while they disfigure the
premises they ought, by right, to orna-
ment. A farmer possessed of mechani-
cal skill ordinarily has fences that are
ornate in appearance as well as those
that turn stock of all kinds. They are
also furnished with gates that do not
sag.
A farmer without mechanical skill can
neither graft trees nor prune them.
The trees in his orchard, the shrubbery
in his lawns and the vines in his Vine
yard always present an unseemly APP
pearance. He has no walks about his
ground, because he does not know how
to construct them. There is no scraper
on his doorstep. His hay-rack is al
ways out of order, and the like is true
of his field-roller, commander and cul-
tivator. He can use few of his ma
chimes to the best advantage, while all
of them soon wear out under his man.
agement. The use of machines and all
kinds of improved farm implements
calls for mechanical skill. Without it
their full value is never realized, while
their speedy destruction is insured.
Farm machinery is expensive, and every
effort should be made to make it last as
long as possible.
A very large proportion of farming
operations are purely mechanical. Me-
chanical skill is necessary to construct
a good stack of hay or grain, or to prop
erly build a load of hay. A lack of me-
chanical skill causes shocks of corn to
blow over. Mechanical skill is neces-
sary to lay out land in blowing, and to
so gauge the burrows that the land will
come out even. The appearance OF
many cultivated fields show an absence
of mechanical skill on the part of the
,,o-Sora who manage them The sides