Ashtabula weekly telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1880-1886, 1880-04-09
The Use Of Hand Tools.

The Use Of Hand Tools.
The past thirty years have brought
about an almost complete revolution in
the manner of conducting operations
on farms. The farmer now owns and
runs as many machines rs the manufac-
turer. He rides behind pair Of
matched horses when he turns furrows,
rolls the uneven soil, puts in a crop Of
corn or grain. cuts grass, rakes hay or
havests wheat, oats, rye and barley.
There is one machine for binding grain
in the field, another for thrashing, and
a third for cleaning It, Corn-stalks are
often cut and the grains are generally
shelled by the employment of a ma
chine. In one way or another the bur-
dens farmers formerly bore have been
transferred to horses, wind-mills and
the driving-wheels of steam engines.
In many cases farmers have given up
paying any attention to those crops that
can not be planted, cultivated and har-
vested by the use of machines
The sickle, cradle, hoe, spade, scythe,
fail and hand rake If found about
the premises are only preserved as Curl
osities or relics of a former era of hus-
bandry. The study of most farmers
during a generation has been in devils
ing means to get rid of their employ
ment altogether. Farmers are fond of
talking about the dignity of labor and
take delight in calling themselves "the
sons of toll" Common observations,
however, show that they are quite as
anxious to shirk manual labor as peo-
pie in other vocations are. Many of
them appear to consider all kinds of
work degrading that must be performed
with the hands or by the employment of
hand tools If they are not "above
work. they are certainly above doing
it in the manner their fathers did. They
want a machine to perform every kind
of operation in the field.
Many young farmers have never
learned to handle small implements
with any degree of skill. They make
as awkward work with spade as with
a smoothing plane. They can not swing
a grain cradle or thrash out a small lot
of grain with a fail They are almost
entirely unaccustomed to the use of the
hoe and the spading-fork. Some of
them can only SOW grain and grass-seed
with the aid of a machine. They are
machine farmers. They delight in ex-
tensive operations, but despise the de-
tails of farm work If anything can not
be done by the use of a machine they
neglect it altogether. Many farmers
dislike hand-work to such an extent
that they are waiting for milking
machine to be perfected before they
will keep a considerable herd of milch
COWS.
The introduction of farm machinery
should not supersede the us bal hand
tools. The latter should be employed
in connection with the former, and
farmers should take pride in being
skilled in their use. Every man who
works or farm should know how TO
NOV a good swarth of grass; to harvest
grain with a cradle or sickle; to beat
out grain with fail; to handle
spade and fork, and to use q hoe with
deXterity. Thousands of mowing-ma-
chimes are ruined and hundreds of per-
sons are injured because farmers do
not use the hand-scythe in cutting the
grass by the side of fences, among
orchard trees, and in places where it
has lodged. What is true of the mow-
ing-machine is also true of the reap
er. There is economy in thrashing out
small lots of grain, buckwheat, flax and
grass-seed with the old-fashioned hand
iiail
1t is cheaper to prepare the soil of a
garden for planting with spade or
fork, if one knows how to handle them
properly, than with plow. 1t is cheap
er and better to render the soil fine and
smooth with rake than with a har-
row. The implement most neglected
by the farmers is the one that is most
useful in killing weeds, in pulverizing
the soil and placing it where it will do
the most good to plants in all stages
of their growth. This tool is the old
fashioned tool once known as the hoe.
The hoe in the hands of a person who
knows how to use it skillfully is the
most valuable implement ever employed
in farming or gardening, No cultiva-
tor ever constructed can do the work
that can be performed with the hoe.
In every corn and potato-field it should
be used before the cultivator is, and
also used in connection with it. Corn
that takes a premium is almost invaria-
bly, hand-hoed.
Inc expression, " AS dull as hoe,
shows the condition in which this inn
plement is generally kept. While it
should not be "as sharp as a razor, ~ it
should have good cutting edge, that
will sever weeds without tearing them
from the ground. A hoe needs to be
sharpened occasionally, as much as an
AK or a saw does. A hoe of the best
quality in the market can be boughtat
the price of a days work in the field,
and if a days work is saved by using
up a hoe in grinding it there is nothing
lost. A large amount of good work
cannot be done with poor, rusty, dull
hSe, any more than it can by the use of
an AK or scythe in the same condition.
A hoe should be made of good steel,
and kept sharp and finely polished.
After 1t has been used it should be
cleaned and oiled before it is put away.
-ChicugO Times .N
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