The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1883-01-26
Importance Of Good Farm Tools.

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the little things connected with it, and
not so mu on the great plans. Some
farmers are noted for ALWAYS getting
their work done early, rather ahead of
the season. if possible, while others are
always as much behind. When souoht
out, good simple reasons will be fonnd
for this in each instance. The one man
has learned that his work is easier and
/ avs better to be done at the earliest
moment-the other hasn't learned
much about that or anything else. He
either dislikes or has not been trained to
habits of promptness and accuracy. and
so delays until the fact that everybody
else is ahead of him arouses him to
work. Perhaps. too, his tools are out
OF order and must be repaired, for this
is common difficulty. In other cases,
when tools can be made to do POOR
service without actual repair, they are
used in bad condition because it costs
something to get them repaired
In these manufacturing DAYS it is a
common complaint among farmers that
Incl } is scant and poor Enterprising
young men 60 into mercantile pursuits
or factories. in preference to engaging
in farm work, and in this way the best
help is not to be had except at prices
that farmers dare not pay. The use of
machinery goes good way toward sup
plying the deficiency, but the treatment
OF ma hinery and common tools in many
cases is such that the advantage is
largely lost. Every tool and implement,
to do the best and most rapid work,
should be in the best order Farmers
all know this, or will concede it as an
abstract truth, but poor tools are so
much the rule with some farmers that
practically the abstract truth seems
never to have impressed them. A man
buys hoe, for instance, and uses it un-
til it gets dull and the edge beg MS to
turn-as it will when the hoe is cheap
one, with only little steel on the edge
Once in while he will hammer out the
thickened art, but it soon alters 10
again, and his work upon it,
in addition to the poor work he
does in the field, the increased
labor caused by dull tool and
time lost at ten or fifteen cents an hour
soon amount to enough to pay for pair
of new hoes. But how many look
upon it in that light? How many throw
it away and geta new one? That would
be economy in thousands of instances,
and yet to the slow-moying, slow-think-
ing, pinching plodder and votary of
penurious economy, worthless hoe
must be saved and literally used tip be-
fore it is abandoned A boy may be
forced to use it, and by it-perhaps
without knowing why at the time-he
contracts an AYERS on to farming which
sends him away from home at the first
opportunity. Poor hoes. poor plows,
poor rakes, dull axes, wagons that are
always breaking down, harness that
must be tied together, lean, cadaverous
horses, all these aid in filling BOYS
mind with a dislike for farming. He
knows or feels, at least-most others do
about him-that something is wrong in
a business which has such disagreeable
accessories, and resolves to ''dig out"
at the first opportunity. And such as
do not. but endure it because they lack
inquiring minds, or because they inherit
the parents greed or short-sightedness-
what sort Of farmers do they make?
Not such as the neighborhood is proud
of, at any rate.
The hoe is tool that machines can
not readily supplant, and is likely to re-
main with us. A man can handle but
one at time, and as his time is, pre-
sumably, worth ten cents an hour at
least, it is very important that the hoe
should be of the hest materials and
workmanship, SO that it can do rapid
and effective work. lf'twice as heavy as
is needed, it tires the latorer
ly and units him for rapid work If
light but old, dull and battered, with
the corners worn away until it is ''lop-
sided" there is constant loss as com
pared with a good tool. The mans
wages multiply the employers loss, the
weeds grow and make eradication
more difficult when it comes; the earth
is losing the moisture which the weeds
pump from it; the crop is retarded and
dwarfed, and al to save all outlay of
fifty or seventy-fve cents
AS with the hoe, so with other tools.
The harrow has several teeth gone
which it costs something to replace: the
cultivator is perhaps an heirloom, old,
awkward, inefficient, ut as it will dis
lodge or discourage an occasional weed,
it must retained. | have seen cult
vators in use that would not accept as
gift, old or new, if required to use
them, because they were inefficient
compared with others costing slightly
more. The latter are almo,t a delight
to follow, because they do such effecti
work, run lightly and with little guild
inc, and leave the earth level The
work they do is really artistic" from
the farmers point of view, and man
with some culture finds pleasure at the
sight OF it. But when it has WORKOUT
teeth or shares, and must be intently
watched to keep it from wabbling''
about like drunken man, or in spite of
you will lunge into hill of corn or of
strawberries if one happens to look up
to see if the sun indicates dinner-time,
it had better be urned, or sold for old
iron. To own it is discredit and
damage.
This topic is really more practical
than most people imagine. These half
WORKOUT tools and rusty machines are
to be found on thousands of farms, and
constitute cry serious drawback to
prosperity. If tools, like Military ac-
coutrements, had to be inspected occa-
sionally, there would a better chance
to get rid OF them. M Y. Examiner,