Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1884-05-16
Care or Farm Machinery.

Machinery and farming implements
are injured more by exposure than by
using them in the fields. The cost OF
renewing or repairing them is in large
measure preventible. Commenting on
this matter, Agriculture, paper in
tended for the tenant farmers OF En-
gland, says: There is no department
of the farm upon which more careless
ness exists than in that of farm ina
chinery, nor is there one in which more
money is needlessly wasted, for where
We lind one farmer who intelligently
uses the machinery of the farm we
will find twenty who neglect them. 1t
is but too generally the practice for
farmers to hold their implements as
things that require no attention at their
hands, and there are farms upon which
there is no provision for storing such
under cover; whilst on others you will
lind damp, open shed, into which
they are put during the winter, TO be
brought out, when wanted for use, COW
cred with rust, and necessitating a visit
TO the implement-maker or the village
blacksmith before they can be put to
work. Farmers such as these will al
ways be found declaiming against the
cost and uselessness of farm machinery.
And well they may; but they appear to
be utterly obliviOus of the fact that it is
owing to their own neglect that the
greater portion of the expense is in
CURED. Cleanliness to the machine is
the equivalent of ablution to man; dry
shelter equivalent to clothing and a
dwelling; oil equivalent to food and
tnlr al e.
decays; without these the implement
decays. As man can not do without
those essentials for heightened time,
and then 60 10 a doctor to be made
whole, so a machine, left without them
through the winter, can not be restored
TO its normal state by the implement
maker or the blacksmith. The imple-
ment may be cleaned and patched up,
but where rust has laid upon it its cor
rOsive grip it is Immediately injured,
and its working life is shortened. These
are facts that can not be controverted;
and on every farm. be it large or small,
where implements are in use, it will
pay, and paw well, 10 treat them in a
rational and common-sense manner.
Farmers who thus subject their ma
chinery to bad treatment would receive
q practical lesson of much value by WIS.,
ting large engineering establishment,
remarks q correspondent of a Scotch
journal, and noting the scrupulous
cleanliness and brightness of the ma
chinery in use-not speck of dirt that
can be removed, each joint oiled and
working smoothly and noiselessly. Per-
haps il may be said that implements
that are worked out of doors can not be
kept like those in a foundry. Perhaps
not; but much can be done that is now
but too frequently left undone. Dur
ing the recent harvest we were in a
corn field on small farm in the Eng
lish lake district. The tenant was him
self driving two-horse COM
Dined mower and reaper. and We re-
marked upon the excellent work he was
making. His reply was that it had
been in work for fifteen years, and had
not cost him as many shillings during
that time In repairs, whilst similar ma
chimes in the district had to go to be re-
paired every season-all, said he, for
lack of little trouble, q sup Of oil, and
= dry bed during the winter months.
At the end of q days work, half an
hour is proftably spent in wiping down
n wet machine, and giving it a rub
over with oil, taking good care to al.
ways keep the FRACTIONAL parts in easy
working order by means Of oil. At the
end Of the season extra care should be
used in thoroughly cleaning machinery
that has to lay by during the winter,
and in oiling and painting. If necessary
to ward OF rust They then should be
housed in dry building. on q wooden
floor, If practicable, but should certain.
ly never be allowed TO stand all through
the winter months on q damp earth
floor. These precautions will paw for
themselves many times over, and the
implements when required for next
years use. can be made available with
very little trouble Another and yaIu-
able point should not Be overlooked. II.
after the wear and tear Of cutting. =
machine Is seen TO be in need Of repair,
let II be done at once. Do not feave
the repair over until spring. for there
10 The probability of its bcing foruntten
until il Is absolutely wanted Let il be
done in the autnmn. when there Is time
TO see that Il - done properly. III left
70 the busy time in the spring. there ID
the almost Certainty Of the wurk buinp
scamped. and raluab's time lost in con-
sequence Of : brsak-dqwA-06esgs
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