The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1911-10-31
Care of Farm Machinery.
(From Idaho Country Life)

N~0lN ~ AfAA LII Al1c~AAl1lCly - q JILL
| ject Of much Importance, and one that
is not given due consideration. Farm
ers do not seem to realize the vast
amount of loss in money sustained
| by them from leaving their machinery
stand out in the weather A plow
that is left out from one blowing sea-
fson to another becomes rusty and
many times requires enough loss of
time in trying to remove the rust (be-
sides the poor blowing while scouring)
to build shed room for a great per-
centage of the machinery required to
work the entire farm
The Northwestern farmers will fin
ish binding their crop, pull the binder
up to the fence (and many Of them
do not take the trouble to even pull
up to the fence but leave it standing
in the field, remove the canvas and
leave it stand under heavens great
canopy until needed for the next crop.
When harvest comes again the canvas
is replaced horses hitched on and away
to the field to find that the machine
is not in working order. The grain is
ready to cut and the farmer becomes
nervous, goes to town, buys a new
machine and casts aside the old one
| have known this to happen in many
instances around Moscow and I am
certain that the Moscow farmers are
quite representative of the farmers of
the Northwest.
The average life of farm machinery
in the Northwest is not to exceed rs
per cent of what it really should be.
Over this country can be found thou-s
sands of binders that with an outlay Of |
from $40 to $40 and two or three days
work in overhauling and replacing the
wornout parts with new ones can be
made to do as good work as ever and
last as long as they have already.
The harvest season is a very busy
time with the farmers and when it
comes they 60 with a rush, never ia
king time to oil their machinery. Just
for illustration: | know of one farm
er who buys his oil by the quart
There is no one thing that | am more
insistant about when the boys go ont
to work, than proper oiling. I would
prefer to have small quantity vast
ed in over oiling than to have ma
chinery cut for want of it. I had
a man tell me that too much oil was
not good for the machinery. Too
much oil is not necessary but will do
no harm Oil is much cheaper than
machinery Farmers can better af-
ford to stop few minutes every hour
or two to oil than to be continually
buying machinery.
Farm machinery is very expensive
and any manufacturing establishment
would soon go into the hands of a
receiver if its machinery were as poor
ly handled as farm implements are by
a great many farmers Farmers are
realizing the economical value of car
ing for their machinery and it is only
a matter of time, hope, until all
farmers will house their machinery
when not in use. ~ bgl
Proper housing of machinery is
all important from an economical
as is proper housing of
stock. On the college farm the men
are requested to bring in their ma
chinery every night. We have places
for them and the boys must put them
away. 1t would seem that such
plan would require vast amount of
time, but when housing room is prop
erly arranged it is only matter of
a few minutes to put tool or piece of
away. Many times it will
rain during the night and conditions
will be such that to work in the field
would be impossible for several days,
and by the time the machinery is need
I'd it will be so corroded with rust
or the wood and cloth parts stretched
md sprung out of shape to such an ex-
ent that new parts may be required
o get the service from the machinery
hat it should render if in proper con-
lition. No machinery, no matter how
good, will work to perfect satisfaction
f not in first class condition. If the
is in the house when not
n use, it will always be ready for 4
Use. Of course parts will wear and
n time any machine will become
worthless, but under average circum-
tances among the Northwestern
armers the life of machinery is en-
lrely too short. Ten years ago IS
er cent of the farmers of the Palouse
ountry allowed their work horses to
TN around the straw stack, in fact
hey had no other place for them
'arns were very scarce, but they real
zed the economical value of housing
nd proper feeding and today fine
arms are to be found all over the
ountry Farmers do not expect re-
ults from their stock unless they are