Herbert A. Shearer

“ Strawberry blossoms shrivel and die in the blooming when rain fails. Irrigation is better than rain for strawberries. Strawberries under irrigation may be made to yield more bushels than potatoes under humid conditions. One hundred bushels of strawberries per acre sounds like a fairy tale, but it is possible on rich land under irrigation.
The cost of pumping for irrigation, where the well and machinery is used for no other purpose, must be charged up to the crop. The items of expense are interest on the first cost of the pumping machinery, depreciation, upkeep and running expenses. ”

“ If a farmer is not mechanically inclined, he is under the necessity of employing someone who is.
Some farms are supplied with a great many handy contrivances to save labor. Farmers differ a great deal in this respect. Some are natural mechanics, some learn how to buy and how to operate the best farm machinery, while others are still living in the past.
Some farmers who make the least pretensions have the best machinery and implements. They may not be good mechanics, but they have an eye to the value of labor saving tools. ”

“ For fruits and vegetables, what is known as the furrow system of irrigation is the most practical. An orchard is irrigated by plowing furrows on each side of each row of trees. The water is turned into these furrows and it runs across the orchard like so many little rivulets. ”

“ Farming pays in proportion to the amount of work intelligently applied to this manner of increasing values. It is difficult to make a profit growing and selling grain. Grain may sell for more than the labor and seed, but it takes so much vitality from the land that depreciation of capital often is greater than the margin of apparent profit. When grains are grown and fed to live-stock on the farm, business methods demand better [78] buildings and more power, which means that the farmer is employing auxiliary machinery and other modern methods to enhance values. ”

“ Irrigation fills the soil with moisture and drainage empties it. Thus, a condition is established that supplies valuable farm plants with both air and moisture. In the drier portions of the United States, nothing of value will grow without irrigation. In the so-called humid districts deficiency of moisture at the critical time reduces the yield and destroys the profit. The value of irrigation has been demonstrated in the West, and the practice is working eastward. ”

“ Under present conditions farm tractors are not intended to replace horse power entirely but to precede horses to smooth the rough places that horses may follow with the lighter machines to add the finishing touches. Light tractors are being made, and they are growing in popularity, but the real business of the farm tractor is to do the heavy lugging—the work that kills horses and delays seeding until the growing season has passed. The actual power best suited to the individual farm can only be determined by the nature of the land and the kind of farming. ”

“ Fifty years ago a farmer was lucky if he owned a single moldboard cast-iron plow that he could follow all day on foot and turn over one, or at most, two acres. The new traction engines are so powerful that it is possible to plow sixty feet in width, and other machines have been invented to follow the tractor throughout the planting and growing seasons to the end of the harvest. The tractor is supplemented by numerous smaller powers. All of which combine to make it possible for one-third of the people to grow enough to feed the whole American family and to export a surplus to Europe. ”

“ Each farmer must be the judge in regard to the kind of mechanical repair work that should be done at home and the kind and amount of repair work that should go to the shop in town. A great deal depends on the mechanical ability of the farmer or his helpers. However, the poorest farm mechanic can do “first aid” service to farm implements and machinery in the nick of time, if he is so disposed. A great many farmers are helpless in this respect because they want to be helpless. It is so much easier to let it go than to go right at it with a determination to fix it, and fix it right. ”

“ No farmer can afford to grow five acres of potatoes without the necessary machinery, because hand labor is out of the question for work of that kind.
On the right kind of soil, and within reach of the right market, potatoes are money-makers. But they must be grown every year because the price of potatoes fluctuates more than any other farm crop. Under the right conditions potatoes grown for five years with proper care and good management are sure to make money. One year out of five will break even, two years will make a little money and the other two years will make big money. ”

“ You can have considerable patience with a windmill if you only depend upon it for pumping water, provided you have a tank that will hold a week’s supply to be drawn during a dry, hot time when every animal on the farm demands a double allowance of water. That is the time when a farmer hates to attach himself to the pump handle for the purpose of working up a hickory breeze. That also is the time when the wind neglects a fellow. ”

“ Farmers sometimes like to ride on the grain drill, which places the wheel sighting proposition out of the question. A harrow cart may be hitched behind the wheel of the grain drill, but it gives a side draft. The only way to have straight rows and thorough work is to walk behind the end of the drill. This is the proper way to use a drill, anyway, because a tooth may clog up any minute. Unless the operator is walking behind the drill he is not in position to see quickly whether every tooth is working properly or not. It is hard work to follow a drill all day long, but it pays at harvest time. ”

“ When he feeds it to live-stock and sells the live-stock he makes another profit. When the manure is properly handled and returned to the soil he is making another profit on a by-product.
Farming carried on in this way is a complicated business which requires superior knowledge of business methods and principles. In order to conduct the business [79] of farming profitably the labor problem has to be met. Good farm help is expensive. Poor farm help is more expensive. While farm machinery also is expensive, it is cheaper than hand labor when the farmer has sufficient work to justify the outlay. ”

“ Such woodworking tools as coarse and fine toothed hand saws, a good square, a splendid assortment of hammers and the different kinds of wrenches, screw clamps, boring tools—in fact a complete assortment of handy woodworking tools is an absolute necessity on a well-managed farm. ”

“ Generally speaking, however, the most important farm tractor work is preparing the seed-bed thoroughly and quickly while the soil and weather conditions are the best. And the tractor’s ability to work all day and all night at such times is one of its best qualifications.
To plow one square mile, or 640 acres, with a walking plow turning a twelve-inch furrow, a man and team must walk 5,280 miles. The gang-plow has always been considered a horse killer, and, when farmers discovered that they could use oil power to save their horses, many were quick to make the change. ”

“ This was the old threshing-machine horsepower. It was the first real success in pooling many different farm power units to concentrate the combined effort upon one important operation.
Not many horses are capable of raising 33,000 pounds one foot in one minute every minute for an hour or a day. Some horses are natural-born slackers with sufficient acumen to beat the umpire at his own game. Some horses walk faster than others, also horses vary in size and capacity for work. But during a busy time each horse was counted as one horsepower, and they were only eight or ten in number. ”

“ We can observe the effect that a rough, or badly scratched, or poorly shaped moldboard has on any kind of soil, especially when passing from gravelly soils to clay. In soil that contains the right amount of moisture, when a plow scours all the time, the top of the furrow slice always has a glazed or shiny appearance. This shows that the soil is slipping off the moldboard easily. In places where the plow does not scour the ground is pushed to one side and packed or puddled on the underside instead of being lifted and turned as it should be. ”

“ Technical knowledge of electricity and its behavior under different circumstances is hardly necessary to a farmer, because the manufacturers have simplified the mechanics of electric power and lighting to such an extent that it is only necessary to use ordinary precaution to run the plant to its capacity. ”

“ Every laborer knows better than to use a spade or shovel after a rivet head has given way so the handle is not properly supported by the plate extensions. There really is no excuse for using tools or machinery that are out of repair, but the extent to which a farmer can profitably do his own repairing depends on many contingencies. In every case he must decide according to circumstances, always, however, with a desire and determination to run his farm on business principles. ”

“ A 12-inch bastard file with a good handle is the most satisfactory implement for sharpening the cutting edges of a plow in the fields. A good deal depends on the character of the soil and its condition of dryness, but generally speaking, it pays to do a little filing after plowing a half mile of furrow. If the horses are doing their duty, a little rest at the end of the half mile is well earned. ”

“ The eccentricities of a split-log road drag may be learned in one lesson by riding it over a mile or two of country road shortly after the frost has left the ground in the spring of the year. It will be noticed that the front half of the road drag presents the flat side of the split log to the work of shaving off the lumps while the other half log levels and smooths and puddles the loosened moist earth by means of the rounded side. Puddling makes earth waterproof. The front, or cutting edge, is faced with steel. ”

“ FARM MECHANICS CHAPTER I THE FARM SHOP WITH TOOLS FOR WORKING WOOD AND IRON FARM SHOP AND IMPLEMENT HOUSE
The workshop and shed to hold farm implements should look as neat and attractive as the larger buildings. Farm implements are expensive. Farm machinery is even more so. When such machinery is all properly housed and kept in repair the depreciation is estimated at ten per cent a year. When the machines are left to rust and weather in the rain and wind the loss is simply ruinous.
More machinery is required on farms than formerly and it costs more. ”

“ The soil is the farmer’s laboratory; his soil working implements are his mechanical laboratory appliances. A high order of intelligence is required to merge one operation into the next to take full advantage of the assistance offered by nature. The object of plowing and cultivation is to improve the mechanical condition of the soil, to retain moisture, to kill insects and to provide a suitable home for the different kinds of soil bacteria. ”

“ Boys are not competing for furrow prizes and the walking plow has gone out of fashion. The plowing at the Wheatland plowing match was done by men with riding plows. Only one boy under eighteen years was ready to measure his ability against competition. The attendance of farmers and visitors numbered about three thousand, which shows that general interest in the old-fashioned plowing match is as keen as ever. A jumbo tractor on the grounds proved its ability to draw a big crowd and eighteen plows at the same time. It did its work well and without vulgar ostentation. ”

“ Any farm implement that has a tendency to dissipate soil moisture is a damage to the farmer. Probably nine times out of ten a farm roller is a damage to the crop it is intended to benefit because of the manner in which it is used. It is the abuse, not the proper use of a roller, that injures the crop. ”

“ The ease with which soils absorb, retain or lose moisture, depends mostly on their texture, humus content, physical condition, and surface slope or artificial drainage. It is to the extent that cultivation can modify these factors that more soil water can be made available to the growing crop. There are loose, open soils through which water percolates as through a sieve, and there are tight, gumbo soils which swell when the surface is moistened and become practically waterproof. Sandy soils take in water more readily than heavier soils, hence less precaution is necessary to prevent run-off. ”

“ There are small canning outfits manufactured and sold for farm use that work on the factory principle. For canning vegetables, the heating is done under pressure because a great deal of heat is necessary to destroy the bacteria that spoil vegetables in the cans. Steam under pressure is a good deal hotter than boiling water. There is considerable work in using a canning outfit, but it gets the canning out of the way quickly. Extra help may be employed for a few days to do the canning on the same principle that farmers employ extra help at threshing time and do it all up at once. ”

“ Water-power is the most satisfactory of all kinds of stationary farm power, when a steady stream of water may be harnessed to a good water-wheel. It is not a difficult engineering feat to throw a dam across a small stream and take the water out into a penstock to supply water to a turbine water-wheel. In the first place it is necessary to measure the flow of water to determine the size of water-wheel which may be used to advantage. ”

“ When the seed-bed has been carefully prepared, and the soil is fine and loose, the wheel hoe may be used as soon as the young plants show above ground. Men who are accustomed to operating a wheel hoe become expert. They can work almost as close to the growing plants with an implement of this kind as they can with an ordinary hand hoe. The wheel hoe, or hand cultivator, works the ground on both sides of the row at once, and it does it quickly, so that very little hand weeding is necessary. ”

“ CHAPTER III GENERATING MECHANICAL POWER TO DRIVE MODERN FARM MACHINERY
At one time ninety-seven per cent of the population of the United States got their living directly from tilling the soil, and the power used was oxen and manual labor. At the present time probably not more than thirty-five per cent of our people are actively engaged in agricultural pursuits. And the power problem has been transferred to horses, steam, gasoline, kerosene and water power, with electricity as a power conveyor. ”

“ Dishwashing by electricity is another labor-saver three times a day. Vacuum cleaners run by electricity take the dust and microbes out of floor rugs with less hand labor than pushing a carpet sweeper. Incubators are better heated by electricity than any other way. Brooders come under the same class. Sewing-machines were operated by electricity in sweatshops years ago—because it paid. Farm women are now enjoying the same privilege.
Electric lighting on the farm is the most spectacular, if not the most interesting result of electric generation in the country. ”

“ Still it is not a question whether a farmer can afford a machine. If he has sufficient work for it he knows he cannot afford to get along without it and he must have a shed to protect it from the weather when not in use. ”

“ Every farm has its own water supply. Some are very simple, others are quite elaborate. It is both possible and practical for a farmer to have his own tap water under pressure on the same plan as the city. When good water is abundant within 75 feet of the surface of the ground the farm supply may be had cheaper and better than the city. Even deep well pumping is practical with good machinery rightly installed. Farm waterworks should serve the house and the watering troughs under a pressure of at least 40 pounds at the ground level. ”

“ When water is pumped by an engine and stored for use in a tank to be delivered under pressure in the house, then the additional cost of hot and cold water and the necessary sink and bath room fixtures is comparatively small. Modern plumbing fixtures fit so perfectly and go together so easily that the cost of installing house plumbing in the country has been materially reduced, while the dangers from noxious gases have been entirely eliminated. ”

“ A saw with even teeth cuts smoother, runs truer and works faster than a saw filed by guess. It is easy to file a saw when all of the teeth are the same length and all have the same set. Anyone can do a good job of filing if the saw is made right to begin with, but no one can put a saw in good working order with a three-cornered file as his only tool. ”

“ Modern farm machinery is heavier, it cuts wider and digs deeper and does more thorough work. Modern farm requirements go scientifically into the proper cultivation and preparation of soil to increase fertility. Old methods used up fertility until the land refused to produce profitably.
[88] Although the old familiar horsepower has been greatly outclassed, it has not been discarded. There are many small horsepowers in use for elevating grain, baling hay, cutting straw for feed and bedding, grinding feed and other light work where engine power is not available. ”