308 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



What I dignify by the name of harness shop need not cost over one or twO' 

 dollars ; that is some awls and needles, ball of shoe thread, and some wax, a 

 leather punch, and a few buckles and rings, and a box to keep them in. 

 These, with a pair of clamps which a man will make in an hour, or still better, 

 a sewing horse, and we have everything necessary. 



The blacksmith shop is more expensive, and requires a separate building. 

 I would not advise any one to put a forge into any other farm building, — the 

 danger is too great. But a shanty-roofed building, ten feet square, with one 

 side open, will answer the purpose, and need not cost more than five or ten 

 dollars. A second-hand bellows will cost from three to five dollars, and with 

 a forge, built in an old sugar barrel, a hammer, cold-chisel, punch, and pair 

 of tongs, we have a shop in which we can heat a burning iron, straighten a 

 bolt or rod, make a hole in any baud, bar, hoop, or brace, put a head on a 

 bolt, or straighten a sprung clevis without breaking it, and in fact, do almost 

 any simple repairing. Of course I have described a very cheap and rather 

 incomplete outfit, and one may do as much better as he chooses. 



When I first added a blacksmith shop to my farm accommodations, I bought 

 bellows, anvil, hammer, several pairs of tongs, and other tools, for only a 

 little over five dollars, and placed them in a very small and inexpensive build- 

 ing. I am now putting up a shop sixteen by eighteen (16x18) to take the 

 place of the old one, and would advise any one to build large, as the building 

 will pay for itself as a storehouse if nothing more. Here everything in the 

 iron line is naturally brought together — much is saved from actual loss, and 

 much more that is practically lost is rendered valuable, by being brought 

 together where it can be found when wanted. 



The principal cost of the wood-shop is the building. This ought to be of 

 generous size, to furnish room for several men to work together on rainy days 

 (the time when most of the shop work should be done). Within reasonable 

 limits the building will pay as a storehouse for small tools, lumber, boxes, and 

 every such thing, which never fails to find a center there. One may put as 

 much money as he chooses into carpenter's tools, but ten or fifteen dollars, 

 carefully used, will furnish a good farmer's outfit, at least for a beginning. 

 It may be urged that shop work distracts a farmer's attention from his other 

 business. This is a fair objection. But the whole attention must be given 

 to something, and if a man can on any occasion make more money in a shop 

 han elsewhere, that is the place to claim his thought. In a wet season, when 

 it is raining half the time, a farmer's attention is distracted by paying 

 mechanics' bills, and also paying two or three men for sitting behind the 

 stove, when they might be earning their wages and paying his blacksmith bills 

 beside. 



When the farmer undertakes the work of the carpenter, or any other 

 mechanic, he works at a disadvantage, because it is not his principal business, 

 and consequently he can not have the practice, nor afford the tools which one 

 can who does nothing else. He must, therefore, have some overbalancing 

 advantage, or he loses by the operation. This advantage he may find, in case 

 of accident to any implement, while in use, especially in a hurrying time. The 

 loss or breaking of a iDolt, btace or nut, or a thread battered or worn, may 

 cost a journey to the shop and several hours' delay, when with a forge at hand, 

 the repairs might have been made in twenty minutes. The cost of a few 

 trips to town, with a wagon and span of horses, will pay the interest on a fair 

 sized shop. 



I have heard it suggested that the farmer's tools are always in poor condi- 



