THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. 361 



HOW TO MAKE A ROLLER 



516. That will do good service for an age, and be worth two 

 small cast-iron rollers which will cost fifty dollars each. I have 

 a roller which has run sixteen years, and rolled thousands of 

 acres, and has not cost twenty -five cents for repairs, and which 

 will be good for thirty years to come. It cost less than ten dol 

 lars for materials and labor, at cash prices. A roller should always 

 be double, so as to turn more easily for a team. It should be 

 not less than four feet in diameter so as to be heavy and run 

 easy and about eight feet long. If a young farmer has suffi 

 cient ingenuity to make a neat " cider peg," he will be able to 

 make a good roller. If he will keep it under shelter it may be 

 made of elm, maple, beech, or any other hard wood. The axle 

 of mine is sugar maple. 



517. Specifications. Fig. 146 represents the principal parts of 

 a wooden roller ; a a are the two end pieces of the frame, seven 

 feet four inches long, and three by four inches square, framed to the 

 front and rear girts, three by three, nine inches apart, with inch 

 and a half tenons. The tongue is bolted to the forward girts, with 

 whipple-trees on the under side. The girts are eight feet three 

 inches between joints. E is the shaft, six inches square, of hard 

 timber, seasoned, with four gains turned in it, h, four inches in 

 diameter and three inches wide, and a bearing at each end three 

 inches in diameter, to fit a hole in the wooden box F which is 

 bolted to the under side of a a. From one bearing to the other, 

 eight feet three inches. From bearing to first gain, three inches. 

 Middle gains, six inches apart. Get it turned at the turning- 

 shop, or machine shop. A turner will turn it in less than an 

 hour ; and it will cost not over thirty cents. I is one of the 

 roller heads, in two parts, with a four-inch hole in the centre. 

 They are made of plank three inches thick, forty-four inches in 

 diameter, and united in the middle with four 1-^-inch dowel 

 pins in each head. The pins must be of the best of tim 

 ber, and well-seasoned, and must be pinned or nailed, to keep 

 the heads from separating in case the dowel pins should shrink. 

 After the frame is made and the shaft E fastened in its place, 



