MISCELLANEOUS IXFORMATIOX, 679 



machines and farming implements generally. The old fashioned 

 unfinished stone, with square hole and uncertain grit, has been 

 superseded by the finished stone, with self-adjusting shaft, friction 

 rollers, and treddle ; so that one person can turn the stone, and 

 grind any ordinary tool without assistance. In olden times, the 

 only grindstones in use came from New Castle, in England ; and, 

 although very good for some purposes, they were not suitable for 

 farmers' use, the grit being too coarse. The Nova Scotia stones 

 were next introduced, and found to be a great improvement on the 

 New Castle. The Ohio grindstones are very largel}- used by the 

 farmers and others throughout the West, although our Penn- 

 sylvania farmers prefer a good blue Nova Scotia stone ; but 

 recently a most excellent article has reached us from the shores 

 of Lake Huron, having a fine, sharp grit, leaving a fine edge, and 

 cutting prettj'^ fast. 



Hoping these remarks ma}- induce our farmers io give this 

 important tool the attention it desei-%'es, a few hints how to put it 

 in order may not be out of place. 



1st. Always keep your grindstone under cover, as exposure to 

 the sun's rays hardens the grit and injures the frame. 



2d. Don't let the stone run in water, or stand in water when not 

 used, as this causes soft places where none exist ; but allow the 

 water to drip from a water-pot — an old white lead keg will answer 

 — fixed above the stone, and stop it off when not grinding. 



3d. Clean off all greasy or rusty tools before sharpening, as 

 grease or rust chokes up the grit ; and always keep the stone 

 perfectly round b}' razeeing it off when necessary; and finally, 

 every farmer should have a good grindstone of his own, always 

 ready for use, and no one should be so improvident as to waste 

 the cost of a stone by running to his neighbors to grind his tools. 

 — Cor. Farm and Fireside. 



Farm Laborers are at present very unsatisfactory and unrelia- 

 ble ; and this is in part the farmer's fault. If the farmer would 

 encourage the hiring of married men, even at a small increase of 

 wages, and provide these men with comfortable houses at a small 

 rental, keeping them employed the year round, he would find it 

 to his profit. We give elsewhere a plan of a laborer's cottage, 

 (Fig. 140,) which can be built for from four hundred to six hundred 

 dollars, and the farmer can charge the interest of the money for 

 the rental. The better class of labor he would be able to secure 

 by such a course would well pay for the trouble. We heartily 

 commend the following, by L. A. Iline, from The Euralis/ : 



Farmers are now provided with the necessary hired help^ and 

 are pushing the work of the season. Probably about half tne 

 cultivators of the soil for a business and a livelihood perforin 

 their own work without hired hands. The other half have from 

 one to four, and in some cases more, men employed at monthly 

 wages. 



