142 FOR BETTER CROPS 



The money which a farmer puts into a binder, mower, or 

 manure spreader, is capital invested just as much as the money 

 another man puts into a machine for making shoes or spinning 

 cotton. It deserves an annual interest and an ultimate profit 

 equally as much, and it is entitled to as thorough care and pro- 

 tection. Furthermore, the laws governing continuity of service 

 apply exactly the same to a cream separator and a wagon as to 

 a planer or grinder. Of course, owing to the seasonable use of 

 farm machines, there are lapses of time when certain machines 

 must remain idle. It is at this period that they should be best 

 protected. Scientists say that the muscles of an arm wither 

 more quickly from inactivity than from over-activity. The same 

 thing is true of equipment, whether on the farm or in the fac- 

 tory. More plows have been worn away by the weather than were 

 ever worn away by service. 



True as this is, very little attention has been paid to the 

 science of machine care. Experimental stations will work for 

 years to show how to grow forty bushels of wheat where only 

 thirty bushels grew before. No one questions the usefulness of 

 this work, but it takes the difference of a good many acres to 

 pile up enough dollars to buy anew binder; and yet, very little 

 time is spent in showing how to increase the life of a binder from 

 five to ten years Perhaps they leave it to the common sense of 

 the farmer. If they do, all right, for common sense is really the 

 thing that is needed. 



College instruction, ancestral advice, and original research in 

 the care of farm machines can all be simmered down to these 

 three elementary necessities — good roofs, good paint, and good 

 lubricants. These three determine whether the days of a ma- 

 chine shall be long in the land or whether it shall soon return 

 to the dust whence it came and another order go to the firm 

 who made it. 



Let every farmer attend to this trio. How and when are 

 questions which each must answer for himself — not very pro- 

 found questions, but very important. 



Few people realize how simple and yet how essential such 

 care is, and for those who have overlooked this phase of agricul- 

 tural life, we give the experience of one successful Kentucky 

 farmer which may contain helpful suggestions. 



This man ran a big farm in that state and in spite of ineffi- 

 cient help and long-used soil, made money. He was a firm 

 believer in the above mentioned triumvirate, and he practiced 

 what he believed. Back of his barn he had erected a long, low 

 shed, not particularly showy nor expensive, but dry, and under 

 this shed he kept everything in the equipment line — from 

 grindstone to wagons. In one end he built a home-made impro- 

 vised paint shop. Although his reputation as a family man in 

 that country was good, it is said of him tliat he would just as 



