1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



319 



from your premises if he dare. If he has cheek 

 enough to have his threat put into execution, 

 have him arrested. These land sharks will al- 

 most always take a reasonable amount when 

 they find the scare (?) game does not work. 



WIDE-TIRED WAGON-WHEELS. 



Reports from Practical Experience, both for and 

 against them. 



Gleanings has just arrived. You ask farmers who 

 have used wide-tired metal wheels to report. We have 

 had a set four years, and find them very convenient 

 and durable. My brother, E. W. Evans, drew large 

 loads of ice over plowed ground that was frozen hard, 

 and very rough, without any apparent injury what- 

 ever to the wheels The wheels are low, and .so are 

 very convenient for drawing manure, rails, stones, 

 corn fodder, etc. Instead of cutting into plowed 

 ground the broad tiies roll it down and make a good 

 road. For drawing hay, nothing could be better; and 

 there is not so much danger of tipping the load over. 

 Our wheels are 24 inch front, and S2 hind, with 5 inch 

 tires, and are not as heavy as our wooden wheels. We 

 procured them from the Enterprise Manufacturing 

 Co., Quincy, Illinois. My father says he would not be 

 without them even if they cost double what he paid 

 for them. Arthur A. Evans. 



Kingsey, P. Q., Can., Mar. 25. 



WAGONS AND WHEELS; SOMETHING FROM PRACTICAL 

 EVERY-DAY EXPERIENCE. 



The wide tires and low wheels have manj- points of 

 excellence, but there are al.so drawbacks. I don't 

 know about the wheels mentioned, but .some of my 

 neighbors got iron or .steel wheels for their regular 

 farm-wagons; but under heavy loads they would go 

 down. The rims would get out of the true circle, and 

 some of the spokes got loo.se, and then the thing 

 would bend together and could not be repaired as a 

 wooden wheel could have been. I have had in use for 

 about four years a low-down wagon with 6 inch tires. 

 I also have a regular fartu-wagon called the " Cham- 

 pion," which, by the way, is a horse's true friend, as 

 the tongue does not strike if the front wheels strike 

 an obstruction. You all know how unpleasant it is to 

 drive over boulders or even hard rough ground with 

 the ordinary wagon, as the tongue con.stantly strikes 

 right and left, and brui.ses the horses' legs and shoul- 

 ders badly. With the Champion I can drive over any 

 obstruction with the front wheels, and the tongue will 

 keep straight between the horses and not hurt them 

 in the least; at the same time the tongue will turn 

 with the greatest ease under a very heavy load, some- 

 thing no other wagon will do. Thus you see I have a 

 good farm-wagon; but with all that, our low-down 

 wide-tire wagon is used ten times as much on the farm 

 as is the regular farm-wagon. My wagon was made 

 by the Handy Wagon Co. It is called the " Handy 

 wagon," and is true to name. The wheels are solid 

 wood, or, rather, planks bolted together with the 

 grain of the wood running in three different direc- 

 tions. It appears thus far entirely unbreakable. We 

 use it to haul about every thing on the farm, and, 

 when .solid, on the road. It is but two feet high, 

 while the other one is over four feet, and it saves very 

 much work to load and unload the potato-boxes, fruit, 

 vegetables, manure, hay, grain, silage corn — in fact, 

 any thing that has to be handled on a farm. It will 

 not upset along a side hill, like a high wagon. It will 

 turn very short, almost like the manure-spreader, and 

 that is a convenient feature. 



I have now given one side; but there is another. If 

 the ground or road is .soft, .so the wheels will cut in an 

 inch or more, they will refuse to turn, but will slide, 

 pushing the earth in front of them until a stone or 

 something solid is struck, and then they turn, and a 

 large mass of earth is pushed together where the 

 wheel starts. This is repeated often, and puts the 

 roads in an awful condition. If the road is full of ruts, 

 a-i it is in winter and spring, the wide tires can not be 

 used, as the wheels will stick in the ruts, and the 

 horse can not budge it. The only remedy is to pry the 

 wheel out. On solid road or .soil I can haul a ton as 

 easily with the low wide-tired wagon as with the 

 other one; but there are conditions when it can not 

 be used at all. L,. w. Eighty. 



Ea.st Berlin, Pa., Mar. 26. 



OBJECTIONS TO THE WIDE TIRE. 



You invite us farmers to give our experience with 

 wide-tired wheels. I have given the subject consider- 

 able thought for the pa.st six years, both as to the con- 

 .struction of the wheel ( for I've been trying to improve 

 it, and to ro^d-making, in which I've had much expe- 

 rience). So you .see I've got wheels in my head (yet 

 I -seldom ride one). 



You are right in saying that the .steel wheel is neces- 

 sarily heavier than the wooden one, if intended to 

 stand up as long under the same load. The rim (tire) 

 must be very heavy to give it stiffness or eUe the 

 wheel tends toward flattening under its load; and this 

 process going on, gradually loosens the spokes. An- 

 other objection to the small (diameter) steel wheel is 

 that the leverage to overcome friction upon the axle is 

 al-so reduced — this especially when the small wheel is 

 fitted to a wooden axle (witii thimble-skein). 



The wooden felloe (or something else), which adds 

 thickness to the rim of the wheel, is not only neces- 

 sary for the purpose of strengthening the wheel, but 

 this deep rim plays an important part upon our dirt 

 roads. For instance, when the wheel sinls into the 

 earth or mud beyond the depth of its rim the earth 

 closes in over the rim, and is carried up with it — evi- 

 dently taking the dirt from the low places and depos- 

 iting it on the high. Especially is this noticed where 

 deep ruts have been cut by narrow tires; and when 

 the surface of the road is frozen, .say an inch or two, 

 and tho e wide (thin) tires wedged into the ruts, they 

 .stick: and I have known them to break out great 

 chunks of frozen earth. 



Again, on dirt roads made convex, or with an arched 

 surface (for the purpose of shedding the water to the 

 side ditches), those wide tires slip sidewise more than 

 the narrow, and, having little depth to the rim, it 

 slips under the earth like a plowshare, rolling the dirt 

 down toward the side ditches. This same objection 

 to the wide thin-rimmed wheel is apparent on roads 

 having an uneven surface (holes gouged out) caused 

 bv cobblestones or other hard substances on one side 

 of the road, while the opposite side is composed of 

 dirt, etc. which yields under the extra blow it re- 

 ceives, the narrow tire first- cutting or gouging out a 



hole, then the thin rim of the wide tire is shoved into 

 or under the bank left by the deep rimmed wheel, and 

 large chunks of earth lifted out; consequently, instead 

 of repairing the damage done to the road by the nar- 

 row tire, this thin rimmed wide tire aids, under the 

 above conditions, to damage them. But I do not lay the 

 blame upon the small steel wheel alone, nor entirely 

 upon the thin rim; for some wooden (felloe) wheels 

 are not much better in this respect than the thin or 

 no-rimmed wheel, because the tire extends beyond the 

 felloe (is wider). This is calculated to protect the fel- 

 loe against the cutting action of the earth, etc., while 

 cutting through it, and will lift and plow the earth to 

 a certain extent as well as the little steel wheel, under 

 the conditions above mentioned. 



I have been trjing to boom the wide tire wherever 

 there was a chance; but it is uphill business where the 

 narrow one is continually cutting a rut for the wide 

 tire to run in. John H.\ndel. 



Savanna, 111., March 25. 



You will notice in the above letters we have 

 some very strong points in favor of these 



