FIELD DAY for HANDY-ANDIES 



FARMERS have always been pretty 

 handy about making things out of a 

 few spare parts and some baling wire 

 so when you hold a contest and offer 

 prizes for homemade gadgets, there's 

 bound to be a lot of entries. That's why 

 there is considerable interest in the labor- 

 saving shows now being held around the 

 state. 



Neighbors are sharing ideas on a 

 number of homemade devices at these 

 shows, and the U. of I. College of Agri- 

 culture has provided two truckloads of 

 material, with all departments cooperat- 

 ing. Prizes amounting to $1000 are 

 being offered for the best gadgets shown 

 at the county exhibits. Winners in the 

 county shows will be given an oppor- 

 tunity to compete for statewide awards, 

 according to P. E. Johnston, state exten- 

 sion farm labor supervisor. 



The shows are being held through 

 March 2. Gjunty shows scheduled for 

 the last half of February include: Rich- 

 land, Feb. 13; Fayette, Feb. 14; Bond, 

 Feb. 15; Jackson-Perry, Feb. 16; Pike, 

 Feb. 20; Morgan, Feb. 21; McDonough, 

 Feb. 22; Knox, Feb. 23; Rock Island, 

 Feb. 26; Lee, Feb. 28; Stephenson, 

 March 1, and McHenry, March 2. 



A windmill "throwout", an automatic 

 device to shut off the pump, won a $25 

 war bond prize for Frank Schumacher, 

 Piatt county, at the first labor-saving show 

 held in Champaign at the University in 

 Januar}'. 



He also exhibited barbed wire reel, 

 a jig saw, a tractor guide with a power 

 life, and a model of his corn dump sig- 

 nal equipped with an electric bell that 

 warns him when the dump is jammed 

 with corn. 



Schumacher's "throwout" is simple in 

 design and utilizes the principle of a 

 float in the tank to influence its working. 

 As the water level descends or ascends, 

 the float, a gallon bucket, goes with it 

 and moves a rod attached to the float. 

 As the rod moves it either hooks or un- 

 hooks a wire run by pulleys to the pump. 

 Unhooking of the wire causes an arm to 

 fail and the action of this arm turns off 

 or turns on the pump. 



Schumacher developed his corn dump 

 signal as a parts-saving device. When 

 a jam develops in the chute, he explained, 

 there is a tendency for the chain to rake 

 the corn and eventually for the chain to 

 be torn up. The bell signal enables 

 him to stop the mechanism before serious 

 trouble develops. 



Other devices exhibited at the Cham- 

 paign show included: a weed cutter. 



Farm Inventors Exhibit Their 

 Gadgets, Gimcraclcs and 

 Time-Saving Devices at 

 County Labor-Saving Shows 



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made with a Briggs-Stratton motor, bi- 

 cycle wheels, and a v-belt. This was 

 made by Hugh James, Champaign county 

 farmer. Clarence Harris of Champaign 

 showed a powered garden cultivator with 

 a washing machine motor. George Col- 

 lins, Champaign, received first honorable 

 mention for a horse planter with a power 

 lift, and Darrell Armstrong, Champaign 

 county, received second honorable men- 

 tion, with a posthole digger he had at- 

 tached to his tractor. 



Some 600 farmers and their wives 

 attended the Macon county show where 

 C. R. Rogers, Maroa, took first prize 

 with a tractor-powered manure scoop. 

 T. J. Shambaugh, also of Macon coun- 

 ty, manager of the statewide exhibits, 

 took second place with a manure scoop 

 of different design. Keith Albert took 

 third prize for an electric pump switch, 

 which he said cost him $2.88 to make. 

 He also took fifth place for a tractor 



This weed cutter is not only a labor sorer 

 but it really "mows 'em down." It was 

 shown at the Champaign labor-saving 

 show. It is driven by a gasoline motor 

 from an old washing machine. The V- 

 shaped cutting points welded on the old 

 disk really do a job. In this way ranlc 

 growth can be kept down by going around 

 fence posts neatly and quickly. 



grass seeder. Ernest Braden was sev- 

 enth with a sack filler and Linn Rau, 

 eighth, with his bean cultivator. L. W. 

 Shutter won a prize for a milk stool 

 which included a holder for the milk 

 bucket. 



At the Havana show in Mason 

 county, the winning gadget was an ele- 

 vator for putting baled hay in the mow. 



Farmers who are interested in ob- 

 taining plans for a particular device 

 may write to the university extension 

 department at Urbana and plans will 

 be sent to them. 



Purpose of the exhibits and shows 

 is to serve as a "clearing house" for 

 new gadgets and ideas which lessen 

 and simplify the ^ork of the farmers 

 handicapped by manpower and equip- 

 ment shortages. 



In most of the labor-saving shows, 

 farmers demonstrated how they had 

 adapted their tractors for many jobs about 

 the farm. At the Logan county show, 

 George Gehlbach, who farms near Lin- 

 coln, exhibited a three horsepower home- 

 made tractor which he uses to pull a low 

 two-wheel cart to haul feed, water, etc. 

 Old auto parts were used in making the 

 two wheeled tractor, which is narrow 

 enough to pass between corn rows, for 

 seeding rye or grass for pasture. 



Also exhibited at the Logan show 

 was a homemade power weed cutter — 

 a two-wheeled push type tractor with a 

 30-inch cutter bar mounted in front so 

 it can be pushed right under fence wires 

 to get the last of the weeds in any fence 

 row. This was exhibited by Harry Last 

 of Beason, Logan county. Two old air- 

 plane wheels were used, and a small 

 washing machine engine, transmission by 

 V-belts, with some parts from a combine 

 harvester to move the short cutter bar. 



A larger tractor, on three wheels, was 

 shown by Louis Bellati, Mt. Pulaski, Lo- 

 gan county, who uses it for odd jobs on 

 the 610 acres he and his father operate, 

 without using horses. It was powered 

 with a nine horsepower engine, had a 

 pipe frame, welded together, used a V- 

 belt drive and auto transmission and 

 pulled a 12-inch plow. 



While labor saving devices are impor- 

 tant, the practical aid of planning work 

 is demonstrated in the information given 

 by the extension workers in charge of 

 the labor-saving shows over the state. It 

 is reported that one Illinois dairyman has 

 reduced his daily chore time from five 

 hours a day to three hours, has saved 700 

 miles of walking and 60 full days of 

 labor a year by careful planning and re- 

 organizing chores. 



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L A. A. RECORD 



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