FARM MACHINERY 311 



some of the winter months offer a good opportunity to do 

 miscellaneous work of this character. 



System of Repairs. A definite sytem has proven to be 

 very useful in keeping farm machinery in repair. As each 

 machine finishes its work for the season and is placed in the 

 implement house, a tag with a string is taken from a conveni- 

 ent place and a record is made of the repairs that the machine 

 needs for the next year. It is much easier to make this record 

 at that time than later, as everything is fresh in mind. An 

 inspection of this tag at any time will show just what the 

 machine needs in the way of repairs. Before the busy sea- 

 son all the machinery should be gone over systematically, 

 and the needed parts sent for or repaired in the home shop. 

 More emphasis should be placed upon the matter of 

 systematic repairing than upon any other phase of the care 

 of farm machinery. 



. Housing. Vt may be demonstrated that rust is more 

 destructive than wear. A striking example of this is found 

 in the harvester. Its average life extends over a certain term 

 of years, largely independent of whether it harvests 40 or 

 200 acres of grain each year. Again, we find in machine 

 shops and factories machinery which has lasted as long as 

 the harvester and which, instead of being in operation a few 

 days in a year, is in operation ten hours or more day in and 

 day out without rest. 



Wooden parts are affected more by exposure to the weather 

 than metal parts, but both are materially injured. Not 

 only is the life of machinery shortened, but its efficiency, the 

 quality of its work, is lowered by not being carefully protected 

 from the weather. The average farm requires about $1000 

 worth of machinery. This may be nicely housed in a build- 

 ing costing $200, an investment that will pay good divi- 

 dends in protecting and prolonging the life of the machinery. 



