16 
AMKRIGAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[jAlfUAKT, 
box is reached. It is most convenient to have a 
rack, or ilai-ing side-boards, to confine the upper 
part of the load, but this is not uecessarj if the 
loading is properly done. The manner of loading 
the top is as follows : a bundle of straw is spread 
sothat half of it projects over the side or end of 
the load. A quantity of the mixed stuff is forked 
on to the straw, the loose projecting ends of which 
are turned back on to the load when more is laid 
upon it. The doubled straw holds the loose stuif 
together, which might else be shaken off the load 
1.— MAKNEK OP LOADING HIQHT-SOIL. 
as it is carried home. In this manner the load is 
built up until it is completed, when it appears as 
Bhown in figure 1. Loads thus made are carried 
many miles without losing anything on the journey, 
and the mass, which would seem to have no co- 
hereuce, is kept solidly together. Carts are some- 
times loaded to a hight of two or three feet above 
How Axes are Iffade. 
A. great deal of skiU is needed to make a good 
ax, and only the best smiths work at this business. 
Formerly the work was all done by hand, and was 
therefore done slowly. Now hammers worked by 
steam, which make two hundred or more strokes 
in a minute, are used, and to make and finish an 
ax, requires but a very short time. The work is 
divided into three distinct portions, and a different 
set of men is employed 
at each. Thus, one 
man, or set of men, cut 
long bars of iron into 
exact lengths, by means 
of a shearing machine, 
which works in the 
same manner as a pair 
of scissors might be 
made to do. These 
lengths, which are all 
exactly alike for the 
same size of ax, are 
called "molds." Oth- 
ers cut a bar of steel 
into short pieces, ex- 
Fig. 3. — PKEPAEnfG NIGHT-SOII,. 
the side-boards, and are made to carry a load for 
three horses. By this management this material is 
no more disagreeable than ordinary manure, and 
the work of moving it is rendered quite easy. 
Spiked Feet for Ladders. 
In making the feet for ladders so that they can 
not slip, it is well to avoid another danger, viz., 
that of the feet entering the soft ground unequally, 
and causing the ladder to be overthrown in conse- 
quence When the feet are simply pointed, this 
accident may easily happen in a plowed orchard, or 
in the soft ground around buildings. But if a 
sharpened pin is fixed 
in the square foot, as 
shown in the accom- 
panying engraving, the 
ladder is not only pre- 
vented from slipping 
upon hard ground or 
a smooth floor, but it 
can not be forced into 
soft ground further 
than the square foot, 
and there is therefore 
no danger of its being 
overset in consequence 
^^^g ^SZ^ ffMf .^jgaa of one foot penetrating 
"" the soil more than the 
ifEET OF LADDER. other. The hole to re- 
ceive the pin should be 
bored with an auger, md the pin should have the 
end that is inserted in the hole perfectly square 
and level, so that it can not be forced further into 
the wood than is intended. If it is screwed into 
the wood, so much the better ; this may be done by 
hammering the pointed end of the pin square so that 
il may be taken hold of with a wrench and turned. 
actly as long as the pieces of iron are wide. A 
piece of steel and a piece of iron are then heated, 
and the steel is welded on to the iron, just at the 
middle, as is shown at figure 1. The piece of steel 
is to form the poll of the ax. The joined piece is 
again heated, and the 
ends of the iron are work- 
ed under the hammer un- 
til they are made quite 
thin, as seen at figure 3. 
These thinned pieces are 
taken by other men, heat- 
ed, and bent around an 
oval-shaped mandrel, so 
as to bring them to the 
form seen at figure 3. The 
mandrel tapers a little, so 
that one end of the hole 
is larger than the other 
end. But while the iron 
is hot the mandrel is 
changed, and put into the 
hole the other way, and 
the iron Is hammered over 
it. The hole is thus made 
larger at both ends than 
in the middle, and the 
purpose of this is, that 
when the handle is fitted 
on the ax, and a wedge 
is driven into the end 
of the handle, the wood is spread, and fits the 
larger part of the hole tightly, and the ax cau not 
fiy off from the handle ; neither cau it slip down 
towards the lower end of the handle, if it is proper- 
ly fitted to it. A thin piece of steel is then placed 
between the thinned parts of the u-on, and the whole 
are heated and welded together by hammering or 
pressing in properly shaped dies. There is then a 
rough shaped ax, which 
needs veiy careful work- 
ing, lest it should be spoil- 
ed. This last working, 
which is to bring it into 
its final shape, is done in 
■what is known as a hollow 
fire. This is a fire which 
is covered all over except one small hole at one 
side, with a crust of coal, see figure 5, and it is 
built up very carefully of fine soft coal, which is 
frequently wetted, until it is all closed in. The 
injure it. The rough ax heated in this fire is then 
hammered very skillfully, to spread out the blade 
and make it flat and thin at the edge. The edge is 
pared to a proper shape by a cutting machine, and 
is finished with a round-faced hammer, called a 
" top-f alter." The parings are not thrown away, 
but are carefully saved to be sold to the gun-smiths 
to make gun barrels. 
The ax is then tem- 
pered, both on the 
poll and the blade, 
ground upon a large 
revolving grindstone, 
and polished upon a 
wooden wheel cover- 
ed with leather, 
known as a "bob," 
and which is sprink- 
led with emery powd- 
er. Most of the 
ax factories now have emery wheels, upon which 
this work is done, in place of the old-fashioned 
"bobs." Some axes are ground and polished 
bright all over ; others are blackened In part ; 
these are only ground upon the bright portions ; 
the black parts are left rough and covered with 
Japan varnish. If the axes are to be sold with 
handles, these are fitted in ; if not, each one is 
wrapped in paper, and a dozen is packed in a strong 
box. The axes are made of different weights, 
from 3 pounds up to 6 pounds ; some are made 
with double bits, but the method of making them 
Fig. 3. 
Fig. 4. 
Kg. 1. 
Fig. 3. — THE AX BEFORE BENDING. 
work heated in a fire of this kind, is exposed all 
over to a very intense heat, so that it can be equally 
worked, audit is kept from the air, which would 
— FIEE FOB FlNISHEJa THE AX. 
is the same in all, excepting that double bitted axes 
have no "polls." 
A Bolted Fence. 
The fence here described and illustrated, is put 
together with bolts. The posts are set in the usual 
BOLTED FENCE BARS. 
manner, and are flattened to about 6 inches in thick- 
ness where the rails are fastened. The rails ai-e 
flattened at each end to about two inches in thick- 
ness, so that a bolt 13 inches long, or a little less, 
will be required. If sawed rails are used, they 
should be an inch and a quarter thick, and the 
posts, if sawed, wiU be six inches square, so that 
in this case a 9-inch bolt will be long enough. Each 
alternate panel of the fence is fastened to the op- 
posite side of the posts ; thus. It one panel is on 
the inside of the fence, the next on either side of it 
is on the outside. In building the fence, the rails 
