376 
TOOL SHOP FOR FARMERS. 
and running to a point at the top, and build the 
stack around this, well elevated from the ground, 
and it is almost impossible for grain to spoil. 
Barley is a very tender plant, and requires 
more care than wheat or oats. A heavy rain, 
falling just after seeding, will sometimes ruin 
the crop. It is also more difficult to thresh and 
clean than wheat, on account of the awns ad- 
hering so closely to the grain. Yet it is not a 
crop that should be neglected by the farmers of 
this country; for, in seasons when the wheat 
might fail, the barley crop would be perhaps a 
very good one. Light, sharp soils are consider- 
ed the most appropriate for barley. There are 
several varieties of this grain cultivated in this 
country and each one has its particular advo- 
cates. We cannot pretend to decide the ques- 
tion which variety is the best. Probably the 
very heavy six-rowed kind, which is so excellent 
upon a rich strong soil, would be condemned 
bjr the owner of a light soil, for the two-rowed 
variety, as more profitable to his situation. 
TOOL SHOP FOR FARMERS. 
Evert farmer ought to possess a variety of 
tools, such as needed in repairing farming im- 
plements — fences, gates, and pens ; and for 
doing such work generally as will always be 
required on the premises, and which every per- 
son may acquire the habit of doing, although 
he has no mechanical trade. How often does 
a nail give way, and hence a board become 
loose ! If he has nails and a hammer at hand, 
a few minutes will be sufficient to make it se- 
cure. Whereas, if permitted to remain inse- 
cure, it may fall and be broken, so that a new 
one will be required to supply its place. How 
often will the fastenings on a gate or door de- 
mand a brief attention, to prevent destruction 
from the wind, as well as to keep the stock 
from going where they ought not ! How often 
does a rake tooth or an axe handle get broken; 
a hoe handle become loose in its socket; an ox- 
bow pin gets lost ; a floor plank in the stalls 
become damaged ! If he has tools and materi- 
iils at hand for making repairs, he may do it 
himself, in half the time to be occupied in going 
after a mechanic to do it; besides, if he does it 
himself, he does not have to pay another per- 
son for doing it. 
To do these things, he must have hammers 
and hatchets, gimlets and augers, chisels and 
gouges, drills and screw drivers; saws and files, 
squares and compasses, pliers and pinchers ; 
also, a punch, a vice, an adze, a drawing knife, 
a gauge, and perhaps twenty other articles, 
the cost of which is not much, not equal to 
what they will enable a person to save in a 
single year, if he uses them as he may do. Be- 
sides, the time generally taken in such acts 
would never be missed ; it is fragments of leis- 
ure about the season of meals, or stormy days, 
when nothing else would be done. With such 
habits of attention to the farming implements, 
and to the various fixtures on the premises, 
whenever a job of work is to be undertaken, no 
delay is caused by the want of imstruments 
with wh ich to effect it. This is the secret why 
some farmers get along with their labor so 
much better than their neighbors. They do 
not have to wait a day before beginning any 
specified operation, in going after a carpenter, 
a wheelwright, nor a blacksmith, after the labor- 
ers are personally ready to engage in it. — 
Blake's Farmers' Every- Day Book. 
»«-. 
WOOD-SAWING MACHINE FOR GUTTING- FUEL. 
The subjoined cut shows a machine in gen- 
eral use for sawing wood. It is easily driv- 
en by a one-horse railway power, and is capable 
of sawing several cords of wood per day. It 
is simple and easily worked and kept in or- 
der. 
Others, of larger dimensions, are used for 
slitting plank, boards, scantling, &c. For this 
purpose, a different saw is required than when 
used for cutting across the grain. For the last 
purpose, the teeth are triangular ; for the former, 
they are hooked like an eagle's beak. The first 
is called the cross-cut, the last the rip saw. 
Wood-Sawing Machine. — Fig. 91. 
GEORGIA BURR MILLSTONES. 
Our attention has been called to this subject 
with a request to notice an article of American 
production and manufacture, intimately con- 
nected with the farming interest. An article in 
the Savannah Republican, copied from a letter 
of Haxhall &• Brothers, extensive millers of 
Richmond, Virginia, to the manufacturers, 
speaks of them as more than equal to an aver- 
age of French burr stones, and intimates, that, 
if the same quality of grit is abundant in Geor- 
gia, there is no further need of importation. 
As to the abundance of material, there is no 
question, and we hope it may prove fully equal 
in quality to that of France, but of this 
we have our doubts. Similar grit to this has 
been long in use in Ohio, Indiana, and oth- 
er western states. When first dressed, the 
stones are fully equal to French burr, but do 
not wear so well. There is also occasional soft 
spots and sometimes poor blocks, and after the 
surface is worn off, the body of the stone 
seems, although hard, to lack that peculiar open 
texture, that gives value to the French burr. 
We hope this will not be the case with the 
