1881 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
241 
■ y —- -- - 
more or less in more than half the counties of 
the State, or from foot and mouth disease, 
which is frequently found at the stock yards, 
among store and beef cattle. They even 
think it a great hardship that they are not 
allowed to take their cows freely across the 
river into New York, and no amount of argu¬ 
ment will lead them to take another view. 
Fortunately there is not the least danger of 
the New Jersey cows being allowed promis¬ 
cuously to cross the river, but breeders of 
good stock in that State are greatly incon¬ 
venienced by such a state of things as exists 
—having to maintain their herds in a sort of 
a private quarantine, and pay heavily for 
veterinary service besides, if they want to ship 
their stock through the State of New York. 
tooth 
of the 
Setting a Cross-Cut Saw. 
De Lancy Fairchild, Cortland Co., N. 
Y., writes: “All 
who have had any¬ 
thing to do with set¬ 
ting a cross-cut saw 
know how difficult it 
is to get a perfect 
set. I use a gauge 
which is made as 
follows : Take a piece 
of hard-wood about 
four inches long, and 
hollow it out at one 
end and insert a 
common screw. The 
central portion of the 
side below the hol- 
lowed-out end is also 
removed.” The teeth 
of the saw are set 
with a hammer, and 
the gauge is applied 
as shown in the en¬ 
graving, to determine 
if the set is right. 
The gauge can be set 
to any angle for the 
teeth by turning the 
screw, e, in or out. 
The saw, b, is shown 
saa\ gauge. j n cross-section, the 
being at a, against which the end 
screw comes when the set is right. 
Old Scythes Made Useful. 
Mr. A. J. F. Howard. Worcester Co., Mass., 
sends sketches of several handy implements 
which he has made from old and otherwise 
worthless scythes. He writes: “Having, 
like almost every other farmer, a number of 
old scythes, some of which were not much 
worn, and having last winter a little leisure, 
I made some very useful and handy tools, and 
without any outlay. Figure 1 represents 
what I call a ‘ Bill Hook,’ which is useful in 
cutting bean poles, pea brush, etc. To make 
this, I cut off 20 inches of the point of an old 
scythe, leaving 15 inches for the blade. The 
handle is made by cutting away the edge or 
blade part of die scythe, leaving the back, 
around which cloth was wound, until it was 
of sufficient size, when it was covered with 
Fig. 3.— TURNIP KNIFE. 
leather. Figure 2 is a Drawing Knife, which 
I find useful in making handles to tools, etc. 
To make this, I used 24 inches of an old scythe, 
12 inches for the blade, and 6 inches at each 
end for the handles. With a cold chisel I 
cut away the blade portion of the scythe at 
the ends, and bent the back as shown in fig¬ 
ure 2, which can be done without heating. 
The handles may be made of cloth and leather, 
as for the bill hook, or of wood. Figure 3 
represents a Knife for paring apples, cutting 
turnip tops, and many other uses. This is 
made from the end of the old scythe, 4 inches 
for the blade. I cut the back of the scythe 
entirely away, using only the thin part, then 
took a piece of wood—an old broom handle 
will do—and with a fine saw I made a cut in 
the end to admit the end of the blade, which 
was fastened on by rivets. A Chopping Knife 
for cutting meat, ap¬ 
ples, etc., is shown in 
figure 4. For this 
knife I used 12 inches 
of the middle of a 
scythe, leaving 4 inch¬ 
es for the cutting 
surface in the center 
4.-A chopping knife. of the piece. The 4 
inches on each end had the blade removed, 
and were turned at right angles to the 
central portion, with the ends passing into a 
wooden handle.” The size and shape of the 
parts in the complete chopping knife are 
made plain by the engraving. But very few 
tools are required in making the articles 
above described, and any farmer, during a 
rainy day or two, may construct them from 
an old scythe, and at no outlay of money. 
A Handy Saw Vise. 
Mr. W. D. Higgins, Suffolk Co., Mass., de¬ 
scribes, with the aid of sketches, a handy and 
easily made device for holding a saw while 
being filed. He claims that in some respects it 
is even better than the iron vise, which is much 
more expensive. It consist of the upright 
piece, d, d, with deep Y-shaped notches on the 
upper ends, into which the “ check pieces,” 
c, c, with the 
saw between 
them, are gent¬ 
ly hammered. 
The “check 
pieces ” are 
made of 3 | .,-inch 
board, and of a 
length suffici¬ 
ent to accom¬ 
modate the 
longest hand 
saws. The up- A HOLDER roR A SAW - 
rights are fastened together by cross-bars, 
r, r,r. “ In use the vise is leaned against a 
bench, window sill, or other handy support, 
the filer resting his body against the braces, 
thereby keeping the saw vise steady.” 
Cow Milkers. —In answer to several 
who have inquired regarding ‘ • Milking Ma¬ 
chines,” so-called, it may be said that there 
are cases when it is necessary to use tubes of 
some sort in drawing the milk from the cow’s 
udder. When the teats are badly chapped or 
cracked, or the udder is inflamed or tender 
in any way, the removal of the milk through 
tubes inserted into the channels of the teats, 
is both a comfort to the cow and the person 
who does the milking. For general use, how¬ 
ever, to save time and labor, we are not able 
to advise the continuous use of any “ ma¬ 
chine” that we have yet seen, but recom¬ 
mend the old way as the safest and best. 
Whenever tubes of any description are em¬ 
ployed, they should be carefully cleaned after 
each milking, and inserted into the teats 
with care, otherwise the trouble may be 
aggravated, instead of cured, by their use. 
Soil Exhaustion. 
A soil is said to be exhausted when it fails 
to give paying crops under the most favor¬ 
able circumstances of tillage, weather, etc. 
This exhaustion is brought about by the re¬ 
moval of the constituents needed by the 
plants, through the growth and removal of 
plants, without any corresponding addition of 
these food elements. Thus a soil may con¬ 
tain enough phosphoric acid in an available 
form for ten full crops, but after that, if none 
of this substance is added to the soil, the crop 
can not make a full return for the labor ex¬ 
pended upon it. A soil may thus be exhausted 
or deficient in only one of the several food 
elements, and yet it is not much better, as 
far as plant growth is concerned, than if all 
the elements were equally lacking. All crops 
do not exhaust soils equally—some remove 
more potash than others, and one requires a 
greater amount of nitrogen than another. 
This is very clearly shown in the long ex¬ 
tended experiments of Lawes and Gilbert at 
Rothamsted, England. It is found by them 
that the plots upon which continuous crops of 
clover, beans, and roots, have been grown 
without any manure, have declined more 
rapidly than the land devoted to cereal grain 
crops. This is surprising, in so far as clover, 
etc., are generally considered as restorative 
rather than exhaustive crops. A judicious 
rotation of crops is as much needed to pre¬ 
serve the even fertility of the soil as to keep 
it mellow and free from weeds. 
A Work Shop. —Every farmer has fre¬ 
quent—almost constant—need of a work 
shop. It may not be a separate building ; a 
place at one side of the carriage room will 
answer. There should be a good-sized bench 
with a vise at one end, and a place for using 
the planes, of which there should be at least 
two kinds provided. A shaving bench, with 
a drawing knife, is an essential feature of a 
well-stocked work shop ; and saws, chisels, 
bit stock and bits, hatchet, files, screw¬ 
drivers, wrenches, etc., should all be at hand. 
For work in metal, punches, cold chisels, 
anvil, etc., are all needed. A soldering iron 
is important, and also a few needles and awls 
for doing the necessary mending of the har¬ 
ness. By those provided with a work shop or 
work room, many a rainy day may be turn¬ 
ed to good account. A well equipped work 
shop will do much to make the boys more 
interested in farm work, and tend strongly 
to keep them at home when they might be 
tempted to go to the village or elsewhere. 
