THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
are remarkably healthy and vigorous. Not a 
sign of disease or blight or decay or of insect 
depredations can be seen. There are no in¬ 
sects here injurious to either fruit or fruit 
trees. Not a wormy apple or peach has yet 
been found. Birds do more damage than in¬ 
sects. 
The only pests in this valley are the house¬ 
fly, little red ant, and cockroach. Lice, fleas 
and bedbugs are unknown here. The chinch- 
bug, the potato bug and the frisky grasshop¬ 
per dwell not here to the farmer’s sorrow. 
Men work in the harvest-field all day long 
in midsummer, and the women over the cook- 
stoves, yet neither sun-stroke nor “blizzard- 
stroke” threatens the lives of those who dwell 
jn this land of perpetual sunshine for health or 
for homes. 
True, the midsummer days become very 
warm; but 110° to 115° in the shade here, is 
more easily endured and with less danger, 
than 85° to 90° in the moister atmosphere of 
the States East. Our atmosphere is dry, warm 
and very equable—no sudden changes—hence, 
“taking cold” is seldom known. For nine 
months we have the finest, mildest, most 
charming and healthiest climate known in the 
United States. The U. S. Army records show 
that Fort McDowell, near Salt River Valley, 
is the healthiest locality in the United States. 
This climate has proved itself especially 
adaped to relieve most cases of throat and 
lung diseases which have come here. Catarrh, 
bronchitis, asthma and consumption are often 
cured by a residence here. 
If these lines interest any one let him come 
and see this emerald gem of an oasis, in its 
brown desert setting of the vast arid South¬ 
west. F. s. G. 
Phoenix, Arizona. 
farm fLopics. 
BLACKSM1THING ON THE FARM. 
CHAIN MAKING. 
JAS. M. DREW. 
To make a link for a chain take a piece of 
% inch iron, heat to about three inches from 
the end and bend it into the form shown at 
Fig. 190 ; then cut it off on the bardie so as 
to leave a U-sbaped piece, about three inches 
long. Keep this for a pattern by which to 
make all the other links. This will insure hav¬ 
ing all the links of the chain the same length. 
Make another U like the pattern. Now the 
chain tongs will come into play. Take hold of 
the bent part of the U and heat the two ends 
The scarfing is done by simply flattening the 
inside corner of each end in a bead-shape, as 
shown at 2. Strike the inside corner of 
the left leg, then turn over and flatten the 
corresponding corner of the other leg ; then 
bend over the horn of the anvil into the shape 
shown at 3. This will bring the two 
beveled or scarfed corners together. Now 
bring it to a welding heat and strike a quick 
blow on each side. This will make a link 
something like the one shown at 4. Now 
work it over the end of the horn to get the 
iron down to something like the original size. 
This will spread the link out into the shape 
shown at 5. 
To get the link properly shaped, do not hold 
it flat on the anvil ; but at a slant as shown at 
6. This will avoid making the form shown at 
7. A very common mistake is made by striking 
too near the middle of the link. A finished 
link should look about like that shown at 8. 
The beginner will perhaps have to heat the 
link several times before getting it shaped and 
smoothed off ; but with a little practice he 
will be able to make and finish a link with 
only three heats—one heat to bend and cut 
off the iron, one to scarf and bend the ends, 
and the third to weld and finish off. 
In the course here at Coi nell each student 
makes a chain 7>£ feet long (about 50 links) 
and puts a ring in one end and a hook in the 
other. 
To make a ring, take a piece of iron about 
3 1-7 times as long as the diameter of the in¬ 
tended ring and upset both ends the same as 
in the case of the two irons in the first lesson. 
Be sure to scarf on opposite sides so that when 
bent in the form of a ring the ends will fit 
as at 9. The welding is the same as in 
the case of the two irons. Do not attempt to 
make the ring in the last link of the chain, 
but make the ring, then join it to the chain 
with another link. This will also apply to the 
hook. 
To make the hook take a piece of %-inch 
square iron, and about four inches from the 
end mark off a space about 2 % inches long 
and work it down to half an inch round; then 
bend it over in the shape shown at 10. 
and weld the pieces together, beginning next 
the ring and working toward you. After 
welding work it into the shape shown at 
1, and then cut off, and handling it with the 
bolt-tongs, draw it out to a point. In draw¬ 
ing iron out to a point, alwavs draw it out 
square first, then round it. Never strike iron 
after it coo's to a dark cherry-red. This piece 
should be about eight inches long when drawn 
out. Now bend it about as much as shown 
Fig. 190. 
at 12 and then bevel the outside of the 
hook, so that a section through where the dot¬ 
ted line is drawn at 13 will look like 14. 
This beveling will expand the outside of 
the hook and force it around to about the 
proper form shown at 14. 
We are each required to make a swivel and 
put it in our chain; but as this is a somew hat 
difficult piece of work, it is left till we have 
had more practice. 
CARE OF FARM IMPLEMENTS. 
On many farms there are disabled machines 
useless and laid aside with a scolding at the 
manufacturer. We have often wondered when 
examining them if these scoldings were always 
justifiable. Farmers have often complained to 
us of the difficulty of following the printed di¬ 
rections sent with their machines. Some say 
they follow the directions exactly, and then 
fiud themselves unable to start the machine. 
Others say they keep bolts and screws tight 
and yet the machines break or shake. For all 
these troubles the manufacturers are blamed- 
There are two sides to every question. We 
have never heard the manufacturer’s side of 
this one, so we sent the following questions to 
some of our leading implement houses: 
1. What proportion of the farmers that buy 
your implements can put them together and 
run them successfully without help? 
2. W hat proportion of tools and implements 
do you think are broken by careless handling 
or by being improperly put together? 
3. What instructions do you give for run¬ 
ning your machines, and can you generally 
make them plain enough to prevent trouble? 
We give below samples of the answers re¬ 
ceived from various implement men. It will 
be seen that both sides claim good cases. We 
should say that the controversy settles one 
thing conclusively, viz:—when a farmer buys a 
good and intricate machine he has got to study 
it out and thoroughly understand it, before 
he can hope to use it successfully. 
Our dealings are mostly with the implement 
dealers and not with farmers direct, so we are 
not in position to know positively, but we 
think that most of the machines we make are 
started by farmers with little assistance other 
than the printed directions we send with each 
machine. We find a large part of the break¬ 
ages occurs through carelessness, either in put¬ 
ting machines together, or in not watching to 
see that nuts, bolts, etc., stay tight, or in not 
oiling, or in not housing or caring for ma¬ 
chines or in careless handling. We think our 
directions for setting up and operating cur 
machines will enable almost any one to handle 
them. 
We are not able to state what proportion of 
the farmers that “buy our implements can put 
them together and run them successfully 
without help.” We know that many of our 
best tools are often condemned, and when we 
see them we find that the only trouble with 
them was that they were not put together 
right, and in many cases there are printed di¬ 
rections sent with them, which the owners 
seem to ignore; at all events they go contrary 
to them, so that it is a common re¬ 
mark that the “only agricultural implements 
which the farmer can understand without par¬ 
ticular showing are the hoe and spade.” For 
instance, a few years since we sold a man a 
self dumping rake. The teeth were raised by 
right and left hand ratchets or gears. The 
next year he wrote us “Last year my rake 
worked finely, but this year we have to dump 
it by hand for we cannot make the rake op- 
perate at all by means of the wheels.” We 
wrote him to see that there was no bind in any 
part and that it was oiled, but he could not 
make it work. Mr. Nye, the patentee, was 
passing within a few miles of his place and as 
the farmer was a prominent man in that lo¬ 
cality, we had him go out and see the rake. 
He took hold of the shafts and said “Let us 
change the wheels.” The only trouble was 
that the man (and he was not an ignorant 
man) had got his wheels on wrong. Of course, 
he was greatly chagrined, but never after 
that would he allow a word to be said against 
the rake. 
A great proportion of tools and implements 
are broken because those who operate them 
do not understand them, say, mowing ma¬ 
chines, sulky plows, etc. It is a common re¬ 
mark as a farmer comes in to get repairs for 
his machine or tools, “I have used that tedder 
(or whatever it might be) for a long time, and 
never broke the first thing about it until I 
loaned it to my neighbor, and he had not used 
it half an hour before he broke it.” Now the 
trouble with the neighbor was he had seen 
the owner use the machine, and it moved along 
so prettily and easily that he wants to try it, 
and takes it home, and without any showing 
he mounts the seat, and before he is aware of 
it he is in trouble, and the result is a broken 
tool or machine and the neighbor condems it 
when he and not the machine is at fault. 
We try to impress upon our customers the 
importance of understanding our directions 
before they commence putting the machine 
together, but oftentimes the directions are dis¬ 
regarded or are not understood, and when the 
machine does not work, instead of consulting 
the printed instructions,the owner sends at once 
to the factory, usually saying the machine 
is imperfect. 
No doubt it would be a great saving of lime 
and money,both to manufacturers and farm¬ 
ers, if the latter had a better understanding of 
the principles of machines. 
We have made considerable inquiry among 
our sources of information, and conclude, as 
regards goods of our manufacture as follows: 
Almost ail farmers can set up and run our 
goods without skilled help. The proportion of 
breakages must be very small indeed. We 
give full instructions where we think they are 
needed. In other cases instructions are brief. 
In others no instructions at all are given. We 
have no complaints and believe our treatment 
of this matter suits the consumer generally. 
The most important lesson in the economical 
care of machinery which the farmer needs to 
learn is, to protect it from the weather. The 
power of the “elements,” rain, snow and wind, 
does more in the work of disintegration and 
change every hour than all the steam power 
upon earth could accomplish since the world 
was created. Mountains are leveled down, 
rocks are crumbled away, thousands of b ill 
ions of tons of water are raised in the air from 
oceans and rivers and lakes to fall back in 
rain. Forests and flowers come and go at 
their giant bidding; and yet the farmer leaves 
his delicate reaper or thrasher exposed to all 
their power, and wonders why it so soon gives 
way. The advice to house implements is so 
much more important than any and all else I 
could give that I might stop here, but would 
say, a small portion of the money lost in 
implements giving way comes of want of 
proper attention to keep nuts tight, oiling, 
etc. Fully ninety- nine-one-hundredths of the 
farmers to whom we sell, seem capable of put¬ 
ting the implements together and running 
them without help if forced to do it—necessity 
is the mother of invention. I don’t think over 
two per cent, are seriously broken by careless 
handling. We send our printed instructions 
with thrashers, drills, mowers, engines and all 
complicated machinery, and as a general rule, 
farmers have little difficulty in understanding 
them. So much have we found this the case 
that we have abandoned sending men from 
the factory to set up implements or machines 
of any kind, trustmg that our directions will 
enable the purchaser to put them to work 
himself. 
It is rather difficult to state what portion of 
the farmers that buy implements can put them 
together, and run them without help. You 
would be surprised to see how few there are 
that really understand the setting up of the 
implement, and the putting it in proper order 
for work. We are particular to put instruc¬ 
tions on every machine, and in nine cases out 
of ten we find that where the complaints come 
regarding the working of the machine they 
have beenputup wrong, and when the own¬ 
ers are asked if they have read the directions 
they have said no. We find that a large percent¬ 
age of tools are broken by careless handling. 
Asa general rule, we regret to say that'purchas- 
ers of machinery are very careless, many times 
putting no oil on parts that should be lubri¬ 
cated and seeming to disregard entirely the di¬ 
rections; also in their carelessness regarding 
the setting up of bolts and nuts. If a little 
more attention was paid to the directions 
which are given with nearly all implements 
there would be fewer causes for complaint, and 
much less breakage of tools. 
We send very full and complete instructions 
with every implement that we manu¬ 
facture, and if farmers would read over the di¬ 
rections and instructions, and follow the same, 
it would be very much better for them. We 
find the greatest trouble arises from the far¬ 
mer not reading and paying attention to 
these instructions, thinking that he knows 
more about the use of implements than the 
manufacturer does. We occasionally have 
complaints against a particular machine that 
is the same as thousands of others that are 
giving perfect satisfaction, yet every imple¬ 
ment that we turn out is thoroughly inter¬ 
changeable in its parts ; that is, one is a com¬ 
plete duplicate of every other. If one will do 
good work, all will, if the owners follow in¬ 
structions. 
“ Wbat proportion of tools and imple¬ 
ments are broken by careless handling or 
by being improperly put together ?” Our an¬ 
swer to this would be, seven eighths. We aim 
to give such directions that any ordinary 
school boy could put together our machinery 
and operate it without the assistance of ex¬ 
perts. We have known farmers to telegraph 
for an expert to be sent them immediately, 
and all that would be required, would be per¬ 
haps to screw up one nut that they had al¬ 
lowed to become loose, thereby disengaging 
certain portions of machinery, because it was 
not properly set up, and directions followed. 
We think manufacturers in general give very 
explicit directions in regard to operating ma¬ 
chinery manufactured by them, and we do 
think that the greatest trouble arising from 
first-class machinery is owing to the neglect to 
read the instructions and directions. We are 
aware that there is a large amount of ma¬ 
chinery placed upon the market at a very low 
price, far below what first-class machinery 
can be manufactured for ; the only point in 
making sales is the price, yet farmers ex¬ 
pect that this machinery so purchased at far 
below the actual cost of first-class machinery 
will do the work of similar goods made of 
first-class material and by first-class work¬ 
manship. The most thoroughly constructed 
machinery, and that of the best material will 
always be found to be the cheapest in the end, 
where quality of work, quantity and dur¬ 
ability are taken into consideration. It is too 
often the case that some farmers, in the 
event of breakage, immediately claim that the 
material was defective when in reality it was 
entirely their own fault; but in this 
respect farmers are similar to many other 
classes of people. It is a very remarkable 
fact that of the large number of hay presses 
and other implements we have sent to Europe, 
South America and Australia, we never yet 
have had a complaint on account of defective 
workmanship, breakage, or faulty operation. 
We are at a loss how to account for this, for 
we do not believe the European farmer has a 
better knowledge of machinery than our own 
intelligent farmer ; simply the European 
takes more care to study the directions. 
We think that the proportion of farmers 
who buy our implements, and can put them 
up and run them successfully, averages about 
75 per cent. We think that the proportion of 
tools and implements that are broken by 
farmers, by careless handling and being im¬ 
properly put together, is about 75 per cent. 
