THIS KURA], Nli'.V-VORKKK 
1179 
M 
FARM EVENERS AND HITCHES. 
Planning to Equalize the Draft. 
ETHODS AND PURPOSES.—Notwithstand¬ 
ing the increased use of the tractor in farm¬ 
ing operations, the horse still furnishes the 
greater part <»f the tractive force used by the far¬ 
mer. The evener always furnishes the link between 
l he horse and his load, and a knowledge of its use 
and adjustments is essential to secure best results. 
Its purpose is to furnish a flexible hitch, place the 
horses composing the team so that they can work ad¬ 
vantageously, and so to equalize the load that each 
horse draws his proportionate share. Among the de¬ 
sirable features are strength, lightness, simplicity 
and shortness of hitch. The evener is governed by a 
few simple laws which, when once understood, will 
enable one to devise hitches for a varying number of 
horses to suit his needs. The evener is a lever and 
comes under the laws of physics governing the same. 
This states that the power arm times the power is 
equal to the weight arm times the 
weight, expressed by the formula PA 
X P equals WA X W. The length of 
the arm is always taken as the per¬ 
pendicular distance from the line in 
which the force is acting to the ful¬ 
crum or point upon which the lever 
swings. This law is probably illus¬ 
trated as well by the seesaw as by any 
other common object. Every boy knows 
that to balance two of his companions 
on the seesaw he must sit just twice 
as far from the center as they do, pro¬ 
vided, of course, that they are all of 
the same size. 
ARRANGEMENT OF HITCH.— 
Practically every wooden evener has 
the center hole placed well toward the 
front and the two end holes placed 
well back. This is for the purpose of 
strength and is desirable as it shortens 
the hitch. However, it has one unde¬ 
sirable feature; it divides the load 
equally, only so long as the horses re¬ 
main even. As soon as one goes ahead 
of the other it lengthens his lever arm 
as shown by Fig. 523, and gives him 
the advantage. The mount of ad¬ 
vantage secured, of course, depends on 
the amount that the holes are out of 
line, and the distance one horse is in 
advance of the other. If one has a 
team, one horse of which habitually 
travels ahead of the other, I would 
recommend attaching his whillletree 
nearer the center to equalize the load 
when at work. With eveners having a 
L>, or clevis, to which a chain may be 
attached, the reverse is true: the horse 
behind has the advantage, for in this 
case the middle hitch is behind. This, 
however, adjusts itself, for, as soon as 
a horse drops behind he gains an ad¬ 
vantage over the other and is enabled 
to catch up. This explains why a team 
will sometimes work evenly on a chain, 
that on a tongue are very uneven work¬ 
ers. The usual wagon evener is from 
42 to 48 inches in length. Of course, 
the shorter the evener the greater the 
advantage gained by the horse going 
ahead. 
EXPLANATION OF DIAGRAM.— 
Fig. 523 shows an evener 48 inches 
long over all; the end holes being 
placed 44 inches apart from center 
to center. A straight line passing 
through the centers of the two end 
holes will pass .".Vi inches back of the center of the 
middle hole. This is not an unusual condition, in 
fact many eveners have the holes for the clevis pins 
more out of line than this. A glance at the diagram 
will show that if the “nigh” horse travels 12 inches 
ahead of the other he will have a considerable ad¬ 
vantage over his mate. No one would think of work¬ 
ing an evenly matched team with one of them 
"bored up" 3 V> inches, yet this is what this condition 
amounts to. On an evener of this description the 
end to which the leading horse is attached would 
have to be shortened approximately lVs inches to 
equalize the load when working under these condi¬ 
tions. 
DIVIDING THE LOAD.—There is no definite rule 
for dividing the load between two horses of un¬ 
equal weight. Different factors enter, such as age, 
condition, temperament, and muscular development 
that call for judgment rather than the application 
of a fixed rule. However, it has been pretty well es¬ 
tablished that, other things being equal, each horse 
should draw a portion of the total load equal to a 
fraction whose numerator is his weight, and denom¬ 
inator the combined weight of the team. For ex 
ample: suppose a team weighing 2,800 is composed 
of two horses, one of which weighs 1,300 and the 
other 1,500. The small horse should draw 1,300- 
2,800, and the larger one 1,500-2,800. 
PLANNING DIVISION OF LABOR—Referring 
to our law of the lever we find that the weight 
times the weight arm is equal to the power times 
the power arm. By thinking of one horse as the 
weight and the other as the power it is an easy 
matter to work out the position of the holes so that 
(lie load is equalized. Suppose that we have an 
evener 44 inches from center to center of the end 
holes to be adjusted for the above team. Each arm 
of the evener as it now stands will be 22 inches long 
(measuring from the center hole out). It is evi¬ 
dent that the heavier horse should have the shorter 
end, therefore we will move the hole in his end of 
the evener toward the center. To get the proper 
live-horse evener is somewhat more complicated, but 
can easily be arranged by remembering the laws ap¬ 
plied to the two-horse evener when adjusting it. 
FIVE-IIORSE HITCH.—When the five horses are 
to be used abreast the main evener is divided into 
five equal parts between the centers of the end holes 
and the hitch applied as indicated in the drawing, 
two of these divisions being on one side and three 
on the other. A three-horse evener is then attached 
to the short end and a two-horse to the long. In 
some work, as plowing with a heavy gang plow, it 
is not desirable for the five horses to walk abreast: 
it either necessitates travel on the plowed ground or 
causes too much side draft. This can be remedied 
by letting one horse work against the other four, 
placing two teams tandem on the short end of the 
main evener. The hitch will then come on the main 
evener one-fiftli of its length from the point where 
the four horses are attached. A short vertical even¬ 
er with equal arms at “A” equalizes the load between 
the two teams in tandem. 
QUALITY OF WOOD. — Eveners 
should be made with their greatest 
thickness in the direction of the pull. 
A 2-inch x 4-inch will support a much 
greater load when on edge than when 
fiat. Second growth hickory, white 
ash. red elm. oak and long leaf South¬ 
ern pine are used in evener construc¬ 
tion. The woods first named when 
they can be obtained in clear lengths 
make the best eveners, and when the> 
contain a portion of sapwood will be 
stronger if made up with the sap t<> 
the buck as it usually has greater ten 
sile strength than the heart wood. 
Close, fine grained, heavy pieces are 
the strongest. The easiest material to 
get, however, is the pine, as the local 
lumber yard is more likely to have a 
good grade of it on hand. Select a 
piece that is slash sawed, i. e.: one in 
which the grain runs across the end 
diagonally, for greatest strength. Keep 
eveners and whiffletrees painted or 
oiled, and they will reward you with 
extra service. bobert h. smith. 
New York. 
I 
distance to move it multiply the weight of the small 
horse by the length of the unaltered end (22x1,300. 
equals 28,000) and divide this product by the weight 
of the heavier horse (28,000 divided by 1.500 equals 
30.000 inches), practically 10 inches the length of 
his evener arm, or 3 inches, the distance that his 
hitch should be moved toward the center. There 
are other methods of doing this such as moving the 
center hole or lengthening the end to which the small 
horse is attached, but this is the most practical. 
UNEQUAL EVENERS.—With the advent of gang 
plows the farmer has many pieces of work requiring 
the use of three, four and five-horse teams. The 
three-horse evener is easily solved by dividing the 
distance between centers of the end holes into three 
equal parts and placing the hitch at one of these 
points. The two horses are attached to the short 
end and the single horse to the long end. The four- 
horse evener is even more simple as it resolves it¬ 
self into a large doubletree with the hitch in the 
middle and two horses attached at each end. The 
ORCHARD QUACK GRASS; TAR 
PAPER MULCH. 
HAVE just read the interesting ar¬ 
ticle on page 1097, entitled “The 
Fight With Quack Grass.” Mr. 
Mathews’ plan is an excellent one. and 
probably more efficient than the one I 
have tried now for the past two years, 
and found very effective in growing 
young trees in a small orchard badly 
infested with quack grass. 
A few years ago I planted an orch 
ard on my farm, 25 miles west of Chi¬ 
cago, the orchard consisting of about 
five acres adjoining a two-acre patch 
that was so infested with quack grass 
that I felt that I did not dare to at¬ 
tempt to plant it. Outside of that con 
dition, it was one of the most desirable 
locations on the farm for an orchard: 
it was high and dry and rolling, with a 
gravelly clay loam, north and east ex 
posure. and lay between the edge of 
my orchard and the highway. I wrote 
to members of my State Horticultural 
Society, who l knew to be successful 
orchardists, also sought the counsel of 
a member of the Wisconsin Horticul¬ 
tural Society, who has won consider 
able fame for successfully raising the Wealthy ap¬ 
ple. They all said: -‘Don’t do it;” but at last I ac¬ 
cepted the challenge of that quack grass field, and 
three years ago I planted this patch, mostly with 
Wealthy and Duchess apple trees. A great many of 
those trees were killed by the awful freeze of 1913 
and 1912, which was partly on account of condition 
of trees as sent by nursery. Then I should not have 
planted that Fall, as ground was so dry it could nor 
he plowed, but I replanted next Spring and insisted 
on my tenant planting corn in that field, so he could 
cultivate both ways, and I kept quack grass away 
from trees by hoeing about them. They got a fair 
but not satisfactory growth that first season, so in 
the Spring of 1912 I hoed about the trees till June 
1, and then placed about them a piece of tar paper 
about three feet square, held this paper down with 
clods of dirt and left paper there till September J. 
when I removed the paper so the trees could get the 
benefit of the Fall rains. I got a splendid growth 
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