PRESERVATION OF FARM MACHINERY. (N.B. AGRICULTURIST.)

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1797, 12 January 1884, Page 3

PRESERVATION OF FARM MACHINERY. (N.B. AGRICULTURIST.)

There is no department of the farm upon which moie carelessness, indifference, and ignoiance exists than in that of f.inn machinery, nor is there one in which money more money is needlessly wasted, for where we find one farmer who intelligently uses the machinery of the faun, you will find twenty who neglect them. It is but too generally the practice for faimeis to hold their implements as things that require no attention at their hands, and there are farms upon which there is no provision for stoiing such undercover ; whilst on others you will find a damp open shed, into which they are put dining winter, to be brought out. when wanted for use, covered with rust, and necessitating a visit to the implement maker or the village blacksmith before they can be put to work. Fanners such as theie will always be found declaiming against the cost and uselessne&s of faun machineiy. And well they may; but they appear to be utterly obli\ ions of the fact that it is owing to their own neglect that the greater protion of the expense is inclined Cleanliness to the machine is the equivalent of ablution to man ; diy .shelter equivalent to clothum and a dwelling ; oil equivalent to food and di ink. Without these the fiame of man decays ; without these the implement decays. Ab man cannot do without these essenti Us foi a lengthened tune, and then go to a doctor to be made w hole, s>o a machine, left without them tlnough the wintei, cannot be lestoied to its normal state by the implement maker or the blacksmith. The implement may be cleaned and patched up, but uhete rust has laid upon it its conosive gnp, it is immediately injured, and iU uOl king life is .shortened. These are tacts that cannot be'eontio verted ; and on e\ery farm, be it large or small, where implements are in use, is will pa} r , and p.iy well, to treat them in a rational and common sense manner. Faimeis who thus subject their machinery to bad treatment would receho a practical lesson of much value by visiting a laige engineering establishment, and noting the scrupulous cleanliness and biightness of the machinery in use -not a speck of diifc that can be removed, each joint oiled and working smoothy and noiselessly. Perhaps it may be said that implements that are woiked out of doors cannot be kept like tl'O^e in a foundry. Possibly not ; but much can be done that is nosy bur, frequently left undone. Pining the recent harvest we were in a corn field on a small faun in the English Lake District. The tenant was himself driving a Wood's two-horse combined mower and leaper, and we remaiked upon the excellent work he was niakii.g. His reply was that it had been in work fifteen years, and had not cost him as many shillings during that time in repairs ; whilst similai machines in the district had to go to be repaired every season — all, said he, for lack of a little trouble, a sup of oil, and a bed during the winter months. At the end of a day's woik, half - an - hour is profitable spent in wip • ing down a wet machine, and giving it a rub over with oil, taking care to always keep the frictional paits in easy woi king order by means of oil. At the end of the season extra care should be used in thoroughly cleaning machinery that has to lay by during the winter, and in oiling and piinting, if necessary, to waul off rust. They then should be housed in a dry building, on a wooden floor, if practicable; but should certainly never be allowed to stand all through the winter months on a damp earth floor. These precutions will pay for themselves many times over, and the implements, when required for next year's use, can be made available with very little trouble. Another and valuable point should not be ovei looked. If, after the wear and tear of cutting, a machine is seen to be in need of repair let it be done at once, Do not leave the repair over until next spring, for there is the probability of its being forgotten until it is absolutely wanted. Let it be done in the autumn, when there is time to see that it is done properly. If left to the busy time in the spring, there is the almost certainly of the work being scamped, and valuable time lost in consequence of a breakdown.