Rensselaer Union, Volume 3, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 March 1871 — Make a Roller. [ARTICLE]

Make a Roller.

No farmer should be without a roller. It is invaluable in making the ground hard after the spring grain is sown, thus helping to protect from drouth, and what is better, preparing the ground for the mowing machine, after the grain is cut and the grass grown. A cast-iron roller is the b6st, but one can be made of wood, and if the farmer has leisure, and a suitable tree, he can do it himself, and thus save a few dollars. Take the butt of a white oak (chestnut will answer), cut it three feet and a half long, and then on to each end spike an inch-and-a-half plank a foot square. Through these and into each end of the log exactly in the center, bore holes six inches deep. Drive into these holes an iron inch-pin. Now, hang the log, either on some sturdy crotches, or otherwise, and then hew it until perfecly round. Take two walnut staddles ten feet long and four inches through at the butts. Flatten them on one side. Bore a hole im each to receive the pins at the ends of the roller, bring the little ends sufficiently near for a horse to walk between; flatten the upper sides in front of the roller, and then bolt thereon a foot-wide inch-and-a-half or twoinch plank, with three bolts in each end. Instead of a whiffle-tree, have two small irons made, one for each thill, to hitch the draft chains to, so that in turning, the horse will pull on one side instead of both, and, with the further addition of some hold-back irons, your roller is done. When wanted for use, put a small boy (or girl) on the steadiest horse, and it w ill earn in one day more than the three dollars, at the outside, that it cost to make it, and if always kept under cover will last an ordinary lifetime.—• Hearth <md Home. ’ ■ ... —The latest specimen of female enterprise in New York is that of Martha L Smith and Ada M. Gleason, telegraph operators, who have built a city telegraph line, opened offices on Broadway at the Grand Central Hotel, and other places,