Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 September 1874 — A Handy Garden Roller. [ARTICLE]

A Handy Garden Roller.

Take a joint of stove-pipe, six, seven or eight inches in diameter; set one end upon an inch hoard, and with a scratchawl or pencil mark around on the inside; reverse the pipe and mark the other end. Then, with a pair of compasses, find the center of these two wheels, and strike around their circumference, allowing for the iron. Saw or cut them true and round; bore a hole with a bit in their centers, to receive a shaft of half-inch round iron about three inches longer than the length of pipe. Now fit in one of these heads, and upset the sheet-iron pipe over it enough to hold it firmly in place. Put the shaft in and set the whole end on the ground, taking care that the shaft stands, true; and lastly put in a quart or two of dry sand, and stamp it hard with a suitable rammer, repeating the operation till the pipe is full to within one inch of the top. Fit in the other head with the shaft in place; upset the iron over it as before, and you have a roller as serviceable as one of all irqn, and at almost no cost. To fit it for use, make a box of inch stuff; fit a handle to it, sloping at an angle of twenty degrees from its bottom board; put a cross head to the end of it, and for a garden or walk roller this cannot be beaten. If wanted heavier, it can be loaded with brickbats or earth; and for wheeling stones or rubbish ofl garden or lawn or newly plowed or spaded grounds it will be pronounced by all who try it “tip-top.” Any man or boy who can uSe a saw^ plane and hammer can make one in a fewj hours, and with, decent care it will last-as many years..— Cor. Country Gentleman. ._ V It is a curious fact that the color of" 1 the eyes of newly-born infahts is invariably blue.