Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 April 1875 — How Farming Implements Are Neglected. [ARTICLE]

How Farming Implements Are Neglected.

X have just come in from a walk, disgusted with the slip-shod manner in which some of my fellow-farmers will persist in carrying on their business. Here is one of my neighbors—a tip-top good man, kind to a fault, indulgent to his family, thoughtful for his hired help—in truth,"a man whose opinion upon matters of benevolence and Christian charity I respect highly. Still that man has no sort of feeling for inanimate things and his wholesale neglect of their care is worse than a hole in his right hand pants pocket. His wagon has been out all winter, and stands now exposed to the changeable weather of spring—the worst sort of weather to try the constitution of tools as well as man and beast. The plow stands in the last furrow where it was left in November. A stone-boat lays by the barn-yard gate flat upon the ground, and a single-wagon, harrow, cultivators, horse-rake and numerous hand tools are scattered about promiscuously, fully exposed to rain and sunshine. A low estimate of loss from this want of care is 7 per cent, of the investment. Look at the figures : Double wagon SBO 00 Single wagon 60 00 Plow . 1200 Harrow.... ...s. _ 15 00 Wheel cultivator.... 35 00 Stone-boat ' 6 00 Revolving-rake 6 00 Hand tools 45 00 Total value .- $259 00 Seven percent., or loss 18 13 Supposing my friend had built a shed last fall the cost would have been about as follows: One thousand feet common lumber $lO 00 Scantling 1 00 Posts and nails 2 00 Labor 4 00 Total cost sl7 00 Here is a margin of $1.13, beside the inventory of the shed, which certainly would be good for ten years more. Economy of material is something to look after as well as economy of time.—Detroit Free Press.