Farm and home mechanics : some things that every boy should know how to do and hence should learn to do in school.

Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Farm and home mechanics : some things that every boy should know how to do and hence should learn to do in school. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    9. PROTECTING TREES. Trees may be protected from vermin by putting around the lower part of the trunk of the tree a wire screen or by wrapping with tar paper. If such protection is used the trees must be watched care- fully to see that these protections do not harbor other enemies of the trees. Insect enemies are destroyed by killing them directly by some poisonous application or by poisoning their food. For the fungus enemies of trees some application must be made that will destroy the fungus. Applications for both insects and fungus are usually made in water and sprayed onto the trees. This spraying must be done with materials which will kill the enemy without injuring the plant or the fruit, and the work must be thoroughly done before either pest has obtained a foothold. It is best to spray fruit trees every season whether a pest has appeared or not.. 10. PUTTING HANDLES IN TOOLS. In all tools having eyes, such as hammers, hatchets, axes, grub hoes, or picks, the handle should be fitted neatly to the eye, it being larger at the lower or outer end. The handle is usually larger than the eye of the tool for which it is intended and should be shaped down until it fits as close as possible. The handle should be driven in and split lengthwise of the eye and a wedge driven in tight and cut off close to the handle; then other wedges should be driven in crosswise, after which the handle should be dressed off flush with the tool. ! In putting handles into shovels, hayforks, and all tools having sockets, all the old wood should be removed, rivets taken out and the handle fitted to the socket as neatly as possible. Then drive it in tight and replace the rivets. Care must be taken not to drive the handle too tight as there is danger of splitting the ferrule. In all tools having a piece of steel inserted in the wood to hold the handle in place, a hole should be bored in the end of the handle about zs inch smaller than the part that is to beinserted. A ferrule is then put onto the end of the handle and the handle is driven tightly onto the tool. 11. NAILING ON HORSESHOES. It is not expected that every boy shall become an expert horse- shoer, for horseshoeing is a trade that ought to have several years of apprenticeship. It is necessary, however, that every boy who lives on a farm should know how to nail on a shoe that has acci- dentally been pulled off. This usually comes from the horse’s overreaching, and, if the hoof be not broken, the shoe can be nailed on without much difficulty.