Hidden Treasure: The Story of a Chore Boy Who Made the Old Farm PaySimpson, John Thomas
Science
Hidden Treasure: The Story of a Chore Boy Who Made the Old Farm Pay
Simpson, John Thomas
Farm life
"Well, for one thing, you ought to have a first-class manure spreader;
it will do the work much quicker, and save you many backaches--now
that you've decided to fertilize heavily. Then you should have a good
power-driven corn sheller and a small mill for grinding corn meal and
buckwheat flour. You also ought to have a one and a half horsepower
kerosene engine, mounted on a portable hand truck."
"What would that be for?" asked Joe Williams, looking up.
"Well, you'll have a lot of places to use it--such as running the
washing machine, turning the grindstone, corn sheller, or the cream
separator, if the electric system breaks down, and other small jobs
around the farm, where a portable engine will be very handy to save
work and increase speed."
"We'll have the engines on the tractor that we can use," protested
Williams.
"That's all right, Joe," said the banker, "but it's too heavy for many
of the light jobs, and it would not pay to consume the amount of
kerosene and oil necessary to operate it, so I think you had better
include the engine."
"All right," said Joe. "Let's have it then along with the others."
"What about your electric lighting plant, Joe, with the new buildings
coming along? You ought to look out for that."
"Bettie and Bob have been looking up a lot of data on that subject and
they've decided on putting in a water-driving unit. It requires more
wire to bring the power up from the dam, but in the end will be
cheaper as it costs nothing to operate."
"How many electric lights do you want to use?" asked Mr. Patterson.
"We've figured that we ought to have about one hundred sixty-watt lamp
capacity for the complete farm; that would take care of the small
motor of the vacuum cleaner and sewing machine."
"We don't make the outfit, Mr. Williams," said the agent, "but I'll
arrange to get a good one for you and will not charge you any
commission on it--taking such a large order as you are giving me, I'll
be very glad to arrange this for you."
"Well, here's a catalog of the make they have picked out and if you'll
take it up with the manufacturers, I'll appreciate it," said Williams.
"We'll want a detail drawing showing how to make a foundation for the
wheel and generator. Bob's worked out an automatic starting and
stopping device. The wiring, of course, we'll do ourselves."
"How about an auto truck, Joe; don't you think you ought to have a
good auto truck on the farm?"
"Not with a team of horses and a good live tractor. Of course, an auto
truck would be an advantage in some respects, and I'll probably want
one next year, but I think we can get along without that for the
present. Speaking of making a complete outfit, Mr. White, Bettie gave
me a list of some other things she wanted."
"What are they?" asked the banker.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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