Press enter after choosing selection

Homemade Corn Ties

Homemade Corn Ties image
Parent Issue
Day
30
Month
October
Year
1896
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Corn ties are "just what they are cracked up to be" and are very handy articles for tying corn shocks or buudles whenever one has any need for such a thing. They are needed whenever the work cannot be done as well and cheaper with something else. Sometimes it can be, and then again it cannot. Thus writes a Michigan farmer to Rural New Yorker. He gives an illustrated description of some homemade ties as follows : I have some ties that work perfeotly, coBt me nothing bnt a few minutes' bor, and there is no patent on tbem. I made thefirst ones out of an oldclothesline and the uhain from an old chain pump that had gone out of use. I separaied the links of the chain by opening an end of each link enough so that they i wtuld come apart easily. Each link was then a hook ready to attach to the end of a piece of cord. The clothesline was cut into suitable lengths. I tierl a knot in one end of a piece of the cord and then slipped a hook into it. Then I tied a knot in the other end of the cord, and the lie was done. In tying the shock the hook at one end of the cord catches and holds the knot at the other end. One can tie more knots in one end of the cord, if necessary, or fasten it with a half hitch if he likes that better. The cord and the hook must be proportioned to each other in size, so tbat there will be no danger of the knot slipping through the hook. I had not enough of these ties, so I made some more of smaller dimeusions. I used No. 11 salvanized fence wire for the hooks. I had in my kit a littlo tooi made for me by a blacksmith for a similar purpose. It is only a flat piece of steel, put in a vise with one end made as shown in out 1, to turn the wire around. The wire was cut into pieoes of suitable length, and then one end of a piece of the wire inserted tween the jaws a and b of the tooi, and a loop formed by winding the wire around it. It is then slipped off the tooi and the loop closed up and straightened with a hammer, if need be. Theu the other end of the wire is bent around to form the hook. It is a handy way to have the wire cut into lengths long enough for two hooks. Turn a loop on each end of the piece before cutting them apart. A bout 60 suoh hooks can be made from a pound of No. 11 wire, and they can be made very rapidly when a persqn gets the hang of it. Such ties cost but a trille, and they are very handy to nse. All these hooks are shown in ent 2. Keeping Potatoes In Pits. The best method of keeping potatoes in pits during winter, says the Iowa Homestead, is to dig a shallow pit, not over a foot in depth, 4 to 6 feet in width aud the length as required. The potatoes are placed in the pit aud piled up until they resemble the roof of a dwelling house, then covered with dry Rtraw or hay to a depth when settled of, say, 6 inches. If the hay or straw is straight aud applied like thatch, all the better. It should be covered with the soil removed from the pit and from ditcheson each side to afford drainage. On level or wet land it would be better to dispense with the pit, placing the potatoes on the surface of the grouud aud depending on the ditches to carry away the water. A covering of earth over the straw or hay, from 6 to 12 inches, is necessary, and it should be smoothed off ueatly and beaten smooth with the back of the spade. Before the advent of severe freezing weather a heavy covering of coarse litter, preferably manure from the horse stable, should be applied to prevent all risk of loss from freezing. Whcat DeeeneratiueThe general failure of the wheat erop in Ohio this year has cansed inany. farmers to think that their wheat is "running ont, " and the desire toohange seed is more general than it has been for some years past. While there is undonbtedly a great difïerence in the vigor of different varieties of wheat and their adaptation to various soilsandcliinates, the tests made at the Ohio experiment station enconrage the belief that a variety adapted to the soil and conditions of a given locality will tend to improve rather than degenerate if proper care be exercised in selecting seed from year to year. To illustrate : The two ties of whent which head the list at the Ohio station in a ten year test - ValJey, which has given the largest yield per acre, and Penquite's VelvetChaff, ■which has giveu the heaviest average weight per bnshol - are both varieties which originated or were first distributed from sou th western Ohio 15 to 80 years ago.

Article

Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Democrat