Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/642

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626

��Popular Science Moid/ily

��used, it should be applied while it is very hot. Clamp the disks together with stiff blocks and heavy bolts, putting one bolt through the shaft hole and several around the outside. The bolts should be tight- ened as much as possible so that the disks will be pressed together very tightly. Allow the glue to dry for at least twenty- four hours in a warm — not hot — place. Put in screws, countersunk from both sides for additional strength and to pre- vent the glue from loosening. The pulley can be trued up when running on its own shaft. Make the belt face of the pulley slightly crowned, because if the face is flat, the pulley will run off. The surface should be made as smooth as possible, as the smoother it is the better the belt will hold.

The only difference between making a cone pulley and a plain one is that the steps are made separately and then glued or screwed together.

��A Lawn Mower Converted Into a Handy Truck

1AWN mowers serve their original -/ purpose only about four months of the year. During the re- mainder of the year they are stored. A mower can be

���An inverted lawn mower equipped with a board platform to make a truck for small loads thus making it useful in the winter

made to serve two purposes with the board attachment shown. It is well known that pushing an inverted lawn

��mower throws the gears out of mesh. The board attachment may be easily made and put on the inverted mower so that it may be used for hauling small loads or sacks of grain.

The size of the board depends on the size of the mower. The manner of at- taching it to the inverted mower is clearly shown. — Earl R. Gaskill.

��A Dam to Prevent Top Soil from Washing Away

/V SIMPLE and inexpensive method x\ of preventing a field from becoming cut up by gullies is shown in the drawing.

���Cross section view of a small concrete dam which keeps the soil from washing away

Some lengths of sewer pipe and a fev/ hours work in the building of a small con- crete dam across each gully is all that is required. The drawing shows how the dam operates.

It is a good plan to set three or four posts around the opening or the inlet and then wrap them with common mesh fence wire so that all rubbish and trash will be kept out of the sewer pipes. In laying the pipe be sure and set the curve or elbow on a firm bed of stones and also be sure that the whole length of pipes is on a solid footing.

The concrete dam is preferable although hard clay has been used for small places. The dam catches the top soil washed from the fields and also stores up the surplus water. The richest part of the soil is the part that washes away during heavy spring rains. Some practical method of preventing this great loss is well worth the farmer's attention if the producing power of the fields is to be con- served or increased, and the method of surface drainage suggested above is at once practical, simple to install, inexpensive and effective. — W. E. Fhudden.

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