Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/594

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easy to put in posts and have wire fences. The farmer could then have put his profits into the banks instead of his straight stone fences. The Enstrom hole-digging machine has a digging or cutting blade fitted on the lower end of a spindle which is driven by various gears from a gas- engine.

The machine also has an endless conveyor-belt with spaces which are constantly carrying up the earth dug by the cutting blade and depos- iting it in a chute which throws it to one side of the machine. This belt, of course, is also operated by the power from the gas-engine.

The machine is mounted on a truck which can be pulled around wherever the gardener or farmer wants to use it. In fact, the machine

��Popular Science Monthly

��up and arranged for use wherever de- sired for constructing and repairing wire fences.

The various strands of the wire fence are held between a pair of bars which are clamped together on opposite sides of the

����The newest fruit picker is a roller which lifts the fruit up from the ground after it has fallen from the tree

does the work of fifteen men. It digs a hole ten inches wide and over two feet deep in a minute and a half. When there are interfering obstructions it takes a trifle longer. The machine can be so adjusted as to make the hole any width desired.

Stretching the Wire Taut

WHEN the holes are dug and the fence posts put in, the next prob- lem is stretching the wire for the fences. C. N. Edwards, of Hillsboro, Ohio, has devised a new wire-stretcher, which is light and portable. It can be readily set

��A new wire-stretcher which pulls the whole of a web fence by one hand-operated gear

fence-wires. A chain fastens these bars to the traveler-block of the wire-stretch- ing machine. This traveler-block is screw-threaded and operated on a screw- shaft, which carries a small gear. These gears mesh with a large gear turned by a double crank in the hands of the farmer or gardener. The gears are supported by a two-legged frame which gets further support from a long guide rod which rests against the last fence post.

For Gathering Fallen Fruit

A CALIFORNIA fruit grower, Peter H. Lint of Los Gatos, has devised a machine for rapidly gathering up fruit which has fallen to the ground. A large roller with prongs projecting from it picks up the fruit and transfers it to the box carried by the rack. The ma- chine is pushed along as if it were a huge lawn-mower. It is particularly useful in gathering fruit which has to be evapo- rated, such as prunes and apricots, and which will not be damaged by being pricked as a result of the novel method

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