Handy Farm Devices and How to Make Them

by Rolfe Cobleigh

Dating from the Golden Age of American Farming, this volume is both a tribute to days gone by and a resource for present day homeowners, farmers, and ranchers striving toward greater self-sufficiency. Here you will find hundreds of clever ways to transform those odds and ends that might seem like junk into very useful gadgets and tools, from a treadmill that can power a dairy separator and churn, to a drinking fountain for chickens. Other devices include a rig for moving large trees; a self-feeder for bees; a hand garden cultivator; and gates that lift over snowdrifts. It's full of useful illustrations and includes a whole section of tried-and-true tips.

Genres: Reference, Gardening, How To, Nonfiction

296 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1996

Reviews

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published originally in 1909 and reissued in 1996, Handy Farm Devices and How to Make Them by Rolfe Cobleigh was once a helpful how-to manual on the basics of running a homestead. It's now an interesting look back in time for the most part.

The book was reissued by James R. Babb when he decided to give up urban life for something far more rural. He needed something to guide him and Hand Farm Devices... was one of the books he found. Thinking that there might be other ex-urbanites looking for some help and guidance he got the book back into print.

Handy Farm Devices has ten sections:
1. Workshop and Tools
2. The Steel Square
3. In and Around the House
4. Barns and Stock
5. Poultry and Bees
6. Garden and Orchard
7. Field and Wood
8. Gates and Doors
9. When We Build
10. Worth Knowing

At the time I was reading the book I was also reading Little Heathens and Angels of Morgan Hill. Handy Farm Devices... helped me put both these books into perspective.

People living in rural areas or who have space to build things will get the most out of the book. Authors who are researching turn of the last century farm life will also benefit.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is an interesting slice of Americana, an instruction book for the kinds of things that farmers needed and could make on their own back in the early 1900's. While it does contain useful and informative projects that folks trying to live more off-grid nowadays might want to undertake (how to lay a foundation, building a set of stairs, making a greenhouse, putting in fences or gates), a lot of the projects presuppose having access to items that, while common in rural early 20th America, are much less commonly available now... things like wooden barrels, grocery crates, railroad rails.

As an aside, there's a number of things that it recommends that are now commonly considered unsafe (like lead pipes for water, using carbon disulfide as an insecticide, et al).

[Sarah Ehinger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much of this book is valuable just as a look back on history. Some of the content would still be of use today for someone wanting to be more self sufficient or who would want to raise bees or chickens. These tools and techniques remain viable today.

[Laurla2]

lots of text with very few pictures. mostly i had no idea what they were even describing to build.

[Sarah Kingston]

I just opened my box from Amazon about 47 seconds ago, and this book was in it. I flipped through and landed on page 55, which has the heading "Washes while reading." The drawing is of a pedal powered wash tub. I'm in love.

The book is small, but full of time- and energy-saving ideas for the farm (or my garden, right?). The illustrations are simple, and there are no explicit details on how to build the devices, just simple instructions and sometimes an illustration of the completed device. The one right after the bicycle/washer is a separator run by ram power. In other words, a butter churner hooked up to a treadmill, with a sheep doing the treading. This makes me really curious why there aren't more of these types of things around. I mean, if everyone who had a treadmill, instead of having it sucking electricity and burning coal, they'd have it hooked up to their TV or water heater or something, and not only save the energy from the treadmill (so weird to me anyway, to be using electricity to exercise) and also save energy that would go to the water heater or TV.

Not all the devices in the book are that esoteric. There are organizational ideas (The well-arranged barn, p200), a cradle made out of a barrel, and how to use a steel square. There's all sorts of cool stuff, and I look forward to reading the rest.

[Michael Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this to better understand how we, in general, built things before power tools and electricity, and, in particular, because I was building a fence and wanted to examine different gate designs. There is a lot of good, interesting ideas here that fit well with those in Mother Earth News and the Whole Earth Catalog -- i.e., living well off-grid. Good book.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty pictures, fun to browse, no real meat.

[Kei · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a LOT of useful information in here. Both for some of what we are doing now, things we will likely be doing someday, and for the game I am currently running. All in all, a good choice.

[Wm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book with a broad range of useful tools, but the descriptions can be quite basic and instructions hard to follow. If you are good with your hands and clever, you can figure most of it out.

[Smellsofbikes · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is mostly for historical reference, but it is interesting hearing how to build an ice house.