Hello from Hazard!
Yikes! The mailbag is empty, except for a leftover answer to Item No. 631, which we identified last week. Donald Ketring of Madison, Ohio, writes in to tell us that it’s a sweat scraper, used to scrape sweat and excess water off of an animal, typically horses.
I have to admit, though, that I threw some of you off track with our photo of Item No. 631. The item was brought to the Farm and Dairy office, and in taking the photograph, I reached into my desk for my ruler and laid it alongside the Hazard item, to give readers a sense of scale and dimension.
Well, some of you thought I wanted to know what the heck that strange ruler was and sent in guesses for it. Indeed, it’s more than a ruler. In the world of printing and publishing, it’s a printer’s line gauge (I call it a pica pole), and not only lists inches, but picas and shows depth of 6 and 12 point type in both inches and agate lines (printing measurements). Sorry for the confusion.
This week, we’ll show Item No. 632 again, since we received nary a guess on it. Take another look. Troy Pratt of Weirton, W.Va., who sent it in, says the dog and saddle move up and down the shaft about 8 inches and turn around nearly half way. He’d sure like to know what it was used for.
Send your answers to: Hazard a Guess, P.O. Box 38, Salem, OH 44460; or via e-mail: editorial@farmanddairy.com.
