Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 197, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 September 1917 — TRACTORS TURN FARMING TO JOY-RIOING [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

TRACTORS TURN FARMING TO JOY-RIOING

The gasoline horse is rapidly revolutionizing American agriculture:: Robert H. Moulton describes for our readers some of the wonders performed by the mechanical hired hand on our broad acres

i ”*"7l HE f armer took t 0 the a utoino ' bile as he does to a circus. Old Dobbins of the buggy has long < since been smothered by the 1 exhaust from the four-cylinder rw}, gas vehicles, and now he is beIng ousted from his old and IL afe arduous vocation of plowing and harvesting. If it were not X for tke welcoming a o ns of tlie )) belligerent war buyers, there would be no one to love or cherish our black beauties, and, like poor relations, they would have to survive on the husks. Farming has ever been attractive to the city, chap, and It has always been extremely toilsome to the native. But now, with the aid of mechanical hired hands, farming in the future will be mere joy-riding. Instead of following a team of panting, perspiring horses and stumbling over rough clods in the broiling ran while trying to keep under control a plow whose diabolical disposition is to twist and turn from the straight and even furrow, Mr. Farmer can put on his automobile goggles and gloves, seat himself comfortably in the spring seat of a tractor, and under a canvas canopy that shunts away the sun, guide his obedient steel steed across the fields. In the springtime the plowing can be done to the music of the birds, who gather around to watch for the luckless but luscious worms turned up by the blades. By one turn of the wheel, a battery of disk plows can be made to obey orders like soldiers. When the plowing is done, the mechanical hired man will as cheerfully pull a harrow or a seeding machine, and no stops need be made in the shade to allow the “critter” to “blow.” A tractor loves to work and all it asks in return is that its stomach be kept full of the spirits that enthuse but do not intoxicate. During the dinner hour, if the farmer follows his efficiency book faithfully, he will connect up his tractor engine with the pump and fill the water reservoir, or perhaps he will turn the churn for mother. After a long pull at the cider barrel and the distillate tank, both master and servant are ready to resume operations. As the seasons merge one into another, and the crops are all planted and growing under the genial smiles of Old Sol and the sympathetic ministrations of Jupiter Pluvius. Mr. Farmer, with nothing to do but watch his grain grow, can drive his tractor over to the neighboring wood lot, and with the help of his husky sons, or his neighbor’s stalwart sons, can cut enough cordwood to defy the advance and siege of Jack Frost. The modern tractor loves to be tied to a buzz saw, and it sings right merrily while doing Its work. When the wood is cut. £he obliging tractor will haul it to the woodshed, and then, like the Jamons man of history, will look for new work to conquer. The overwhelming advantage of the tractor over horses is that of power and endurance. If the supply tank of one of these machines is kept fhlLOf fuel, it will work on indefinitely without rest, whereas beasts of burden demand time to eat and sleep and rest. , Then, too, it is much easier on the farmer to sit on a seat and plow by turning a wheel tljan to follow the furrows on foot. Consequently, the farmer with a tractor will do all his plowing in from a fourth to a half of the time required with horses. By equipping the machines with electric lights, generated by the motor, the surrounding ground ?can be made~, as light as day, anSTlowing can go on independent —the wi.Poor Dobbins would .give up—tlieghost If subjected to such treatment. The superiority of the tractor is also demonstrated by the ability to get over ground so soft and muddy that ordinary horses and farm implements would mire in. The - modern hall-tread tractor is built to run on its own track. Being wide and flat, with the weight of the machine evenly distributed. this' caterpillar type of perambulator ca’n navigate through a sea of inud, and by its great traction power can pull anything except teeth. In the rice fields of California, where water- stands upon the ground during all the growing season, the tractor is found to be the only feasible means of getting over the fields for plowing, seeding, cutting and harvesting the crop. It even furnishes the motive power for thrashing the rice. If the road In front of the farm is rough and needs the smoothing .influence of the tractor, it will do the job and do tt right. If the hens have been industrious, or bossy’s product has been converted Into golden butter or cheese for the city folks, Mr. Farmer can haul them to market by hitching a trailer behind His tractor: Many Of the machines are bought for their hauling nihility alone. It will even take the folks to church on Sunday, If the jitney happens to break down on Saturday night. In fact, the tractor is as versatile as a movie star and it doesn’t mind showing off its diverse talents. One has even been known to rid a cellar of rodents by “coughing” the gas from its exhaust through a rubber tube run into the private dwelling ofi Mr. Bat. t , ( The development of the tractor is a matter of

evolution. It Ims been with us tor many years, but the older members' of the family, though big in stature, were extremely awkward, had many ills and didn’t believe in efficiency. They were very impressive Jo look nt. but when the farmer bought one he usually found that it made the most durable impression upon the ground. It was a better staller than a politician. Through education, however, it was developed into a finer thing. It lost a lot of its awkwardness with its size and gained in strength and flexibility. Its groans were converted into action. It began to wear new shoes, and when a mudhole or a gully confronted it. instead of puffing and snorting and marking time, as the older ones did. it rolled on through the soft spots, or climbed out of the ditches. Its new revolving track shoes could go anywhere, and It did. The latest proof of this is seen in the reports from the European battlefields, where armored “tanks” are walking over all obstacles. It is said on .reliable Authority that these tanks are built upon a foundation of an American type of tractor. It is in orchard work that the tractor has won its way into the hearts of many owners. \ln a well-managed orchard it is necessary to plow up as close to the trees as possible. With a team and the old-fashioned plow, it is impossible to cut corners and reach little out-of-the-way nooks, but not so with the tractor. It can turn

around like a whirling dervish and can come close enough to a tree or the fence to caress but not offend tt. A favorite trigk of one make of a California tractor is to turn completely around on an ordinary railroad flat car. When one con-t-idors the width of these cars the feat is a remarkable one. If all else fails, the. machine can get a job in a circus as a contortionist. One of the odd uses to which tractors tire put is that of clearing land for cultivation. Op the virgin fields of Canada the ranchers found the new land to be thickly covered with tough brush and young trees, forming a dense mat, to clear which by hand seemed a formidable task. A tractor owner rigged up a sort of “summer snowplow” made of two sharp blades at the hot tom and a number of steel rods placed horizontally over a V-shaped frame that ran to a height of four or five feet. By fastening this contrivance to the front of his tractor, and by bucking the forest growth as he would a snowdrift, the brush was cut off close to the ground and thrown to ftne side and burned. Later the same tractor went over the ground with a gangplow and cut out all th^‘roots and turned up the soil for planting. The tractor on the fa rm has come to stay, and the up-to-date farmer will find it as hard to get along without one as a wife, and much easier to get along with.