Jasper County Democrat, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 January 1902 — FARMING MACHINERY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARMING MACHINERY

EVOLUTION OF THE CRUDE IMPLEMENTS OF THE PAST. Modern Tools for Forcing Wealth from the Virgin Boil Prominent Firms.

By T. A. Conlee.

As an agricultural state Indiana has within the past ten years taken a place of first magnitude, shaken the ashes of her fields and stumps from her garments and risen to a place of Importance as a producer of farm cereals. No one of our states has made more advancement In agricultural products or excelled us In development, and It would not be an unreasonable boast .If ws claimed that the farmers of Indiana were entitled to more credit for this development than could be Justly accorded to any other people, from the fact that this was not a prairie country prepared In advance for the plow, but a vast forest. To no one agency can this advancement be credited so much as the employment of Improved

farm machinery and tools. It does not require a very old citizen of Indiana to have a distinct recollection of clearing and logging bees, as they were called, or w-hen the Indiana farmer relied on his logs, more than ne did on his crops, to furnish both necessaries and luxuries. This primitive condition was too good to last, and in 1890 we find our state denuded of Its forests, and only remaining large fields of stumps. Something must be done. These large clearings must be converted Into fields of golden grain, and the ring of ax and buzzing of saw must be superseded by the harvest song of the reaper and hum of the thresher. How was this to be done? The man with the hoe was a back number and too slow. The means was at hand In Improved farm Implements and tools. What the world owes to Improved farm machinery cannot be set forth more forcibly and clearly than In the proof of what htts been done for Indiana, bringing prosperity and thrift to farmers, who would otherwise be floundering In the ashes of their stumps.

Agricultural Progress. The stump puller was the advance guard, followed by the chilled cast Iron plow, which was quickly superseded by the high-grade steel plow, and both riding and walking gang and sulky plows. These perfect tools were equipped with a view to good work and light draft, and supplemented with the most useful of all tools, the disc harrow. Next In evolution comes the two-row check-row corn planter, with perfect drop and capacity of twenty acres per day, this tool having relegated to the rear all the primitive methods, from the oldfashioned way of dropping by hand and covering with a hoe, up to the two-row corn planter operated by hand. Next come cultivators, and we reach perfection In the hammock rider, and the farmers who now combine business and pleasure can look backward over the vast fields of advancement along this line, from tha hoe until he. sitting under hla sun shade on his riding cultivator, Is thankful that he lives at the parting of the ways between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. These tools and Implements are all for ths planting and cultivating of corn. For wheat and small grain we have the perfect two-horse drill and broadcast seeders. So rapidly have we advanced along this ltn etnat we can easily remember our fathers with bags across their shoulders sowing broadcast by hand, weary and footsore. The binder has supplanted the old cradle and sickle. The magnificent thresher of today, with steam power and wind stacker, pours tha golden grain, ready for market. Into the farmer’s wagon, and, although we remember with some pleasure the old days ot flail and winnow, we should not want to return to this ancient method. Now the question Is, what has all this done for Indiana and how many yeara would It have taken to bring our own Hoosler state up to the present high level of cultivation. If we were without Improved farm machinery? The wealth brought to the Indiana farmer, and Incidentally to all our citizens, by the Introduction of the very highest grade ot farm Implements cannot be overestimated. Va*t Improvement*.

Standing on the threshold of the twentieth century and looking back over the last ten years, we see an advancement and improvement In farmers and farming that U phenomenal, and this can be attributed to the adoption of the most improved methods of planting, cultivating and harvesting. The world has been and Is now pouring Into our laps the products of our best brain and brawn. What does It mean for tl}® Hoosler state? This: Taking as a basts 1890. It Is estimated by competent statisticians and compilers that there is *3 -18 per cent, more of the land cultivated than In 1890, and that It Is 60 per cent, better cultivated. ■nils Is all to the credit of Improved farm machinery. The best agricultural Implements have been brought to our doors. The capital city of the state ha* come In for Its portion of the benefit derived from the Vdvanced condition ot farming. With railroads and shipping facilities unequaled It has invited and secured the headquarters and storehouses of large manufacturers and hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of the best the world can produce In the way of Unproved farm machinery Is constantly on hand for shipment to all part* of the state. Prominent Firm*. Among those who have become Identified with us lit a permanent way. their Investment being a sure guarantee of permanency, we find first the John Deere plow company of Indiana, a branch of the famous Moline, 111., factory, the largest and best equipped branch house In the state. They carry a full line of Implements manufactured by Deere & C 0.,, and Deere & Mansur company of Moline, >lll., a large stoyfc of repairs and extra*,

the famous White Elephant line of vehicles. the Moline farm wagons, snd everything in the line of first-class Implements and tools. The shipments made from this house alone will approximate closely to the entire tales of Implement* in ths state In 1890. The McCormick bargeetlog machine company has recently erected a fine building for the transaction of Its business. and carries a large stock of Its Implements The building is at 223-26 8. Cepltol-ave., and is ft handsome snd mammoth structure, with an Immense area of floor space and amule switch facilities, snd Is a credit alike to Indianapolis and to the great McCormick company founded by the Inventor of the reaping machine. The Deerlng harvesting company ct Chicago has a large and commodious building, where It keeps a full line of Its goods and makes prompt shipments. Ths Rumely manufacturing company also owns Its own building, and carries a large stock, snd can furnish anything In ths thresher or engine Une on short notice. The Eastern Moline plow company occupies quarters on S. Penney l vanla-*t., and carries a full line. The H. T. Conde implement company, a regular Jobbing house and not directly connected with factories, carries a full line of Implements, vehicles and seeds. The Oliver chilled plow company of South Bend also has a branch of its business located on 8. Pennsylvanta-st. In addition to those who own their own buildings we have scores of representatives of factories, with offices and headquarters, who transfer frem tho Union transfer' and storage company, and the number of representatives living within the borders of the state Is legion, being seven times greater than In 1890, and ths addition to our tax duplicates from agricultural Implement houses Is no small affair. It is natural that tbe Introduction of Improved farm machinery, having developend, anj brought thrift to our state, Its manufactures should also toe entitled to great credit, and equally enjoy with the farmer the prosperity which they have been largely the means of produoIng.