The suburban citizen., 1901-07-06
STEAM In AGRICULTURE
FEW INDUSTRIES ,sURPAss FARMING
IN EXTENT OF MACHINERY.

from horse to steam power Is one of
the remarkable products Of this age
OF machinery, and probably few other
industries have surpassed farming in
the extent Of machinery Of various
types employed. The advent Of ma
chinery farming began practically
when the great Western grain fields
were opened by the transcOntinental
railroads, and inventors have busily
spent their time in producing labor
saving machines ever since. Indeed,
American farming to-day could not be
conducted successfully without ma
chlnery, and the tendency is toward
the adoption of more and more labor
saving devices. The early reapers
and threshers operated by horse pow
er revolutionized farming, but to-day
these are being displaced by the i'm
mense steam and electric machines
which do the plowing, planting, reap
ing and harvesting in less than one
quarter Of the time required by the
old horse machines.
In the immense California wheat
fields the modern steam traction en-
gines, or automobiles" as they are
called, have cheapened the cost of
harvesting wheat on the Pacific coast
80 that the grain can be raised there
at less actual cost than In the Argen-
tine Republic, where farm labor costs
only a fraction of a dollar per day.
These large traction engines of the
California wheat fields are of fifty
horse power. and are provided with
driving wheels sixty inches In dame
ter. They are made to do the plow-
ing, planting and harvesting at the
proper season. In the spring they
drag across the immense wheat fields
sixteen ten-inch plows, four six-feet
harrows, and press drill for planting
the seed wheat. In this way one such
traction engine performs the triple
work Of plOwing, narrowing and
planting all in one operation. The
saving Of time is so great that one
machine can plant with wheat from
fifty to seventy-fve acres in a. single
day, mounting billy and rough ground
just as easily as when passing across
dead levels.
In the harvesting season the trac-
tion engines come in play again. The
enormous harvesters are pulled across
the fields as the plows and harrows
were in the spring. One of these
mammoth harvesters is creation Of
modern genius, and its operation is as
interesting to the expert as to the un-
Initiated. Its cutters are often twenty
to twenty-six feet wide, and it takes
q swath so broad that an enormous
highway is moved straight across the
immense fields, When the cutters
fave performed their work automatic
fakers gather in the grain stalks and
carry them to rows OF knives, where
they are at once headed. Then in the
same operation the wheat is threshed
out, cleaned and sacked, and behind
the great combination harvester there
is left a trail of sacked wheat ready
for the market. Another traction en-
gine with a train of dozen cars fol
lows in the wake Of the thresher and
harvester, gathering up the wheat
and carting 1t to the granary. In this
manner fully seventy acres and more
of wheat land are harvested in one
day.
But in a smaller way the same
method Of reducing our farming to a
scientific machine basis is going on in
all parts Of the country. Invested capital
in manufacturing agricultural machines
and implements amounts to many mil
lions of dollars, and one firm alone
produces annually reapers and har-
vesters valued at several millions.
We have succeeded in perfecting our
machines 80 that we to-
day export them to all parts of the
world.
The introduction of steam power n
place of horse power on the farm,
however, is even more momentous in
results than the adoption of machines
to do the work Of hand. The relative
cost of operating a steam traction en-
gine to do the plOwlng, planting and
can be measured only af-
ter results have been figured up.
Half dozen men can operate a trac-
tion engine hauling across the field
plows, harrows and planters, and the
work accomplished by the machine
the combined labor os sew
eral hundred men and as many horses.
In order to make the steam power
machines Of value the farms must be
large and extensive. On small farms
they would prove too costly either in
the operation or initial expense.
For this reason 1t has been said that |
steam power could never supplant
horse power on the farms, for our
democratic notions demand that farm |
Ing land shall never be consolidated in |
the hands Of a few, and farming on |
gigantic scale can never represent |
more than a very limited part of the |
Industry in this country. Yet the ten
dency In the West is to operate enor-
nous farms, combining several rather |
than cutting them up into smaller
ones. Not only this, but cooperation |
by the farmers is considered neces-
Sary for their success. Cooperative |
cheese factories and fruit |