Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1902-08-21
FARM HANDS JOB IN PERIL.
New York SUM-

THE farm hands finish is plain in
sight" said a man. who had just re-
turned from the west And the farm
house is headed down the same pike.
In their stead is coming the little choo-
choo engines of the traction type.
"Out in the prairie region the ten
dency is all toward big farms. The
agricultural unit out there has been the
quarter-section, or $50 acres.
Few of the farmers are satisfied
now with such small bunch of land
and they are reaching out all the time
for more. Wheat and corn have been
topping the market at such prices
that nearly every fellow is crazy to go
into raising them on good big scale.
and they have the money and intelli-
gence to do it and do it profitably.
Right there is where the invention
comes in. On the ordinary farm,
where two or three men with the same
number of teams Of horses can do all
the work, it isn't really necessary to
call on the machine man for artificial
aid, but when the farming is done on
big scale it pays better to buy trac-
ton engine. These are not the ordi-
nary, big clumsy attachments to
threshing outfits. but compactly built
little fellows, with gasoline as the mo-
tive power.
with them there is no need of get
ting out at ungodly hours in the morn
ing to feed and water lot of animals.
Five minutes work fills the tank and
makes the machine ready to do your
blowing, narrowing or cultivating.
The first cost of these engines is
pretty steep, from $1,000 up, but it
costs less to run them than it does to
feed horses, and they never get balky.
They last longer than the average
workhorse and they do ten times as
much work day.
"Out in Nebraska I ran across fell
low with gang pillow, five in row,
hithced to one of these little engines,
and it was steadily moving across the
1O0-acre field and tearing up the sod
at lively rate. This same man told
me that when it came to narrowing he
tackled one two or three big ones and
did the job in one fourth of the for
mer time.
Potatoes are planted and dug up
with these engines. In planting a
large dropper is used, and in digging
them special kind of plow is en-
ployed.
when it comes time in the fall to
thrash. the engine is coupled to sep
arator and the job is done in short Or
der. If it is necessary during the win
| ter to grind fed for the cattle, it is
the work of but a few minutes to fire
| it up and start the mill. When grain is
| to be hauled to market, several farm
wagons are attached and the process
sion moves off.
There is scarcely a thing about
farm work that these machines will
not do, and they are growing more
popular every year. The average far
| mer thought the acme of comfort and
protection had been reached in the
sulky pillow and the riding cultivator,
which saved him many weary steps,
and it has not been without consider
able trouble that he has been induced
to take up the traction engine.
Hundreds of these are now being
manufactured and sold every year.
The company sends an agent out to
show the farmer how to run the af-
| fair and how to employ it in various
labor saving ways. 1t doesn't take
long to learn this, and the cost of
keeping one running is only few
cents an hour.
"Sixty-cent wheat and 50-cent corn
are making western farmers, where
thirty bushels of wheat and sixty of
corn is an average yield, independent
ly rich. A hundred acres Of wheat is
enough to net good income on the
investment.
| "a bunch of I ~ ex-
4 -A--~-A-,---A i-i- Hat