Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1903-04-28
MACHINES SEEM TO THINK.
HUMAN CONTROL MlNiMIzED IN
SOME FARM IMPLEMENTS.

Fer Planting There is Machine
Which Does Its Work With More
intelligence Than the Average
Farm Hand Displays.
human control is reduced to a mini
mum in some of the latest examples
or improved farm machinery The ma
chine performs its various operations
automatically, almost as if it had a
mind OF its own. All the operator has
to do is to feed it and steer il. Says
The American Exporter, describing
| some OF these ingenious devices:
For planting, there is machine for
every kind of seed, cunningly designed
well built. and parfectly adapted to
the work for which it was intended. 1t
makes no mistakes, never skips an
inch, sows no more thickly in one
place than in another. and does its
work with an intelligence which the
average farmland could not be expect.
ed to display.
For graf and grass the broad
cast-seeder' is used. This is attached
TO an ordinary wagon, and the only hui
man cooperation it requires is keeping
its hopper full. twill also distribute
all kinds of dry commercial fertilizers.
and put them just where they will do
the most good.
"A mechanical grain-drill is provid-
ed for such grains as need 10 be plant
ed Systematically in rows or hills. II
plant corn, for example, in the mid
die of a macadam road, if this was
required of it. Among other attach
meats it has land measurer. some
thing like cyclometer, which records
the acreage planted To cover the
seed it has planted it is provided with
a system of hoes which are adjusted
to work straight or zigzag
"A variant of this apparatus weeds
as wells as sows. Still another is the
bean-planter, which is quite remark
able in its intelligence, so to speak
1t drills the hole in the ground, plants
the beans, covers them, and marks the
position of the next row at one opera
ton. 1t will even alternate corn with
beans, turn and turn ABOUT, or plant
corn or beans, distribute fertilizer.
and cover everything impartially. In
fact, it will do everything for which the
farmer has the intelligence to adjust it.
THE potato planter would make q
farmer of a generation ago sit up ana
rub his eyes. 1t requires that the po-
tatoes be supplied but will do all the
rest of its own initiative 1t picks the
potato up and looks it over, or seems
to, cuts it into halves, quarters or any
desired number of parts, separates the
eyes, and removes the seed ends. 1t
plants whole potatoes or parts thereof,
as desired, as near together Or as far
apart as the judgment of the farmer
on the driving seat suggests. Having
dropped the seed it covers it, fertilizes
it, tucks it in like child put to bed,
and PAGES off the next row with math-
ematical accuracy.
Certain vegetables, notably toma-
toes, cabbages, cauliflower, celery, let
tuce, and some others need to be
started IN cold frames and transplant
ed for the practical business of grow
ing. For this purpose there is a plant
setting machine, which will handle
sprout as If it loved it, establish it in
its new environment, gather the earth
tenderly about it's roots, give it cop
ions drinks of water from tank it car
ries, and covers from four to six acres
in day.
1.-THE various operations generically
known as 'cultivating were once the
bane of the farmers existence. Now
he has a machine for each and every
operation of crop tending, sith driv-
er's seat as comfortable as that of a
blackboard. These machines seem to
know weed from a crop plant intui
lively, and while they will snatch the
former out By the roots without com
junction, they pass the plant unharm-
provided, of course. it is growing
in its proper place. These machines
have been highly specialized, and for
every operation connected with the
tending of every kind of crop, there is
some one machine which performs it
a little better than any other.
when the crop is ready for gather
ing. mechanism is seen at it's best. The
perfection of the modern reaper and
binder is illustrated by an incident
which is said TO have occurred this
year in Illinois. A farmer had driven
his reaper into the edge of a field
ready for cutting, and dismounted
from his seat to get drink of cider
While thus occupied the horses took
fright and ran away. They tore round
and round the field, cutting full
swath with every jump, gathering up
the grain, binding it with Irvine, and
tossing the bundles TO one side Be
for the team was caught it had covered
six and half acres, leaving only
patches here and there to be gone over
This was accomplished in something
less than twentyfour minutes"