Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1903-08-18
#tiseellameuus Reading.
FARMING BY MACHINERY.
The Modern Revolution In Asricul-
ture.


work for us that will be worth $1,0OO,-
O00, 900 a year. Theoretically 1t Is al
ready saving us nearly three-fourths
that sum- for as far back as 1899 II
all the crops to which machinery Is
adapted could have been planted and
gathered by hand they would cost
nearly 500, 100000 more than If they
had all been planted and gathered by
machinery. 1t has not only added so
much to our wealth, but it has made
US the foremost exporting nation and
it Is changing the character Of the far
mer by freeing him from monotonous
hand toll. More than that, it is fast
changing the immemorial conception OF
agriculture and the pastoral and idyl-
lie associations that have gathered
about 1t since the time Of Abraham.
Wealth, industry, commerce. the char
acter Of men and even their sentiment
are all affected by it.
All the great crops are now planted
and all, except cotton, are gathered
by machinery. Let us follow crop
throughout seasons work and see
the changes that have come in Its
treatment.
The ploughman no longer trudges
slowly and wearily back and forth
across the field. He rides sulky
plough with a spring seat. There are
special ploughs for every need; turf
ploughs, stubble ploughs, subsoil
ploughs, ploughs for heavy work,
ploughs for light work and gang
ploughs turning three burrows at once.
So simple are many Of them that a
boy may drive one. Ploughing by
steam Is not commonly practiced In the
middle west, but out on the great
wheat ranches Of the Pacific coast 1t
is common. On the table lands OF
California q sixty-horse-power trac-
ton engine drawing twenty-one feet
Of disk ploughs will break the ground
to a depth of ten inches at the rate OF
forty-flve to sixty acres day. with
mould board ploughs, designed espe-
cially for this work, strip twenty
eight feet wide can be broken. This
means that a man and pair Of horses
with a single mould-board plough
would have to cross a field twenty
eight times to do the same work that
the traction engine does by one trip OF
it's ploughs. A farmer Of the central
west who uses small traction engine
and a gang of four fourteen-inch
ploughs says that it costs him from so
to 62 cents per acre to break his
ground. He considers steam econo-
mical.
The ploughing done, the manure
spreader replaces the hand fork and Its
backache. While the farmer with a
pair Of horses drives back and forth
across his fields, from the rear Of his
wagon the fertilizer Is mechanically
spread evenly over his land. Manure,
commercial fertilizer, corn-stalks,
straw, lime, ashes or litter from the
barnyard are spread with greater econ
omy, because with greater evenness'
LldU ny udlu, " Say ioeAiho ~ S--~
saving of time and Of toll.
The land made ready for the recep-
ton Of the seed, machinery still does
the work that muscle used to do. The
sower goes forth to SOW, but not as he
once did, dropping his seed into the
soil, trudging backward and forward
from dawn till twilight. His grass or
his grain Is broadcasted or drilled In
with mechanical evenness and the
machine automatically registers the
acreage sown. In like manner his corn
is drilled in, listed or planted In hills,
his potatoes are planted and even his
cabbage, his cauliflower and his to-
bacco plants from the seed-beds are
set out by machinery and the work is
done better than it could possibly be
| by hand-this, besides the saving OF
time and toll. Even in the vegetable
garden seeders for all kinds Of seeds
are now extensively used. The ma
chimes are pushed in front Of the oper-
ator and they automatically drop and
cover the seeds at the desired dis
tances and depths and at the same
time mark off the next row.
Promptly after the crop is planted
come the weeds. They once meant the
hoe, blistered hands, weary backs and,
| in a wet season, long and weary bat
tie. Today the farmer has his choice
from a great variety Of cultivators,
either guided by handles, the driver
walking behind, or made with wheels
and a seat, the driver riding In COM
fort. Thus corn and potatoes are
ridged up and the ground Is kept clean
and in good condition. There are
hand -cultivators worked -on the same
principle as the hand-seeders, and
| there is a great variety Of hoes, rakes
and ploughs for the cultivation Of spe-
cIal crops which have supplanted the
old hand tools on the great seed farms
and market gardens.
But it is when we come to the harry
est that we find the greatest marvels In
mechanical ingenuity. Everyone Is
familiar with the mower the tedder
| and the horserake to save the hay
tcrop. To these have been added the
hay-gatherer and stacker, drawn by
horse power.
TO harvest and to press ton Of hay
by hand requires thirty-five and half
hours of labor; with modern machin-
cry, eleven hours and thirty-fou min
utes. The greatest saving is in the
cutting and the curing Of the crop,
which by hand require eleven hours
and by machinery one hour and thirty
I nine minutes.
But it Is the harvesting Of the two
great crops, wheat and corn, that the
ereatest advance in agricultural me-