Evening star., 1903-07-29
FARMING BY MACHINE
THE MODERN REVOLUTION IN
AGRICULTURE.
Growing a Bushel Of Wheat Reduced
From Three Hours Labor
to Ten Minutes.
From the Worlds Work.

Farm machinery may some tlme 90 WoTh
for US that will be worth $1,000. 100000
year. Theoretically 1t is already saving us
nearly three-fourths that sum; for as far
back as 1899. II all the crops to which ma
chinery is adapted could have been planted
and gathered by hand, they would have
cost nearly $7OO 100000 more than If they
had all been planted and gathered by ma
chinery 1t has not only added so much to
our wealth. but 1t has made us the fore
most exporting nation, and 1t is changing
the character Of the farmer by freeing him
from monotonous hand-toil. More than
that. it is fast changing the immemorial
conception OF agriculture and the pastoral
and idyllic associations that have gathered
about 1t since the time Of Abraham. Wealth.
industry. commerce. the character of men
and even their sentiment are all affected
by 1t.
All the great crops are now planted and
all except cotton are gathered by machin-
cry. Let us follow crop throughout
seasons work and see the changes that
have come in its treatment
Gang Plows.
The ploughman no longer trudges slowly
and YEARLY back and forth across his field.
He rides a 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 boy may drive one. Plough
ing by steam Is not commonly practised in
the middle west but out on the great wheat
ranches Of the Pacific coast it is common.
On the tule lands Of California a sixty
horse power traction engine drawing twen-
ty-one feet Of disk ploughs will break the
~ 10 20
of forty-flve to sixty acres a day. With
mould-board ploughs, designed especially
for this work, strip twenty-eight feet
wide can be broken. This means that a
man and pair Of horses with single
mould board plough would have to cross
field twenty-eight times to do the same
work that the traction engine does by one
trip Of its ploughs farmer of the cen
trail west who uses small traction engine
and a gang Of four fourteen-inch ploughs
says that it costs him from 80 to 81 cents
per acre to break his ground. He considers
steam economical.
The blowing 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 economy.
because with greater evenness. than by
hand to say nothing of the saving of time
and OF toll.
Automatic Seeders.
The land made ready for the reception 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, drop
ping his seed into the soil, trudging back
ward and forward from dawn till twilight.
His grass or his grain is broadcasted or
Ic ed in M ba
the machine automatically registers the
acreage sown. In like manner his corn is
drilled in. listed or planted In hills. his po
tatoes are planted. and even his cabbage.
his caulifiower and his tobacco plants from
the Seed-bedS set out by machinery,
and the work Is done better than it could
possibly be by hand-this. besides the saw
Ing Of time and toll. Even in the vegetable
garden seeders for all kinds of seeds are
now extensively used. The machines are
pushed in front of the operator, and they
automatically drop and cover the seeds at
tho desired distances and depths and at the
same time mark on the next row.
Promptly after the crop is planted come
the weeds. They once meant the hoe.
blistered hands. weary backs, and, IN
day the farmer has his choice from
great variety of cultivators, either guided
by handles. the driver walking behind, or
made with wheels and a seat the driver
riding In comfort. Thus corn and potatoes
are ridged up and the ground is kept clean
and in good condition. There are hand
oultivators worked on the same principle
as the hand-seeders. and there is a great
variety Of hoes, rakes and ploughs for the
cultivation of special crops. which have
supplanted the old hand tools on the great
seed farms and market gardens.
But 1t Is when we come to the harvest
that we find the greatest marvels in me-
chanical ingenuity. Every one is familiar
with the mower, the tedder and the horse
rake to save the hay crop. To these have
been added the hay-gatherer and stacker.
drawn by horses, and a press operated by
horsepower.
To harvest and to press ton Of hay by
hand requires thirty-fve and a half hours
OF labor; with modern machinery, eleven
hours and thirty-four minutes. The great
est saving Is in the cutting and the curing
of the crop, which by hand require eleven
hours and by machinery one hour and
thirty-nine minutes.
Reaper and Binder.
But it is the harvesting of the two great
crops. wheat and corn, that the greatest
advance in agricultural mechanics has been
made. Drawn by horses, the sef-binder
cuts an eight:foot swath across the field OF
ripened wheat. But instead of leaving 1t
strewn behind as the mower does the grass,
1t gathers 1t and automatically binds it in
bundles Or. If a header be preferred. the
heads OF the standing grain are taken of
through a chute into the wagon that is
driven beside 1t. But even more than these
the most spectacular scene Of agricultural
progress Is the combined harvester and
thresher which Is used on the great grain
ranches in California. AS far as the eye
can reach stretches a Of golden grain
1t is glorious sight. this immense plain OF
ripened wheat-the food Of nation await
ing the hand of the reaper. Where are the
haryesters who shall garner crop so large?
Measured by the methods of small eastern
farms. the problem of saving such a crop
seems hardly less than the emptying Of the
great lakes with dipper. But the steam
harvester moves steadily forward into It,
On one side the grain falls in a great swath
1t melts away before the majestic advance
Of the machine. One the other side with
the same regularity drop sacks of grain
ready for the miller The ranchman fol-
lowing with his team picks up a sack filled
with threshed and winnowed wheat from
the very spot where but five minutes before
the wheat stalks stood in the sunshine. In
the broad path between the standing grain
and the line Of brown sacks has passed one
Of the greatest triumphs OF American ma
chinery. the combined harvester and
threSher.
Heat Hints From India,
From the New York World