Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1905-11-03
THE FARM AUTOMOBILE.
Have Similar Notions in Benton
and Scotland.

usefulness the. disaster that at
tended its introduction to the
rural community, by becoming a
plain, workaday farm machine
a thing OF energy that will super
sede the plow, with its weary
horses and foot-sore plodder of
the furrow, the cultivator and
the reaper. A new and special
type of this machine has been de-
veloped in Scotland, at a cost of
$15oo-an Insignificant sum
when compared with the cost of
the combined" harvester that
has revolutionized the harvest
methods on large farms in this
country. It will prepare and
seed the ground at one operation
and can be made to cover six or
seven acres a day at a cost in
fuel, labor and depreciation of
machine of ST per acre, or less
than oue-halt the expense of plow-
ing by horsepower.
Whether the invasion of the
fields by this tireless creature of
steel and stored energy will be
resented by the plowman and the
harvester, as its invasion of the
highway has been resented by the
citizen afoot and in horse-drawn
vehicle, can only be surmised.
Opposition, if it shall be de-
veloped, will be on new basis
of complaint, since the farm ma
chine, turning up. the earth and
planting the grain, is not de-
vice for speed that threatens life
and limb, nor yet toy for the
idle and thoughtless to operate
on the public thoroughfares, It
is a plain labor machine, built
for useful purposes and keeping
strictly to the farm and to bust
ness.
The opposition that it will
meet, if any, will be of the type
encountered by labor.s saving
devices throughout a century.
The text of possible protest is
found in the statement that with
this machine one man can do the
work of half a dozen in a day;
that, unlike the farm animal and
the plowman of the old order, il
does not have to be fed when il
is not working; that it performs
its task without complaint o.
"back talk,' and that it is dea
to the appeals of the labor unior
or the threats of the walking
delegate.
The above is from the Oregon
ian of Wednesday. There i
nothing new in this idea to thos
familiar with the doings of thi
section. It is quite strange sim
liar ideas should enter the crani
ums about the same time Q
two individuals so far distant a
Scotland and Oregon are iron
each other, but such would seen
to be the case.
Some time back, General T
J.sThorp, of this city, conceive
the idea of manufacturing an
placing on the market what he
pleased to term an agriculture
mobile" He patiently worke
his ideas out in detail and whe
the task was completed so feasibl
did it all appear that he exper:
enced little trouble in forming
company in this city and raisin
the necessary funds for launcnin
the business.
During the greater part of th
year he has been in various par
of the East looking into the ma
= ter of construction. He fnall
settled upon Chicago as oHerln
the best facilities for manufactu
ing the first machine and he
there at present superintendin
the work attending the 'sfnisl
ing touches" as it were. tt
agricultural mobile will soon |
a creation in reality and wi
make its bow to the public full.
equipped and prepared to "mal
good"
When it comes to doing thin;
the machine being manufacture
in the interest of Corvallis parti
will have three times the capaci
for work and general usefullne
that the one in Scotland wi
according to the facts stated
the Oregonian. For instanc