Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1908-11-18
MOTOR FOR FARMING
Implement Used in Kansas May Dsplace the HOrseGasoline
the Motive Power.

or the Kansas CITY Star. Then con-
ceive of doing this blowing in the viz
gin prairie at about 80 cents an acre
and hauling that amount of wheat
thirteen miles to market for $40.
counting the return trip. Then you
have even clearer impression.
The farm motor is just Il big, heavy.
awkward looking motor car, built for
hard, heavy work. 1t is the embodi-
ment Of all the principles of the motor
car seen on the streets every day. ex-
cept that 1t produces strength where
the other develops speed. In front is
the big radiator, cooling the four cyl
inders. The drive wheels are big steel
affairs with tires eighteen inches wide,
studded with sharp conical spikes for
taking hold of the ground Gasoline
furnishes the motive power. and one
man can operate 1t with its plows,
disks or harrows, hitched behind,
without the slightest trouble.
In Cheyenne county two big farmers
are using the motor with satisfaction.
They are Jerry Lyons, whose farm OF
Francis. and G. w Denny. whose
$500 acre farm is thirteen miles dis
tant from the town. Recently both
places We're visited. On the Denny
farm the motor was busy disking q
big field which had been broken last
spring. Hitchcd behind the big, lum
bering car were three sets of disks
~. xfcr
affairs.
Moving along at a steady pace OF
about three miles an hour, the ma
chine dragged the disks over lateral
area of twenty-siX feet with as much
ease as though putting along road
piling the once broken soil along in lit
tie burrows. ready for narrowing and
the seed. The field was a mile long
and about 500 feet wide. so that at the
| longest circuit of the field the machine
| was disking about eight acres OF
ground. The circuit took about ar
hour AS geared up for work the
motor weighed six tons. 4 steam en-
would weigh three times as much.
II. c. Denny. son of the farms own
er, speaking of the disking, said:
When we get done with this we will
| cross disk it. but when we do that we will
| hitch thirty feet of harrows behind anC
do the narrowing as we disk. We car
| pull the three disks and the harrows a
| the same time. Then we will hitch OF
| three drills and drill it to wheat. We ar
working along the Campbell system o
| farming-dry farming they sometimes cal
II.
G. W. Denny. the owner who cam
| to Kansas from Nebraska, where h
had tried the same kind of farming
said:
I believe the motor is proving a grea
success. 1 always have been looking 70
| the time when we could farm with les
| expense To break the prairie with hire
| teams costs 81 an acre. With the moto
we use about two gallons of gasoline t
| that amount Of ground at a cost of !
| cents a gallon. I expect even to cut an
| thrash by gasoline power and L know W
can haul the wheat to market with thi
| motor. 1 shall get two 800 bushel tank
and mount them on wheels. These l ca
pull over the level roads out here to tow
| and back for 80 or 80. / believe in a fey
| years these motors Will be very common
| The fact that they will save from one
! half to three-fourths the expense mean
a great deal in dollars and cents when tn
magnitude of these western farms Is con
| sidered
At the Lyons farm the owner wa
blowing with eight moldboard pillow
hitched to the back of the motor.
discussing his farm motor he said:
What we have always wanted is NOR
crop at less expense. The motor is goin
60 help US gain that end. 1t has bee
used in Dakota little. and l am tol
they broke ground for IS cents an acr
which cost s2.S5 on an average whe
broken by horses. I expect to harves
with my motor. but I'll do my fall pillow
ing at the same time, hitching my binde
far enough behind my eight plows to dro
che bundles on the plowed ground.
Ny experience Is that with the gasc
line farm motor I can carry on almost a
farm operations at about one-fourth tn
cost of horses.
can buy gasoline here at 16 or II cent
gallon, so that you can figure MY e1
pense yourself-5 or 30 cents an aero.
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