The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1908-11-14
MOTOR FOR FARMING
Implement Used In Kansas May
Displace the Horse.
GASOLINE THE MOTIVE POWER

SsS uaSttHSs S0ut TSi SbV0Vy 1
Work, Reduces the Cost of Farming
Three -fourths and the Time One
th;rd-What Farmers Say of 1t.
Out at st. Francis, on the western
border of Kansas, where the settler |
turned his back on his farm not so
many years ago as not arabic or worth
the effort, the newest thing in farm
machinery is threatening to retire the
horse from the farm about as thor
oughly as he has been driven from the
city streets by the motor car. AT least
two farmers In Cheyenne county are
using what is called the farm motor,
a machine that may be described as
the mule of the motor car family. 1t |
Is a general farm drudge, plowing, |!
dtsking, narrowing, seeding, harvest l
ing and even hauling the thrashed |
wheat to market
Horses will furnish the power for
most of these things, it is true, so that
there is nothing remarkable about the
story thus far. But the farm motor
will do it In third the time, at a
fourth the expense and better. 1t has
no apparent drawbacks. 1t can be
used wherever horses can 60, and
where large areas are to be titled 1t
promises to send the horse into total
eclipse.
Think Of blowing up about thirty
acres In a single leisurely day with
one machine, disking a swath twenty
six feet wide at the rate Of three
linear miles an hour hauling 600 bush
els of wheat to market at one trip
and you have an idea of the new mo-
tor and what 1t will actually accom-
pl1sh under conditions none too favor
able, says a st. Francis correspondent
Of the Kansas City Star. Then con-
ceive Of doing this plowing In the vir-
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 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 it 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
1900 acres is seven miles from st.
Francis. and G.. w. Denny. whose
$500 acre farm is thirteen miles dis
tant from the town. Recently both
places were visited On the Denny
farm the motor was busy disking q
big field which had been broken last
spring. Hitched behind the big, lum
bering car were three sets of disks
two four horse and one eight horse
affairs.
VI Moving along at steady pace o1
! about three miles an hour, the ma
chine dragged the disks over latera
, area of twenty-six feet with as mucf
{ ease as though putting along a road
! piling the once broken soil along In lit
, tie burrows. ready for narrowing ant
and about 800 feet wide, SO that at thu
: longest circuit Of the field the machin'
. was disking about eight acres o
ground. The circuit took about al
? hour. AS geared up for work tn
motor weighed six tons. A steam en-
3 CINE Of the same kind and powe
Q would weigh three times as much.
Il II. G. Denny. son Of the farms OWL
er, speaking OF the disking, said:
When we get done with this we wi
b cross disk 1t, but when we do that we WI
1 hitch thirty feet Of harrows behind an
!. do the narrowing as we disk. We ca
pull the three disks and the harrows Q
e the same time. Then we will hitch o
( three drills and drill It to wheat We ar
7 working along the Campbell system {
farming-dry farming they sometimes ca
IT,
G. w. Denny, the owner who cam
to Kansas from Nebraska, where b
8 had tried the same kind Of farming
said:
believe the motor Is proving gres
q success. always have been looking K
a the timh when we could farm with lie:
: expense. To break the prairie with hire
= teams costs 81 an acre. With the mote
e we use about two gallons of gasoline
that amount OF ground at a cost OF
cents a gallon. expect even to cut ar
r thrash by gasoline power. and / know '
can haul the wheat to market with tn
motor. shall get two 300 bushel tanl
4. and mount them on wheels. These / CT
pull over the level roads out here to TOW
and back for 50 or SO. believe IN q fe
D. years these motors will be very comrno
,s The fact that they will save from on
half to three-fourths the expense meal
= great deal In dollars and cents when Il
r magnitude Of these western farms u Co
st sidered.
atl At the Lyons farm the owner VI
O. plowing with eight moldboard plov
id hitched to the back Of the motor.
" discussing his farm motor he said:
le What we have always wanted Is mo
Ia orop at less expense. The motor Is goil
TO help W gain that end. It has be
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