Los Angeles herald., 1909-10-19

OtIeG InlIu. 1lllUOlS ittNlo lIlB WOTlQ
in the value of the plants for the maxi
ing of agricultural machinery, the val
ue of the annual output and in the
amount of machinery used.
In the western part of Virginia there
is the little valley of the Shenandoah.
1t is about 200 miles long and thirty
miles wide. Here was reared Nancy
Hanks! the mother of Abraham Lin
coin Here the father of Lincoln lived
before he went to Kentucky. Here
was where Washington declared he
would take his troops to the mountains
of West Augusta and defend the ban
ner of liberty to the end. Here was
grown the rations that kept alive the
Confederacy until Sheridan devastated
it so that "a crow flying across it
would have to carry his rations."
And it was here that the age of agri-
cultural machinery dawned upon the
world Rockbridge county is at the
head of the valley. In the northern
end of this county is the birthplace
of the McCormicks and of the reaper.
Robert Mccormick had long tried to
solve the problem of harvesting by
machinery. He had corresponded with
Thomas Jefferson about it, but it re-
mained for his son Cyrus to perfect
the machine. The fathers had been
a sort of revolving scythe, but the
sons was different. Those were great
days in Rockbridge and Augusta coun-
ties. The gentry and the hoi polloi
all gathered at Steele's tavern, as il
to see a circus, in answer to the
printed handbills announcing the first
public trials.
Invented in 1881, and soon thereafter
proved to be all that was claimed for
1t, it was yet fourteen years before
the reaper became a commercially val
liable machine. So limited were the
1S45 before farmers began to use the
reaper to any extent. The binder did
not come until 1875. and the twine
binder even later. To Obed Hussey
belongs the credit of bringing out the
mower, but it was not practicable un-
til Lewis Miller invented the floating
cutterbar. which enabled it to accom-
modate itself to unevenness of ground.
The grain drill was invented many
years before it was so improved as to
be practicable for general farm use.
In 1851 a force feed attachment was
put upon 1t, and since then the grain
drill has been one of the most useful
pieces of machinery on the farm. The
corn planter had its beginning in 1858,
and was invented by George w. Brown
of Illinois. The farmer had to drive
three-runnered sled across the field
to mark the rows where the corn was
to be planted. The planter was driven
across these at right angles and the
grains dropped at each intersection.
Later the Haworths, also of Illinois,
invented the check-rower. A long wire
chain is stretched across the field, with
tripping links every three feet. The
planter is driven along beside this and
every time the trip strikes a link it
drops the requisite number of grains.
By this method the corn is sure to be
planted in rows both ways, so that 1t
can be plowed north and south as we'll
as east and west.
The end delivery buggy rake and the
hay loader mean about as much in the
matter of labor saving as any other
harvesting machinery on the farm.
The potato digger is also a vast labor
saver where potatoes are grown on a
large scale. So is the nut gatherer
where nuts are extensively grown. The
windmill means much to the farmer in
economy of elbow grease, and many
boy with water to pump for fifty head
of stock has had the lesson taught
him anew that he never appreciates
the wind pump until it stops. In
Ventors are now concentrating their
efforts to perfect the cotton picking
machine.
What of the future? Will it hold
new inventions and new labor savers
in store for the farmer? Will it add
TO the Things tnaL are llIIlnS MIN from
the ranks of the toiler with his hands
to those whose brainwork and whose
mastery of machinery count for more
than toll? That there are inventions
to come which will work as great rev.
olutions as those that are in use seems
| to be impossible. But when the aver
age farmer adopts all that are now
being successfully used by the few ul-
tra-progressive agricultursts he will
eliminate much of his work. The day
of the storage battery-cheap and eff
fective-is here with gasoline and de-
natured alcohol. The care of horses
| is a labor that machinery cannot save
| but it can, and will, eliminate the
| horse The farm tractor will ulti-
mately draw the plow, pull the binder,
pump the water drive the thresher,
grind the grain, haul the produce to
| that the horse has been.
With the coming of the second dec
ade of the twentieth century the ener-
gies of the man upon the farm will be
directed to taking up the lost motion
that has been so long the rule. The
next quarter of a century probably
will find the farmer the most carefully
| trained of all our citizens-and his vo-
| cation will be transformed into a pro-
fession instead of being allowed to re-
| main a hit-or-nniss sort of business.
| The age of machinery will come to be
known as the age of intelligent effort.
| Tomorrow--Spritualist in Convention.