El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-11-19
AGRICULTURE A RICH
FIELD FOR INVENTORS
Development Machinery Revoutionzes Methods and
Expenses of Crop Raising

\ NO other realm have the laborS
of the American inventor served
- better purpose than in the de-
velOpment of the apparatus with which
the farmer produces the things men eat
and the raw materials out of which he
makes his clotning. Without the farm
machinery which the American lnven-
tor has given the world, mankind still
would be a race of small farmers There
could be no big cities; a thousand arts
and sciences could flourish only h an
Indifferent way; mans principal battle
would be to get the bare necessities
of life-its Injuries would be out OF
the question. The development of agr1-
cultural machinery has so enhanced the
productive power of the individual
farmer that fully three-fourths of those
who. formerly obtained their living by
tilling the soil now may find profitable
occupation in other vocatiOns.
The economists declare that every re-
duction in the cost of food production
works unreasonable benefit to the en-
tire race, benefitting in turn every
trade and profession in which men en-
gage. That the American inventor has
been able to effect such reduction Is
shown by the cost of harvesting a CEN
tury ago and now. According TO reIla-
BILE compilation of figures, TO cut an
acre of wheat with the oldtime sickle,
cost S495. When the grain cradle was
brought into service, the cost or mar
vesting was reduced to $3.50 an acre
The modern binder reduced that cost
to s1.25 an acre The big steam har-
yester threshers have lowered 1T to %
cents per acre When the Chicago
worlds fair was held, delegation OF
foreign agriculturists was taken 10
big Dakota ranch and snowl how the
American wheat crop is harvested at
smaller cost per buShel than the cost
of the mere food of slave labor under
old-time conditions. 1t is estimated
that if the worlds crops were harvested
today with a cradle, the annual add
tionaI expense would be nearly half
billion doIIars-and that is taking Tor
granted that it would be possible to get
enough 1aborerS.
Increase In Farm Wealth.
The remarkable rise in the use of
farm machinery is Illustrated by the
figures of the patent office and the
census. More than $4,000 patents have
been issued on agricultural implements
and the money value of farm machin-
ery and tools in the United States To-
day is not far from a billion dollars
With these the farmer has been able
10 make his property holdings worth
some forty billion dollars. and his an
nual gross income greater than the
Capitalization of all the trusts in the
land. Even his hens, with the a:d OF
the incubator and brooder. produce
greater revenue than the entire income
of the governments iof Spain ana Por-
tugal combined. The farmer finds that
four fifths of the manual labor lnVoIVeu
in his calling has been eliminated by
the inventor. With a tank of gasoline
he can saw so cords Of wood in a day.
and with milking machine he can
milk 60 cows before breakfast with
modern wagon leaders, portable ele'd-
tors. grain shockers, potato dlggers'
beet toppers and leaders, and hundreds
of other kinds of machinery TO Ilghleh
his labor. the farmer finds his ousl-
ness "a calling with the bother lett
out"
The nloW was one of the first imple-
ments with whica the American inven-
for concerned himself. Thomas Je1ter-
son and Daniel Webster both invented
irnproyed plows and when JEFFERSON
was not concerned with grave matters
of political Importance, he was cogi-
tating the shape of "a mouldooard on
a pillow. The first plow patent IN the
United states was granted to Charles
Newbold. a New Jersey farmer. 1t was
of cast iron. but the farmers concluded
that IL "soured" the land and mace
weeds grow Although he spen; SSo'-
400 in missionary work. the farmers
still stuck to the old bull tongue pIo"
with its rude wooden mouldboard- IN
1919 Jethro Wood took Jeffersons loea
and patented a pillow which revolution
lied methods of breaking the SOIL ne
died leaving his heirs nothing 9ut/
legacy of patent right litigation which
wac finally decided adverse to them-
Tben came the chilled pillow with ITS re-
versible and slip shares, to be foIoweo
bv the sulky ploW. made in chicago
in 1898. The disc harrow was pat
ented in 1S47, and the spring tooth mar
row in 1859, by David L. Carver OF
Michigan.
MANY Patents for Seeders.
Eliakim Spooner received the first
American patent on seeder, ana lhe
modern grain drill began TO assume It's
present form about 1871. Since Spoon
er's patent was issued there have been
unfortunately 10000 granted on seeders
of one kind and another. Some 14,OOo
patents on plows, 5000 on harrows ana
diggers $4,000 on harvesting machinery
and 5000 on threshing machinery tell
the story of American ingenuity as ap-
plied to the needs Of the farmer 1t
will he seen from this that the pillow,
the seeder and the harvester are the
fayorite themes of the inventor with
the seeder far behind the plow and the
harvester
The modern binder was long time
in coming. The first patent issued Tor
roaming machine was granted in Eng
land in 1899. but it was an Impractical
affair. Otner patents followed, and In
1909 Henry Ogle, an English school