The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1910-12-26
''ClOOHOPPER"1s
RAPIDLY PASSING
Farmer Who Walks Rough Ground
Will Ride When New Auto
Tractors Reach Market.

NEW YORK, Dec. 26.-For ages the
city man has called his country cousin
clodhopper, and shouted with deri-
sion when he noticed the awkward
sait with which the farmer strobe over
city pavements. OF course. the smart
alecky city fellow didn't know that II
he had followed pillow over miles and
miles of rough ground. through clod-
1lied burrows of almost seemingly end
ess length. he would be taking less
graceful strides himself
But that Will soon he thing of the
)ast; the "clodhopper" will soon be.
ONE an extinct species; the plow-
handles will be tenantless-there won't
,e any handles on the new pillow which
he twenty-century farmer will run
up and down his field.
All this will come about when the
American farmer adopts the tractor
olow given him by his inventive broth
err.
On the big plains OF the west. where
asst stretches Of land are turned over
avery year and where otherwise an
army of horses or mules would be
necessary to get the ground ready for
he planter, traction engines have al
eady usurped the functions Of the
low horse. There two men with one
'ngine can operate IS plows and hold
controlled in their hands the power of
20 horses which never tire
The traction engine as a hauler of
flows is. because OF its large size,
iaptable only for the larger farms
! COO 1000 or more acres. Ii could
ever be used by the farmer OF 40
100 s.cres. Its bigness makes it
i've fences and corners wide
erth. To the farmer of little
creage. space is a valuable factor
his autumn profits; the produc-
iveness Of the fence corners may
lean profit or a loss for the sea-
on. Therefore he stuck to the
orse. which could and did pillow up
very foot Of ground In the fields.
But the inventor has been busy
n behalf OF the small farmer and
oday Several inventions are being
ried out.
One OF these is three-wheeled ma
hine. cross between an automo-
'ile and an old-fashioned steam
action engine. The front wheel
steered with an auto steering
heel from the drivers seat in the
rear.
The big studded traction wheels
re propelled by two-cylinder OPP
osed 15-horsepower gasoline en-
inc with a radiator in front just
Ike an automt bile. The power is
transmitted through mesh gears
onnected b. friction clutches.
81
ected at random TO allow short
turns.
II consumes a gallon OF gasoline
IN hour and is said TO do the work
six horses, drawing three l2-inch
lows, in any field where team of
'orses can get around. Further, 1t
IAN be used with any implement re-
!uiring power. closing the season
Y hauling the crops to the market
It is probable that when the diff
ferent makes of small traction
blowers reach the market. the price
will be anywhere between $500 and
$500 A good team of farm horses
costs $500.
The 6,750,000 farmers In the Uni.
tea States each annually pillow more
than 80 acres--totaling about one
eighth Of the whole United States.
To do that requires more power in
human labor than In any other in
Il, try. To turn over n single acre
with 12-inch pillow requires eight
and one-fourth miles OF heavy fur
row travel. In blowing one square
mile, the solitary plowman must
walk $3.50 miles The plowman turn
ing up five square miles walks a
distance greater than that around
the globe at the equator
The farmer with tractor pillow
has no horses to curry and feed and
bed down; no horses TO get sick and
stop work and die.
II horse breaks his leg tho
owner has to shoot him now If
the auto tractor breaks a cog or
wheel the farmer hustles to town
for new cog or wheel and keeps on
blowing
Not only can gasoline take the
place Of corn and oats and hay as
feed for the plowhorse of the flu
ture, but wood alcohol can be used
for the same purpose and with but
a slight change In the machine
Any farmer can make enough
wood alcohol during the off season
TO run his auto tractor the whole of