The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-05-09

49, 0osHS t@ $3.50
thing in the same way today in some
parts of the world, but not in America.
The development of farm ma
chinery has been very slow The
modern reaper is only about so years
old. The automatic binder came into
use as late as 1877. Gasoline en-
gineS on the farm were practically un-
row. that most useful OF farm iuple-
ments. has been used only since 1854.
The modern gr2inheader is a new
Our old friend Pnny de-
scribes a header which was used in
his time. It was "a large. hollow
frame armed with teeth for driving
through standing grain SC that the
heads were torn Off and fell into the
frame That is q pretty good de-
scription of the modern header. In
Pliny's time a slave and an OK could
harvest as much as an acre a day If
they worked hard.
The first reaper was propelled by
horses or oxen and it was death to
animals. 1t took -four horses or two
yoke of oxen to drag the heavy wooden
machinery through the grain and a
man walked along side to drag the
bundles off with a rake.
The principles Of the first reaper
are in use today, with improvements
ON the details. First was added a
seat for the man who raked off the
bundles. then followed the self-raker.
The first harvesting machine met
with great opposition because 1t was
believed that the use Of them would
put the farm laborer out of business.
1t took a long time to overcome the
prejudice against these machines. just
as it did to remove the objections to
the sewing machine, the cotton gin,
the automobile and almost every other
la~bor-saving invention.
The first power brought to the aid
of man came from the wind and
water. The wind was harnessed TO
sails and the windmill was born but.
it took 200 years tod devise a practical
machine driven by gas or coal or
wood. The water-wheel has been in
use for hundreds of years and is sti
in use in many parts of this country,
doing its work; slowly, it is true, but
thoroughly aid we'll.
The horsepower sweep is only a
little more than a hundred wears old.
This was considered a wonderful i'm
nrovement over wind power and the
watcr-Wheel. II men thought they
had reached the limit of power and
Invention.
Electricity. as applied to power. Is
only twenty-five years old. It is now
used on thousands of farms where the
supply from, electric railways or other
large plants is available, but the cost
Of installation and the high price OF
electricity have so far prevented rapid
development for farm work.
The gas engine dates from 179i,
but it was not brought into econOmi-
cal use and practice until 1882. Dur
ing the past thirty years hundreds of
patents have been issued for gas
engines and they are now used on
I - ~ GO =, INr al f ay-p in nnarINr ayaY
State in the Union.
The fueI used in gas engines is
gasoline and the cost of cunning these
machines has been so greatly reduced
during h past ten years, and they
are made in such a larg1 variety Of
sizes, that they are available to almost
every farmer, nc matter what his re-
quirements may be. The traction en-
CINE has been d potent factor in the
rapid development of the big farms of
the west. Formerly, a man with q
team of horses was able to turn over
an average of 2 IL acres a day, now a
gang of plOWS hitched to a traction
engine, by wv men, will
turn over from 20 to 80 acres per
day.
Vast tracts Of land in the western
States which We're considered I'M
profitable under the old method OF
farming. have. by mean Of h trac-
ton and gang pillow, been brought into
profitable farms. A weeks work with
Is or 20 plows or discs, dragged by a
traction engine is a quarter section.
On the large farms where the traction
engine is in general use it IS estimated
that the daily cost of operating a gang
of plows is about 81, while the cost
Of horses and men to do the same
work would be from SIT to SIS per
day.
Traction engines are used to draw
h9r VnStl n o. aCn1n wagon trains or
grain to market, and do every other
kind of work on the farm.
Wooden plowS n harrowS. which
were formerly used, have been almost
entirely discarded for implements
made of steel. One Of the most i'm
portant implements in the cultivation
of the soil is the disc harrow. The
discs are arranged in gangs and pull
verize the ground at a more rapid rate
and leave it in better condition than