Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1911-09-03
AUTOS PUSHING A REVOLUTION
Utility as Well as Pleasure and Ex-
citement Readily Apparent
LIVELY FACTOR IN FARM LIFE
An Advance Agent of Power Motors
Applied 20 the Machinery Of
Cultivation and Har-
veattnE.

CULTIVATION ana mr.
vesting.
The latest statistics estimate the num-
Der OF automobiles in use in the United
States at nearly 10000, while the vehicles
that are drawn by horses are reckoned at
100000. In automobile plants there are
said 70 be invested s4Oo, 900 and in the
operation Of these plants and correlated
trades 10000 persons are kept busy. The
builders of these 10000 vehicles paw &sO,-
co., 900 annually for constructive material
and s25OO.OOO for freight charges to the
railroads These figures are startling
mainly because they have climbed up so
rapidly.
The effect Of the automobile is not read
lily seen. because its more apparent use
seems to be for pleasure, and to crafty a
passion for excitement. In reality this
application Of force has brought about, or
is bringing about. revolution in the more
remote districts OF the country. The reason
why farmers have become eager buyers is
because they are located out of reach Of
the ordinary means OF rapid transit The
automobile belongs to the villages and
smaller towns where the railroads can
not reach, and from which they cannot be
easily reached for travel or for freight
purposes.
The banks. however, are uttering a united
protest against what they call the craze
of small investors to withdraw their in
vestments, often adding borrowed money.
TO indulge in the purchase Of automobiles
The farmers Of the west find these car
riages fill a deep need, where long dis
tances are to be Travelled. There is this
thing to consider all the while, however
/ N1,aa ~ g. A,@ IA
automobile back to the barn he cannot
hitch it up for farm work. He must also
have his horse or horses for blowing, cul-
tivating and all sorts of hauling. He is
not fully equipped, as the townsman is
until he has both gasoline power and horse
power; and this has TO be taken into &C
count when he considers the policy Of ex-
pending several hundred dollars, or a pos
sible 5000.
Motors for Farm Work.
What we specifically want Just now. or
what the countryman wants, who owns
a few acres Of land more or less. is an
easily managed gas or steam motor that
can do farm work Of the sort we have
specified. This will go a long way toward
settling the economies of this problem.
There are few farmers that can afford
to indulge in a power that cannot be APP
piled anywhere but in the streets They
might as well purchase coach and four.
while their income is better adequate TO a
team OF mules. The application Of electric
power 20 field work, in q cheap and con-
venient form. is the thing now needed;
and what is needed is bound to come In
deed, the latest report gives US a motor
pillow operating a farm OF leoo acres in
- % .lebN v,lo kaH,g nd
which harrows are hitched. and all drawn
by q gasoline traction engine. works at
the rate of three 10 i've miles per hour.
The same motor is used for other farm
purposes, such as threshing, or hauling
the crops to market The engine is a
four-cylinder. forty-horsepower. having a
radiator and a fan to cool the engine,
while II employs a magnetic in the ignition.
An engine Of this sort can draw fourteen
plows quite as well as half that number.
having q pulling power Of 1000 pounds
The report from this Indiana farm talks
about blowing all night by searchhghts.
We presume; while the work OF thirty
horses and fifteen men was being accom-
plshed for twenty-four hours. The land
IS plowed to a depth OF ten inches and an
average days work is thirty acres-at
cost Of 50 day paid 10 the engineer four
gallons Of oil per day and two gallons of
gasoline for each acre plowed. II used to
be said that a motor pillow could not be
operated on a farm of less than leo acres;
but at that rate those who own adjacent
farms can work comparatively. single
engine and a gang OF plows could run half
a dozen farms.
viii the Horse Cor
ara n
debted, insists that the day is not far
away when we shall have gasoline-driven
farm machinery of every description
needed, and when every farmers boy will
be an adequate chauffeur. The steam en-
CINE has already been used for a good
deal OF farm work now comes the day Of
the electric or the gasoline engine. II 1t
becomes, as IL promises TO be, world
wide movement, the horse will be a rarity
on the farm. We shall be compelled TO
withdraw our criticism OF the automobile,
or for whatever takes its place. as II can
easily be made for traction or for travel,
and also for farm work. Whether the
same machine can be used in the road and
I'm the field is not the question, but
whether the power that is applied for
traction can also be applied for work.
Speeding along the highway is not the
end OF this evolution OF revolution Of
power for which the automobile stands.
1t IS probably an incipient method Of ap-
plying a power which has already largely
displaced steam an industrial factor
and social organizer. We are confident
that we shall soon get by the day OF mo-
tor car display and speed madness, and
get down 70 the construction of some
thing more every day available, and re-
ducible 70 the law Of farm economies
Even II the automobile does not pay as