The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-10-31

farmer is beginning to realize that he
must be a as we'll as a t1iIer
CT the soil.
One of the first educators to realize
this situation and to take steps to
meet it, was Or. O. II. LongWeH, pres
ident Of Highland Park College, OF
DeS MOineS, Iowa, in whose office the
conversations already narrated actual
ly occurred. He was presiding over
the destinieS Of a school devoted to
young woman who had been denied
schooling in their early days, who
could bring no ~high-school diploma OR
even intermediate schoOl certificate,
but wholly hard wOrk and often
by such tragic se1f-denial as makes
a story of heroism greater than any
imaginative romance-had put them
selves through the eighth grade be-
fore dire necessity sent them out into
the world to make their own way. He
saw the eagerneSS, the wiStful intent
ness, with which the young folks went
about their task of grasping and
slowing away new facts tending to
give them a practical trade or calling.
He saw farm boys walking to the col
lege fifty, ven a hundred miles, car
rying their belongings in a pack on
their back, and his heart beat quicker
when he saw these same boys going
out to teach school, to manage large
business concerns, eve to carry on
the big engineering enterprises of the
great, busting West. Because his
school was located in the center of a
great agricultural State. it drew in a
large upon the farms for it's
scholars, and it was lot long before
the city educator found out that what
the farm needs is a farm boy with
knowledge Of mechanics, with a prac-
teal training which puts him on an
pG1Q1 fOQtinO with tho oifv h mir
and yet doe not educate him away
from the farm.
That's what I found the situation
to be-" says President Longwell, tell
ing The story, and here's the way it
exists today, as everybody can see for
himself, if he cares to. We have in
Highland Park College today almost
which prepare automobile chaufeurs
and automobile mechanics. A trif1e
over one-half of the boys in these two
courses are farm boys. And even
more interesting than this, is the fact
that every one of these farm boys
comes from a home where an auto
mobile is owned as a mere matter Of
course In the daily operation of the
farm. It is said that one-third of
the twenty-five thousand automobiles
owned in Iowa are owned by farmers.
My experience would cad me to be-
1ieve hat this is correct. The farmer
bought an automobile, just as he
bought a c~ultivator or a riding plow;
he believed it would help him in his
business. He bought an automobile
before he realized that he needed to
send his son to college. Now the
boy is coming to college to learn how
to run and how to repair the auto
mobile. It's a case of the motor be-
fore the boy, rather than the cart be-
fore the horse"
But the automobile is not the only,
or the most common, machine on the
farm. which the farmer finds in need
of repairing every little while. 1t is
c~onservatively estimated hat over (:
quarter of a million gasoline engines
are working on the nations farms to-
day., engaged in planting, c~ultivating,
harvesting and marketing crops and
doing the small chores around the
house and barn. Engines from three
10 SlX-hOrSe-pOWer are harneSSed. to
run the grindStOne, the churn and the
cream separator, and even the milk
ing machine, on the small dairy farm
they cut the winters supply Of wood,
grind bones, and chop hay and feed
on the chicken ranch, and pump wa
ter. mix feed, and elevate grain and
hay on the stock farm.
On the larger farms, engines from
ten to forty horsepower drag gang
plows across the teeming acres, carry
loads of hay and grain to market,
drive threshing n tanning machines,
and shell corn and winnow grain
faster and more economically than
any other power yet discovered. The
farmer finds himself confronted with
the problem of keeping these engines
in good running order. He has learn
ed from bitter experience that it is
expensive to stop the machine for a
day, throw all the operations of the
farm out of joint, absent himself for
hours and pay a good stiff price for
the time and labor of a repairer hast
lily summoned from the nearest re-
pair shop in town. He has come to
the conclusion that it is better and
cheaper to la his own repairer
right handy around the premises,
| working for his board and keep, with
the prospect Of getting a share OF
the estate in the Great Harvester 8
own good time.
TIA Ee the case of one ude from