El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-10-26

ASHINGTON, D. c., Oct. 25.-In-
w vsntions are now in the max AK.
w ing that will radically modify
the economic status of the farmer.
Many agricultural problems will be
solved by new machinery that is at
the present time in process of develop
ment.
Take blowing for example. Most
laborious and most expensive OF all
agricultural operations. it uses up more
of the farmers time than any other
work he has to do. The question nat
uraIly suggests itself, cannot we Ilno
some easier way to turn the soil over
and stir it up?
An Omaha. man named Jardine, him
self a farmer, claims to have solVeu
this problem by the invention OF an
entirely new contrivance for the pur-
pose. which. according to the inventor
requires less than half the power useo
by the mold board pillow. So important
does it appear thai the president OF the
Union Pacific railroad, after seeing a
turned over to the inventor the facii-
tiles of his great shops at Omaha, snG
placed at his disposal the services or ms
chief engineer, in order that the de-
vice might be perfected.
Is m Automobile Pillow.
The pillow is an automobile. Its pr1n-
cipaI feature is a big cylinder, eight
feet long, five feet in diameter, and
weighing six or seven tons, when
forms the hind wheel of the machine.
The cylinder is covered with sharp
pointed steel teeth, six, eight, or Ten
inches in length. As it rolls over the
ground, the teeth stick into the soil
and carry the latter up over the cyl
inder. A second cylinder close behind
likewise provided with teeth, takes the
earth off and drops it back in a finely
pulverized condition.
Now. a team of horses engaged IN
blowing travels a mile and half. or
possibly as much as two miles. an hour:
A traction power plOw covers ground
at rate of two and quarter miles
an hour. perhaps. But II is claimed TOT
this new automobile pillow that II runs
so light that it travels from four to
five miles an hour, and does a better
job.
All things considered. the evolution
OF the pillow has been very slow In
the days of Moses, blowing was done
and this method is still in use over
something like half the world 1t IS
employed in the Philippines, in parts OF
Spain. in Africa, and nearly all of Asia
The first improvement was made about
fifteen hundred years ago, by putting
a steel point on the stick. In Daniel
Webster's day another improvement
was adopted steel sliding surface
called a mold board" attached to the
bottom of the pillow. Within recent
years, for certain kinds of soils, we
have taken to using disk plows.
May Reduce Cost One-Half.
The Omaha mans invention may re-
duce the cost of blowing to one-half of
what it has been hitherto. But, II II
comes up to expectations, its rapid
work should enable the farmer to get
his blowing done when he wants il
done. If he can pillow at the right
time. and when his land is in the right
condition, he gets a much larger crop
in the case of wheat for instance, pos
sibly twice as much. Early blowing
gives the soil time to settle down, and
the organic matter to rot, so that the
young wheat comes along wonder
fully.
1t has been questioned whether the
new pillow would work in stony SOL.
The inventor claims that ii will do so.
But in the prairie soils there are no
rocks and the same may be said of vast
areas in other parts of the country.
Already during the lifetime of the