The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1915-07-12
Motor Power In
Farming Taking
Place of Horses

l. The farmer is beginning to love
= the smell of gasoline. Several year:
e ago the bitterest enemy of the auto
i mobile was the farmer. His antago
e nism toward the motor car became
e proverbial.
George AIDE, the Indiana humor-
: list, refused to run for congress be-
: cause he lived in a community large
ly made up of farmers and-he
e owned an automobile.
a But there has been a change.
Now the startling information is
given out that slightly more than
one-half of the automobile owners
in this country are farmers New
York state leads in the number of
cars owned by farmers, but Cali
fornia, Iowa and Ohio fall closely
in line.
One OF the strange things in con-
nection with the automobile bust
ness is this: 1t is claimed that the
automobile would do away with the
horse, but horses have constantly
risen in price. The advancing price
OF horses results in more automo-
bile sales.
The agricultural class is now the
backbone of the automobile trade.
The ten states in the middle west,
known ais the grain belt" are in
vesting millions of dollars in motor
driven vehicles. Four years ago
the number of motor cars in these
states was 1900. Now it is 599.-
40. The number of machines in
these ten states is increasing at the |
rate Of $4,000 month or 425
day.
The farmer has learned the value
OF time and he is learning efficiency
me value of motor car to the
farmer is no longer problematical
Daytona Journal.
L. ). W.. writing from Leesburg
TO the Triton Gazette, says one of
Lee county's farmers does not work
Morse mule or OK. This farmer is
Hon. E. B. Lee. former representa-
tive of Leet county.
Mr.. Lee is working 1876 acres this
year lie broke the land with a trac-
tlon engine at the rate of ten acres
F.cr Gay. This land was then seeded
10 oats and wheat with the engine
pulllng ~ inch disc seeder, seed
ing IA feet wide, finishing so acres
Der day.
AT harvest time the en?ine was
lltched to an S-foot grain binder !
pulling at speed of four miles per
'our and harvesting 40 acres per ;
lay. After the grain stood in shocks ,
few days it was hauled to the mid
lie OF the field and put through
hresher. The thresher is complete !
With wind stacker. self-feeder
Veigher and Dagger. putting the i, i,
anne weight in each bag.
Abe engine hauls the grain to the y
arm, returns with a baler to the
traw. bales the straw and puts that i,
the barn. Then goes back to the a
hubble field with combination
low harrow and seeder and with
his machine drawn by the engine =
0 acres of peas are seeded per day N
n the stubble. =,
When the hay is ready to cut two :;
lg mowers will be worked behind Il
he engine, and then the baler will al
used again. After this the whole eI
will be repeated in the s.
ext crop. e!
IN years to come the major por- :,
on of the farming will be done Il; -,
ith motor power. The gasoline "a
'gine has replaced horse power in
any instances already. There are sc
wv no buggy horses in towns and or
ties, farmers themselves are re- nc
aclng busgies and carriages with ed
ltos, and the large drays and trans IN
wagons are being drawn by Az
soline power. vi
some of the advantages of the
actor on the farm are that it will hi.
cessitate removing the stumps les
IL encourage the making of other CHI
Dps than cotton-especially grain LAT
q nay, will tighten the farm work MI
q add to the attractiveness and III.
nforts of the farm life. -,
We shall welcime the farm trac- on,
.-Multrie (Ga } Qhseruor l..