Iron County news. [volume] (Hurley, Wis.) 1913-1950, 1918-04-27

filled with earth and the new-made fields presents
a finely mulChed surface.
The tank is not only first in war It is first in
peace. For its weight it has more pulling power
than any farm machine made. 1t Is the biggest
money saver and time ever introduced for
power purposes upon the farm. The division OF
agricultural engineering of the University of Gait
fornia has found that one man with As horse
power tractor on the university farm can do the
work of from three TO six men with mules More
over, the same machine may be kept going day
and night, great advantage in California where
II is necessary to get large amount Of work done
in short time. And 1t requires no feed or care
when not working.
For varied illustration of what track laver
can do take the case of the I-54. q husky little
45 horsepower tractor which has been out of the
shop for eighteen months. The writer watched
her working and learned Of her career since the
day she left the factory
She was hauling beets when | first saw her
Under the thrust Of her powerful engines she
went forward in a cloud of dust that hid her from
all eyes but her drivers. She mounted the sides
OF the levee dragging her own weight of five and
Onehaf tons and two eleven-ton truckIoads oS
beets as easily If there had been no load at all
The ground the island is what ranchers in
the delta Of the San Joaquin river call peat bot
tom fluff. 1t gave under like logs in a mill
boom the little Ir54 dragged her weight over
1t, hugging the ground 'osely as a badger
When she had reached the top L-54 stopped mo-
ment and the driver got his bearings. Then the
gears connected with her right track her left
track remaining stationary. and she swung around
from right to left on her own axis quite as rap
idly q lady in the fox trot.
This, however. was nothing for the I-54 She
can go backward or forward up hin or down and
can spin around all day Ike dervsh if her driver
throws in but one clutch. Time and again she has
picked her way over the peat bogs Of the newly
reclaimed land. skirted the edge Of big cracks
six or eight feet deep, backed and sidesteppeeb
and bridged miniature chasIns confident that
nothing short of a cavein Of the whole earth could
stop her progress aud that the harrows plows or
trucks behind were bound to follow wherever she
led.
L-54 Is a ponderOus, deliberate creature with
tremendous grip upon the earth II covered with
through wire entanglements easily as Byng's
tanks tore through the German defenses at Cam
brai But more than all things else she is
money saver and saver.
This Is all IN the day work with "a ana
nights work too In fact her driver con remem-
her when she worked all day and then went al
II at night with an acetyene lamp plowing MP
beets with suhsoil plow 10 inches deep. She
has been on the Job in Way or another all the
time for Is months.
She had pulled q grader holding Eve cubic
wards of dirt level the land for irrigation be-
fore single acre had been put into beeis She
He had mtrhed her up Ia chjseI shaped sub
roer thar would break he hardest ground ia the
district and she had subSoied The land 10 a depth
Of 20 inches. breaking I'D The hard-Dlow pan
where Ten span Of horses had fHilcd For the first
time In p years thar land tod produced 30 bush
els of wheat 10 the acre
When 80 Ir54 mounted The levee with her two