The Raymer enterprise., 1918-05-02

filled with earth and the new-made fields presents
q finely mulched even surface.
The tank Is not only first In war 1t 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 saver ever introduced for
power purposes upon the farm. The division Of
agricultural engineering Of the University Of Call
fornia has found that one man with 45 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
1t 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 layer
can do take the case Of the LISA, husky little
40 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 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
ohe'haif tons and two eleventon truckloads Of
beets as easily as II there had been no load at ALL
The ground on the island Is what ranchers In
the delta OF the San Joaquin river call peat bot.
tom fuf 1t gave under like saw logs In mill
boom as the little L-54 dragged her weight over
II, hugging the ground as closely as badger.
When She had reached the top LISA 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 ran.
Idly as lady In the fox trot
This, however, was nothing for the L-54. She
can 80 backward or forward, up hill or down. and
can spin around al day like dervish II 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 sidestepped
and bridged miniature chasms, confident that
nothing short OF cavein Of the whole earth could
stop her progress and that the harrows, pows or
trucks behind were bound to follow wherever she
led.
Lr54 Is ponder0us, deliberate creature with
tremendous grip upon the EARTH II covered with
sheet iron and armored she could tear her way
through wire entanglements as easily as Ryng's
tanks tore through the German defenses at Cam.
brai. But more than all things else she is a
money saver and a man saver.
This Is all In the days work with LISA, and
nights work. too. In fact her driver can remem.
Der when she worked all day and then went at
1t at night with an acetylene lamp, plowing up
beets with a subsOl plow 18 inches Deep She
has been on the job in one way or another all the
time for IS months.
She had pulled a grader holding FIVE cubic
yards OF dirt to level the land for irrigation be.
fore single acre had been put into beets. She
had been lent to farmer In the nearby foothills
He had hitched her up to a chisel-shaped sub.
soiler that would break the hardest ground in the
district and she had subsoiled the land to depth
Of 20 inches breaking up the hard-piow pan
where ten span Of horses had failed For the first
time In % years that land had produced 80 BUSH
els Of wheat to the acre.
When the LISA mounted the evee with her two