The Columbus courier. [volume] (Columbus, Luna County, N.M.) 1911-1920, 1918-05-24

nlled with earth and the new-mAde nelds presents
a finely mulched even surfnce.
The tank Il not only FIRST In war. Il Is first In
peace. For Its weight Il has more pulling power
than any farm machine made. II 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 Cali
fornia has found that one man with a 40 horse
power tractor on the university farm can do the
work OF from three u six men with mules. More
over, the same machine may be kept going day
and night, a great advantage In California. where
IL IL necessary TO get a large amount OF work done
In a short time. And Il requires no feed or care
when not working.
For a varied illustration Of what a truck layer
can do tnke the case OF the LISA. a 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 let the factory.
She WIS hauling beots when I nrst 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. drnEging her own weight OF Ave and
onehalf tons and two eleven.ton truckionds OF
beeta az easily as n there had been no load at all.
The ground on the island Ia what nnchers In
the delta of the San Joaquin river call peat bot.
tom nuR. II gave under like saw logs In a mill
boom Ms the little L~a dragged her weight over
H. hugging the ground MS closely as a badger.
When she had reached the top LISA stopped a mo-
ment ana the driver got his bearings. Then the
gears connected with her right track. her left
track remaining stationary. and she swung around
from right 20 left on her own axis quite as rap
idly as q LADY In the fox trot.
This. however. wTF nothing for the L-b4. She
can 90 backward or forward, up hll or down, and
can spin around all day like a derviRh n her driver
throws In but one clutch. Time and again she has
picked her way over the peat boys Of the newly
reclaimed land. sklrted the edge OF big cracks
ak or eight feet deep, backed and sidestepped
and bridged miniature chasms, confident that
nothing short OF n cavern OF the whole earth could
stop her progress and that the harrows, plows or
trucks behind were bound TO follow wherever she
led.
L64 Il a ponderous. deliberate creature with n
tremendous grip upon the earth. II covered with
sheet iron and armored she could tear her way
through wire entanElements as easily as Byngs
tanks tore through the German defenses az Cam
brai. But more than all things else she IL 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
Il At night with an a~cetylene lamp, blowing up
boets with a subsoil pillow 10 inches deep. She
has been on the Job In one way or another all tho
time for IS months.
She had pulled a grader holding ave cubic
yards Of dirt TO level the land for irrigation be.
fore a single acre had been put into beets. She
had been lent TO a farmer in the nearby foothills.
He had hitched her up 10 a chlsel-ahaped sub
soiler that would break the hardest ground IN the
district and she had subsoned the land TO a depth
Of 20 inches, breaking up the hard-plOw pan
whore ten span OF horses had failed. For the nrst
time IN 20 years that land had produced 30 bush
els Of wheat TO the acrs.
whsp the L-S4 mounted the lsvss with her two