Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1921-05-11
Shall We Use Tractors o,
Farm Animal Power!

felt that this move would be justified,
because they ddi not want to. do away
with all their work animals and yet
they felt that an investment in such
a piece of machinery should result
in eliminating their animal equip
ment, to justify the change. This po-
sition is not warranted, however, for
practically all power farmers and
those identified with the selling end
of the tractor business believe that
the primary purpose of the tractor is
to supplement, rather than supplant,
the horse or mule.
It is true that there are large
number of power farmers who have
found it possible to do away with all
horses, being able to use the tractor
for all jobs formerly performed with
horses, but this is not true of the
great majority of farmers, who find
that there are certain kinds of work
that can be done more economically
by the horse. To them the tractor is
worth the investment for doing all
of the heavy work and in enabling
them to push their work faster and
get more done in work day than
was possible when they relied upon
animals. The tractor saved their own
time and made possible the doing +
a much greater amount of work in
a day than in the past.
Principle of Saving Time.
1t is this principle of saving time
and multiplying work that a manu-
facturer applies when he scraps his
existing machinery and installs some
thing new that will enable him to in
crease his output, and therefore his
profits. The farmer should study his
problems from the same angle, and
if the addition to his farm equipment
of tractor will enable him to double
his personal labor without decreasing
his crop yield, then the necessary in
vestment would be justified.
Tractors Displace Horses.
From a study of the experiences
of entertainers in all parts Of the
country, it has been found that the
tractor does displace certain num-
ber of horses on the farm, and that
the average number of acres that are
cultivated is increased by the power
machine. For instance, in the corn
belt States it was found that the trac-
tordisplaced at least two and one
half horses for each farm, and that
the number of tillable acres per horse
increased from twenty-six and one
half to thirty-eight. and one-half
acres. A number of operators report
ed that they did all of their plowing,
discingand narrowing with the trac-
tor, keeping horses for cultivating
and other light work. Some farmers
reported that they were keeping sew
eral more head of stock than they
really needed, but that the prices
paid for horses did not make their
sale tempting matter. In the corn
belt the development of tractor cul-
tivation was being watched with in
terest by many farmers, who said
that when this machine had been per-
fected they would sell off all their
horses and do all their work with
power machines, since the cultivator
wouldbe able to perform all the light
jobs, including cultivation, for which
the horse was now kept.
Those farmers who purchased
tractors to supplement the work of
their animals found that as they be-
came more adept in handling the
machine it could be made to do more
and more of the work OF the horses'
and in addition, the machine was cap
able of doing a lot of work that The
animals were not suited to. such as
belt work.
AS a generalrule, the longer an
.ownerhas tractor the more ways
he will find to use it. Field agents of
the Department of Agriculture were
toldby number of farmers that they
used their machines for variety of
Jobs, s,including blowing, listing, disc
ing and spading, narrowing and plant
ing, rolling, seeding grain, cultlvat-
ing, loading hay, pulling hay forks,
harvesting grain, spreading manure,
road work, clearing land and stretch
ing fences.
By far the largest number of trac-