The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1921-02-04
HOW FARM MACHINERY
SAVES LABOR
P. G. Holden Field Director Agricultural Extension
Department, international Harvester Company

The world problem of food produc-
ton has demonstrated, more than
anything else has ever demonstrated,
that farm tools, farm implements and
farm machines are absolutely essen
tial to the preservation, not only Of
national prosperity, but of human
life itself.
Americans task of feeding herself
would be hopeless il we were forced
to rely upon the crude tools of our
ancestors-to pillow with crooked
stick, reap with a cradle and thresh
with fail.
All the land in America would not
feed our 10000 900 people If we did
not have farm machinery with which
to plow and cultivate and harvest.
When the Indians owned this coun-
try, the land was virgin and fertile,
| yet 1t could have been bought for a
cent an acre. Such corn as was
grown had a husk around each ker-
mel and the Indians depended for
their food largely upon the fruits Of
| the chase.
Today the world depends for it's
| food upon the pillow the disc, the har-
row, the planter, the mower, the man
the tractor. We cannot produce food
without tools-the weeds would starve
us out.
! To meet the demands upon us we
must plow at least an acre an hour
and that means tractors. To get q
good yield of corn, we must have
corn planters that will drop as many
kernels as we want and drop them
true.
To insure maximum of production
we cannot depend upon the shovel
! and the hoe. We must have discs for
cultivating the soil, spring tooth har
row to kill the weeds in our alfalfa.
To harvest our crops and take care
of them we must have mowers, bind
ers, rakes, harvesting machines,
threshing machines,
In 1902 It was stated by the United
States department of agriculture
that the amount of human labor re-
quired to produce a bushel of wheat
from beginning to end is only ten
minutes whereas before the intro
duction Of imp owed machines the
time was three hours and thirteen
minutes. During the same interval
the cost of human labor required to
produce a bushel of wheat decreased
from lax to 31s cents. At the pres
ent cost of labor these figures will
! vary, but the relative proportion will
: be still more in favor Of machinery
because of the more general use Of
| gang plows and tractors.
Originally the heavy clumsy pillow
was used, the seed sown by hand.
| narrowed into the ground by drawing
/ bushes over it, the grain was cut with
sickles. hauled to the barn and thresh-
ed with fails; the winnowing was
done with a sheet attached to rods
on which the grain was placed with
a shovel, then tossed up and down by
two men until the wind had blown
out the chaff.
Now, the ground is plowed with a
gang pillow and pulverized with a har-
row drawn by tractor; the seed Is
sown with mechanical seeder:
the reapipg, threshing and sacking of
the wheat is done with the binder
and thresher "
When we cut wheat with sickle.
one man could harvest half an acre a
day: when he used scythe, he could
cradle he could harvest two and one
half acres day; with the first reap
| or. six acres day; with a modern
| binder, twenty acres a day, and with
modern tractor and two binders one
man can harvest forty acres day.
An even greater saving of time in
preparing the soil for planting is now
possible. p
One man can spade about lis of
an acre of ground in ten hours With
two horse team and a walking pillow
ne can pillow two acres Of land in ten
hours. With a gang plow having two
fourteen inch bottom plows drawn
| by four horses 'or a small tractor, he
can pillow on an average of about five
acres: with gang plow with three
a. inch plows drawn by 1920
horse power tractor, 71s acres; and