ER-AND
LOW

[D • EtJWARD -A- RUMELY

THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA

BEQUEST OF

Alice R. Hilgard

POWER AND THE PLOW

POWER AND THE PLOW

BY

L. W. ELLIS AND EDWARD A. RUMELY

ILLUSTRATED

GARDEN CITY NEW YORK

DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY

1911

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION
INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN

COPYRIGHT, IQII, BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY

GIFT

H'I (\cw&

^^j

5*4*3

NOTE

We are pleased to acknowledge our indebtedness for the
illustrations in this publication to the International Harvester
Co., Hart-Parr Co., Avery Co., Buffalo-Pitts. Co., Gas Traction
Co., M. Rumely Co., C. L. Best Co., Holt Manufacturing Co.,
Thompson-Breese Co., Reeves & Co., J. I. Case Plow Works,
Oliver Chilled Plow Works, Parlin & Orendorff Co., Moline
Plow Co., Emerson— Brantingham Co., Deere & Co., La Crosse
Plow Co., The American Thresherman, Modern Power.

M857972

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. The Motor Contest ..... 3

II. Sources of Power for Plowing . . .12

III. The Measurement of Power . . .15

IV. The Horse as a Motor for Plowing . . 24
V. The Efficiency of the Horse ... 32

VI. Essentials of the Draft Horse ... 39
VII. The Steam Tractor as a Motor Power for

Plowing ...... 41

VIII. Performance of Steam Tractors . . .64
IX. Fuel for Steam Tractors .... 71

X. The Internal-Combustion Tractor . . 74

XI. Efficiency of Gas Tractors . . .106

XII. Fuel for Gas Tractors .... 112

XIII. Early History of the Plow . . . 130

XIV. The Plow in Great Britain . . 134
XV. ^he Plow in America . . . .144

XVI. Plows for Animal Power . . . .159

XVII. Plows for Mechanical Power . . .167

XVIII. l^onditions Affecting the Choice of Plows . 183

XIX. ^ Mechanical Principles of the Plow . .195

XX. V\Vhen to Plow, and How Deep . . .199

XXI. Draft of Plows ...... 206

XXII. Draft of Other Implements . . .216

XXIII. The Genesis of Power Plowing . . 222

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

XXIV. Substitutes for the Tractor
XXV. Animal-Mechanical Tillage
XXVI. The General Purpose Motor
XXVII. Business Management of Traction Plowing
XXVIII. The Traction Engine in Dry-Farming
XXIX. Traction Farming in Corn Belt .
XXX. Power and the Food Supply
XXXI. ThexChoice of Power
XXXII. \£ne Future of the Traction Engine .
Specifications of Leading Gas Tractors
List of Authorities Consulted

PAGE

233
237
243
253
267
274
289
298
309
317

ILLUSTRATIONS

The Work of the Plow — The Greatest Labor of

Mankind . . .... Frontispiece

PAGE
At Motor Contests ....... 4

Sources of Power for Plowing . . . 12

Testing Tractors 16

Steam Tractors ....... 42

Engine Power from Cultivating to Threshing . . 44
Details of Steam Tractors . . . ... 46

Details of Steam Tractors 48

Tractor Mishaps ....... 50

Gas Tractors . .... 76

Details of Gas Tractors . ... 78

Types of Gas Tractors . 80

Types of Gas Tractors ... 82

Engine Gang Plows . . . . . . .170

Engine Drawn Plows on Prairie Sod . . . .172

Hand Lift Engine Plows Working in Stubbie . .176
Tractor Accomplishes All at Once . . . .184

Tractor Accomplishes All at Once . . . .186

The General Utility of Tractors . . .216

Pioneers in Steam Plowing ..... 222

Saving Time by Good Management .... 224

The Various Uses of the Traction Engine . . .298

POWER AND THE PLOW

POWER AND THE PLOW

THE MOTOR CONTEST

CLOUDS of smoke and hissing steam ; a broad prairie
stretching for miles without a break, save for the dis-
tant mirage; here and there a tiny prairie fire held in
leash by bands of blackened earth; dust and heat;
throngs of eager spectators; the song of vibrant steel and the
cracking roots of age-old sod — imagine all this, add to it the
sight of a score of monster engines pulling leviathan plows,
and you have a faint picture of the Winnipeg plowing contest.
Shining prows of steel, cleaving the waves of a sea of prairie
grass; long furrows lost in a haze; lines of fluttering flags to
guide the engineer on a straight course; huge twenty-ton en-
gines mere dots on the landscape, and you have the impression
of distance. Refreshment tents, excursion trains, busy autos
running errands for the slow-moving tractors, or whisking the
manufacturer's crew back and forth, and you feel the spirit
of a modern festival. Then, in the twilight, mild-eyed cattle
meandering slowly over the upturned field, wondering, Rip Van
Winkle-like, at the transformation, and you sense a tragedy,
for the pasture of the ox and buffalo from time immemorial
is lost forever to advancing civilization. In the night, when the
camps have vanished, one might even fancy Indian spirits
floating miserably over the desolate waste of a one-time happy
hunting ground.

4 POWER AND THE PLOW

What is this affair? It is an annual contest, a feature of the
Winnipeg Industrial Exhibition, open to the world for either
steam or internal-combustion tractors of any size or weight.
The contest of 1908, first of its kind on the American continent,
was received with skepticism, admixed with wonder, but the
world-wide interest in the results proved the timeliness of such
a demonstration of the utility of mechanical power on the farm.
With succeeding competitions this interest has in nowise abated,
and the present scene is the crowning event of them all.

Invitations have been sent to every manufacturer, regula-
tions drawn and published, testing apparatus put in readiness,
and all preparations made to determine, from at least one stand-
point, the best agricultural motor for Western Canada. For
weeks before the trials engines have been arriving in Winnipeg,
and many a neighboring farmer has had a sizable field plowed
gratis while these modern farm horses tried out their paces.
For ten long days before the engines appear on the plowing
field they have been tested for their stationary power on a fric-
tion brake, in a hot unromantic corner of the exhibition grounds.
Now they have made their way over ten miles of winding prai-
rie trail to where a section of virgin gumbo sod lies waiting for
the breaking plow. Here at last ensues the real struggle, the
climax of a year's effort.

All one day there is the eagerness of preparation. Tents
are pitched, fuel and water arranged for, plows assembled and
carefully adjusted. On a quarter section set apart, the compet-
itors are given a chance to test their plows and power. Courses
are marked by flag and stake, and all made ready for the start
at daybreak. In the night a steam tractioneer steals away with
his engine to caulk a flue. Yonder a dim light shows where a
torn gasket is being replaced on a gas tractor, or possibly a
sheared stud in a fuel pump is being replaced by a nail from the
tool-box. In the stillness, the sound of a stealthy file betrays
the purpose of a plowman to get an edge on his rival as well as
his plow. Camp food, tents, cots, blankets, hasty lunches

AT MOTOR CONTESTS

The first in America held at Winnipeg, Can., in 1908

The gasoline midget
Making smooth, mile-long furrows ten at a time

THE MOTOR CONTEST 5

during the long busy hours, the lack of opportunity for restful
sleep and clean washing, all emphasize the bustle and confusion,
and give some hint of the hardships borne without a murmur
by the loyal mechanics. Their iron steeds have been put
in the final pink of condition. The night before the supreme
test the men sleep in their clothes on the field, one eye open for
prowlers from rival camps.

Out on the fields at dawn we find the officials, business-like
college professors, clad in wide-brimmed hats and overalls.
Harassed and buffeted by contending ranks, they discharge
their duties with all the more zest. Fuel and water are care-
fully dispensed, and one by one the puffing, purring steamers
and the puttering gas tractors are sent into the fray. Down the
field, headed straight for each flag in the line, the steersman
strikes his furrow. Circling quickly at the other end, he re-
turns carefully upon the edge of the first. Back and forth the
engines puff and groan, while plowshares that have been
sharpened to a razor edge at the factory cut the tough, dry sod
as a knife cuts cheese. Two acres of virgin prairie grow dark
with every mile of travel, four acres in an hour. Once in a
former contest an acre of stubble ground was plowed in eight
minutes, a world's record. Tons of coal and carloads of water
are sent into the thin air, and between sunrise of one day and
nightfall of the next three hundred and twenty acres of
virgin land are doubled in value by breaking.

Here is a mammoth steam engine of the double-cylinder type;
there a single cylinder. Yonder is an engine which has been
used until bearings are worn to a glassy smoothness and every
joint is limber. Next to it is one losing hopelessly through lack
of preliminary tuning up. Alongside a steam mogul is a
gasoline midget. On the next course is the hope of an inventor
who has staked his all on a crude combination of plows, harrows,
and packers. A fussy little single-cylinder engine is coughing,
"I can't, I can't, I can, I can, I can, I can't, I can't." Yon-
der can be seen a gas tractor with opposed engine, here a four-

6 POWER AND THE PLOW

cylinder vertical, and over there a two-cylinder horizontal.
This engine cools its cylinder with water, and that with oil.
This one has a hit-and-miss governor, while that one throttles
its charge. Here is an owner ready at the last moment to risk
the race on some new notion. A new cleat or a new cork in-
sert in the friction clutch fails at the critical time and a good
machine is discredited. The student of design saves here ten
thousand miles of travel, and sees construction put to its most
strenuous test in yielding data of incomparable value.

Each hour the steamers must take water, but time is too
precious to allow a stop. The tank wagon keeps pace alongside,
and a hose-crane and steam jet do the rest. Once in two hours
the coal supply must be replenished, but the engineer finds
sacked fuel and a dozen helping hands to avoid delay. The
bare prairie affords no natural watering place. The alkali
water from a distant farm well is not only insufficient, but bad
for both man and machine. The railway falters in its task of
bringing water in tank cars from the city, and early in the day
six steamers must stop plowing while gas engines on all sides
go popping merrily on. When water comes at last, two ver-
satile gas tractors fall to and assist the weary teams in keeping
their steam cousins in motion.

The foremost experts on the continent are in charge of rival
plows. Here is a game within a game, Yankee plowmaker
against Yankee, and Canadian against both. The craftiest
general of them all adjusts his plows to show a sharp furrow
handsome on top, regardless of what lies underneath, and so
wins popular favor for the engine which tows him. Had the
plowmaker not provided these superb implements, products
of the last decade, a contest on such scale would be impossible.
The cattle wandering over their former pasture field would still
have found rich pickings, and the memory of smooth mile-long
furrows would not have lingered with many a farmer to create
in his mind the thought of ownership.

In immediate charge for the competing companies are the tall

THE MOTOR CONTEST 7

diplomatic manager of an experimental department, trained
as a salesman; the untechnical publicity man; the mechanical
engineer and the chief inspector of one concern; the shop super-
intendent of another, and the Canadian sales-manager in
another case. An intensely interested gallery follows every
move. The head of a great company meets fifty subordinates
on the field. In one short day he progresses from vast igno-
rance of even the commonest terms to a masterly grasp of the
stupendous opportunity pictured by this brief contest. A
veteran builder proclaims his impatience with a contest that
pays him nothing for the expense and worry, yet down in his
heart he knows he could not be kept out. A bluff man, risen
from the rank of salesman to the leadership of an immense
concern, is deep in conversation with an eager young officer
who has brought an old company in the states a new lease of
life. At some lull an eavesdropper finds them betting a hat
on the result of the contest. The next moment they plunge
into a discussion of what manufacturers can do to prevent the
impending shortage of skilled labor, which must cripple us as a
manufacturing nation. Astride a water tank, and losing no
detail of the proceedings, is the dapper, rosy-faced man who
rules one of the largest thresher companies with an iron hand.
In a buggy that seems strangely out of place follows an elderly,
mild-mannered man who has brought his new engine to the
motor contest to give it a tryout such as he is unable to give
it at the factory.

The professor of mechanical engineering rubs elbows with
professors of agricultural engineering. The superintendent
of motive power in a great railway system exchanges views on
traction dynamometers with the inventor of the ones used in
the contest. In a sociable group are government represen-
tatives from Russia, Canada, and the United States, and a half
dozen non-competing manufacturers from the world-at-large.
There are scores of men building steam and gas tractors; sta-
tionary gas engine builders whose mouths water at the dream of

8 POWER AND THE PLOW

a profitable tractor trade; men building plows; and, besetting
all these, dozens of inventors who are there to gather ideas and
present their claims for the attention of capital.

By machine, trap, and excursion train come the crowds.
Sharply through it all runs the commercial spirit. On every
hand is the wily salesman bidding for the favor of a fascinated
prospect. Here is the farmer who comes with open mind, and
there is the partisan who backs his favorite, win or lose. Yon-
der is he who came to scoff and remains to investigate. W7ell-
groomed city men and smartly dressed women come, in
uncomprehending wonderment, to join the throng that trudges
after these roaring, pulsating heralds of a new order of things
on the farm. From far and near the Canadian farmer, and
even his neighbor from across the line, flock to Winnipeg to see
the tractors of the English-speaking world pitted in equal com-
petition. Representatives of the press are everywhere at
elbow to note the smallest item of interest. On every side there
is the indefatigable photographer, and even the cartoonist,
gathering pictures of the engines, the plows, and the living
actors for the eyes of a waiting world.

What does the public comprehend of the immense spectacle
staged for its benefit? What does it know of the game, the
intense rivalry, the tricks, and the prize that is sought? In the
eyes of the farm boy you see only the look of envy cast on the
greasy mechanic at the throttle or steering wheel. You fathom
the longing of a weary farmer to own a machine which ban-
ishes drudgery. But the participants themselves, intent only
on their own and some rival's performance, have neither eyes
to see nor lips to explain. No actors were ever more careless
of their audience, at least until the contest is over, and the ad-
vertising managers of the successful firms get busy.

Influential men from the largest oil corporation in the world
are present, keenly interested in the question of mechanical
power on the farm as affecting the market for liquid fuels. The
largest independent maker of automobiles, prepared to spend

THE MOTOR CONTEST 9

untold amounts in developing his ideas of a light farm tractor,
is here to study and criticise. He finds a kindred spirit in the
old patent expert who illustrates his conception of the light
tractor by the story of a cat chased up a tree by a dog. "The
cat," he says, "didn't have weight, but she had traction."
An unsympathetic bystander suggests that if a brick had been
tied to the cat 's tail, corresponding to the plows behind a trac-
tor, the dog would have put the cat out of business.

No other annual exposition held on the American continent
brings together such a galaxy of big men in the farm power
industry as the Winnipeg exhibition with its motor contest.
No other one thing has done more to crystallize the thought of
the world upon the adaptation of mechanical power to plowing.
The capital and brains of a continent are concentrated at one
point, all intent on the one problem. Capitalists, engineers,
designers, salesmen, journalists, land men, oil men, farmers,
and teachers are all on the scene, striving to forecast the future
of mechanical power on the farm. Through this one annual
event the name of Winnipeg has become so linked with the
thought of traction engines and traction plowing that, when the
last great history of mechanical power on the farm shall have
been written, the name will stand out on the pages like that of
Chicago in the romance of the reaper, and South Bend and
Malone in the history of the plow-

What is there behind all this? Are we watching a mere
parade of machines, or is it a race, with huge, slow-moving
iron Percherons in place of thoroughbreds? As ages of racing
have put fire and steel into structures of muscle and bone, as
auto races have toughened the metal of machines, so does the
contest bring out the temper of the contesting motors. It is
a race where twenty-ton engines are the entries, where the
skill of the designer, the craft of the workman, the cunning of
the general on the field, and the coolness, bravery, and resource-
fulness of the tractioneer are all pitted against those of rival
houses.

10 POWER AND THE PLO\V

Let no one liken the motor contest merely to an old-time
Scottish plowing match, where slow, careful work, a steady
team, and a skilful hand were the winning factors. The
Scotchman aspired to leave behind him smooth furrows,
straight as an arrow, with the crest of each standing up sharp
and unbroken from one end of the field to the other. Here at
Winnipeg, where all is speed, distance, and bustle, we might
more easily liken the scene to a hunt. We might call it a sport
of kings, where men spend thousands to win a golden bauble.
A bauble, did we say? Yes, and no, for the medal carries with
it a claim on the lion's share of trade in a new farm empire
richer than Ind.

Fifty important firms on this continent are building tractors.
A million-dollar addition in Indiana, a new million-dollar plant
in Chicago, a two-million-dollar factory in Iowa, have been
erected to construct gas tractors in the brief interval since they
have been recognized as a possibility. New companies are
appearing, old firms expanding, to take care of the business
that rewards aggressive methods. The Northwest is the battle
ground. Machine power is on the ascendant. You hear it,
see it everywhere. Farmers and business men talk it. Sales-
men breathe it. A single issue of a Canadian magazine con-
tains 16,000 agate lines of reading matter and 20,000 of adver-
tising devoted to power plowing. In Western Canada two
hundred million acres of tillable land lie in a virgin state,
waiting for power and the plow, and trainload after trainload of
tractors, bedecked and bannered, are pouring from the East
and the South, through the Winnipeg gateway, and on to the
wide aces of Alberta and Saskatchewan to answer the call.

Here is the fascination of the Winnipeg motor contest.
We are witnessing in miniature the conquest of the last great
West, a fit occupation for the strong. Broad, free stretches of
virgin land, so large as to dishearten the lone settler, offer a
problem to test the mettle of the keenest and the most power-
ful. Mechanical power has added tens of millions of bushels

THE MOTOR CONTEST 11

yearly to the yield of prairie wheat and put hundreds of pros-
perous towns on the map. Prairies are now settled in months
where it took years before the coming of the traction engine.
The Man with the Hoe is passing, and, in his wake, man's
faithful friend the horse.

Wheat is the noblest of all foodstuffs, containing in its ker-
nel the thirteen essential elements of animal nutrition in
almost the exact proportions found in the human body. Once
a race has tasted wheat it begins to rise in the scale of civiliza-
tion. The civilizing influence of commerce has created an
appetite among the people of all lands, and drawn with increas-
ing force upon the surplus of exporting nations. The world
is pressing on the limits of wheat production, and actual shortage
is imminent unless we can push rapidly into virgin fields in
search of a larger wheat-raising area. Canada, Russia, and the
Argentine are wresting from the older nations the right to
supply the world with bread. Broad, level tracts, unhampered
by petty farm lines and traditions, together with unlimited
mechanical power, offer the opportunity for organizing wheat
production on a broad and effective basis. Every horse dis-
placed by mechanical power adds five to eight acres to the
area devoted to human maintenance. Back of the motor
contest, then, and giving it force, is the call for the taming of
the prairies, and, deeper than that, the cry of increasing mil-
lions for an abundance _of their daily bread.

II

SOURCES OF POWER FOR PLOWING

MAN has risen in the scale of civilization in exact
proportion to the extent to which his brain has de-
vised means of lessening'physical work. From the
time that practical necessity pulled the Sacred Bull
off his high pedestal, and lashed to his horns the long branch
of a forked sapling, man has accomplished the world's work
with less and less drudgery. First the weaker human beings,
then the more powerful though less cunning animals, and
finally, one by one, the great forces of nature, have been brought
under man's control, harnessed, and made to do work. Man
has attained wondrous mental power and a capacity for work
that is impossible to the unaided hand. The brain has
accomplished what the arm and hand never attempted,
converting the power of the sunshine into blessings for the
human race.

The sun is the original source of all energy used on this earth.
The steam engine, the gas engine, the windmill, the water-
wheel, the draft horse, and man himself are all prime movers
to make use of the sun-power which comes to us in widely
different natural forms. Steam and hot-air engines burn coal
or oil, which contains the energy stored from sunshine in pre-
historic vegetation, or wood and straw of more recent growth.
The gas engine burns alcohol, which was stored up in the plants
of this year's growing, or else products of coal and crude pe-
troleum, which contain the power of the sun of past ages.
The sun heats' different portions of the earth's sur-

12

Photograph by Underwood and Underwood

SOURCES OF POWER FOR PLOWING

Doukhobor women in Canada
The Elephant in Ceylon

SOURCES OF POWER FOR PLOWING 13

face unevenly, and sets up air currents, which drive our wind-
mills. It lifts water from the sea and drops it on the mountain
tops. On its course back to the ocean the stream drives the
water-wheel. The newly invented solar motor derives its
power from the sun's rays, which it intercepts directly. Man
and the draft horse obtain their power through assimilating
the energy which the sun stores up each year in plants. Even
the feeble wave motors are agitated by forces of which the
sun is the centre.

In the ordinary classification the electric motor is included,
but it is not, strictly speaking, a prime mover, since it merely
transforms into mechanical energy the electric current which
has been derived from another source. The windmill, the
water-wheel, and the wave motor intercept the motion of air
or water in the mass and may be called gravity, or kinetic
motors. The heat engines, by supplying the conditions for
the oxidation of fuel, convert it into heat, thence into work.
They derive power from the chemical changes that are produced
and have been called chemical motors. These are by far the
most important with which we have to deal. Possibly the most
stupendous discovery in the history of the world was that the
heat from burning materials could be made to do the work of
men and animals.

It is our intention to devote space only to those motors used
for plowing, hence we shall pass over wind, wave, water, solar,
and hot air motors with a mere mention and discuss the electric
motor briefly, in its proper order. The world over, the animal
is most common motor for plowing. Human labor is still put
to this wasteful use in a few countries, including even Japan
and modern Switzerland. In all countries, however, which
are not so densely populated as to make live stock raising
practically out of the question, the inhabitants have substituted
brute labor for human muscle. The picturesque water buffalo
is the common beast of burden in the Phillipines, both for
agriculture and transportation. In the land of the Pharaohs

14 POWER AND THE PLOW

and in Asia Minor, the "Ship of the Desert" is made to turn
the inland soil.

The ox is the major source of power in Mexico, Central and
South America, and in many of the rough and stony portions
of the coast countries. We find him often on the Western
plains, relieving the shortage of power. The ox is still better
adapted to some conditions of work than the horse. He
is deservedly popular among the rocky hills of New England,
where docility, slow but powerful movement, and a sure foot
are valuable characteristics. On the other hand, the steer
at work moves at about two thirds the speed of the ordinary
farm horse, and pulls only an equal load. He is not adapted
to a faster pace for quick transportation, and was long ago
dethroned by the swifter horse. South of Mason and Dixon's
line the mule and the ox probably equal the horse in numbers.
However, in the United States as a whole, the horse far out-
numbers all other beasts of burden and may be considered as
the standard draft animal.

After a struggle of forty years the traction engine has found
a permanent place in the plowing field. We now find American
traction engines plowing large areas in our own West, in Canada,
Russia, and the Argentine. English steam tractors have long
been in use in all parts of the world. Steam engines in use
for plowing undoubtedly outnumber gas tractors, even in North
America, where the latter have been increasing jnost rapidly
in numbers. But the internal combustion, or gas, tractor is
coming rapidly into favor, and possibly this year, for the first
time, its sale will surpass that of the steam tractor in the
plowing field. The majority of gas tractors built are now used
for plowing, whereas many small steam tractors are built sim-
ply for threshing in the Central and Eastern states. The use
of the electric motor for plowing is as yet confined to a few iso-
lated localities in Europe, notably in Germany and Italy.

Ill

THE MEASUREMENT OF POWER

IN DISCUSSING motors and power it is convenient
to use engineering terms which are not in general
use in ordinary literature. That portion of the
subject of dynamics which treats of the measure-
ment of power is therefore touched upon briefly in the defini-
tions included in this chapter.

Force is any cause which tends to produce a change in the
motion of one body with respect to another, either in rate or
direction. All bodies above the earth tend to approach it
in obedience to the force of gravity. To lift a body, an
outside force must be applied to overcome the gravi-
tational force. The resistance offered by the action of
gravity may be measured by noting the ability of various
amounts of any substance to compress or extend springs of
a given size and material, or in other ways. The unit of
measurement of gravitational force, or weight for English-
speaking countries, is the pound weight avoirdupois, which
is the weight, or resistance to a lifting force, of a certain
mass of platinum, preserved in the office of the exchequer
in London.

Work is produced when a force acts to move a body through
some distance in opposition to resistance: The resistance,
for example, may be that of gravity; of friction, as when a body
is dragged over the ground or a mass of machinery is made to
move in spite of the adhesion between the metals in contact;
inertia, as when a body is first put in motion or its rate or

15

16 POWER AND THE PLOW

motion changed; or of tension, as when a spring is compressed
or extended beyond its normal state.

In English-speaking countries the standard measure of
distance is the British standard yard, which is the distance at
a temperature of 62° F. between two marks on a certain bar
of bronze, deposited in the British office of the exchequer.
The usual measure of distance is one third of the yard or
one foot.

If a force of one pound is exerted, either in lifting a pound
weight or in overcoming an equal resistance in a lateral direction
and this force be exerted through a distance of one foot, the
work done is the product of force times distance, or one foot-
pound. This is the common unit for the measurement of work,
though in* the same way we might have other units such as
"inch-pounds" or "foot- tons." The common term "ton-
mile " is not to be confused with these. The ton-mile is simply
the moving of a weight of one ton over the distance of one mile
on the surface, or the quivalent of this result, regardless of the
fact that more work will be required at one time to produce
a ton-mile than another, owing to the varying resistance offered
by different vehicles and road surfaces.

Energy is the ability to do work. In compressing a spring
a certain force acts through a certain distance, the product
being a definite quantity of work. The spring becomes en-
dowed with energy, which has been stored up at the expense
of the force which compressed it, and is then able to do work on
another body. The crankshaft of an engine can be made to
revolve by means of the energy transmitted through the pis-
ton, and in turn will give off work to other masses. Work will
be required to lift water to a given height, but work can be
recovered from it as it flows to a lower level. Energy is the
equivalent of work in a potential state. Any form of energy
can be transformed into any other form. Thus, a fuel which
contains a chemical energy can be burned under a boiler to
produce heat energy. This heat may be transformed by a

TESTING TRACTORS

Brake test

Dynamometer test

Hill-climbing

THE MEASUREMENT OF POWER 17

piston and cylinder into mechanical energy for turning the
generator. The generator will produce heat, which will return
into the air, whence it originally came. Energy is never lost
nor destroyed, but at each step in the foregoing cycle, some
may be transformed into heat and escape without doing use-
ful work. When energy is expended by a certain agent, some
other material inevitably receives energy in the shape of work
or otherwise, the total being exactly equal to the energy stored
in the original source.

The toy engine may in time produce many millions of foot-
pounds of work. The large engine in a central power plant
may do an equal amount with a few strokes of the piston. In
order to make a comparison of engines we must bring in the
element of time — i. e.t the unit of power must take into
account not only the amount of work done but the rate of
doing it. The unit of power accepted in English-speaking
countries is the horsepower (h. p.), which represents a power
output of 550 foot-pounds of work per second, or 33,000
foot-pounds of work per minute. This might be done by
lifting a weight of 1100 pounds one foot in two seconds, or 275
pounds two feet in one second, or some such equivalent.
The product of force times distance, divided by time, will
always equal 550 foot-pounds per second, for each horsepower.
One horsepower exerted for the period of one hour gives rise
to another unit of work known as the horsepower hour (h. p.-
hr.) is frequently used in determining the fuel efficiency of a
motor.

Every engine will waste a certain amount of energy in over-
coming friction within itself, besides the waste involved in
transforming energy from the chemical to the mechanical
state. Of the power generated in an engine cylinder, from 2
to 25 per cent, may be lost as compared with the work
which will be done at the flywheel. Of the latter amount
still another portion will be lost in a traction engine in over-
coming the friction in the transmission system, and in moving

18

POWER AND THE PLOW

the weight of the tractor itself over various grades and surfaces.
In order to compare these various losses a number of tests have
been adopted to determine the efficiency of the engine in various
particulars.

The work done in the engine cylinder is known as the in-
dicated horsepower (i. h. p.). It is always less than the energy
which is supplied to the engine in the shape of fuel. In the
steam engine the first losses occur in unburned gases and bits
of carbon that pass out of the chimney; in unconsumed fuel in
the ashes; and in radiation from the boiler, steam pipes, and
the cylinder itself. The indicated power is calculated by the
aid of an apparatus known as the indicator. This consists of a
small cylinder containing a piston and spring; a larger cylinder
or drum for holding a sheet upon which a record may be traced;
and mechanisms for controlling the movements of the recording
pencil and the drum. The piston of the indicator, which is
usually one inch in area, is exposed directly to the pressure with-
in the cylinder by means of a pipe connection. The pressure
on the piston compresses a spring, the resistance of which has
been calibrated by determining the number of pounds neces-

Indicator cards from actual charts of steam and gas engines

sary to compress it one inch in length. A reducing movement
connected to some reciprocating part of the engine, such as

THE MEASUREMENT OF POWER 19

the cross-head, rotates the drum on which the record sheet is
placed in exact accord with, and in proportion to, the movement
of the piston of the engine. The pencil is raised and lowered
vertically by the movement of the indicator piston. The result-
ing diagram on the recording sheet is what is known as an
indicator card, the area of which in inches, divided by the
length, and multiplied by the resistance of the spring, gives
the average pressure per square inch during the working
stroke.

Since the pressure is known and the area of the piston can
be calculated from the diameter, it is necessary only to know
the length of the piston stroke in feet to get the foot-pounds of
work produced at each stroke. By applying a revolution
counter or speed indicator to the fly wheel of the engine we may
determine the number of revolutions per minute. In the steam
engine two power strokes are made to each revolution of the
flywheel. In the ordinary four-cycle, throttling-governed,
single-acting type of gas engine, there is but one power stroke
to two revolutions of the flywheel. In some types, the number
of explosions is still less, and must be counted in some manner,
in order to determine the number per minute. The foot-pounds
of work at each stroke, multiplied by the number of power
strokes per minute, gives us accurately the amount of power
developed in the cylinder. The formula for i.h.p. is:

gPXLXAXN
1 *•*•** 33^00-

in the case of the steam engine, and

PXLXAXN

(33.0000X2)

in the case of the four-cycle, single-acting, throttling-governed
gas engine, in which P = mean effective pressure, (m.e.p.) in
pounds per square inch during the working stroke; L = length
of piston stroke, in feet; A = area of piston in square inches,
and N = number of revolutions of flywheel per minute.

In determining the power at the flywheel of an engine,

20 POWER AND THE PLOW

what is known as a brake test is made. To the flywheel is
clamped a, friction brake, from which extends a long arm, which
is usually supported by a column resting on a platform scale.
This arm has the effect of increasing the diameter of the flywheel.
The flywheel must revolve against the resistance offered by
the brake. The brake arm also tends to revolve and is pre-
vented from doing so, the force required to support it being
expressed in pounds upon the beam of the scale. The result
produced is that of a certain resistance in poiinds, moving at
a rate equivalent to the speed of the flywheel, times the cir-
cumference of a circle which has as a radius the length of the
arm from the centre of the flywheel to the point of support
at the outer end.

By formula, the brake horsepower (b.h.p.) equals:
Circumference (2XLX3.1416)XNXF
33,000

in which L = distance in feet from the centre of the crankshaft
to the point of support for the outer end of the brake arm; N =
number of revolutions of the flywheel per minute; and F =
weight shown on the scale beam.

The b.h.p. must always be less than the i.h.p., due to the
friction of the valves, piston, bearings, etc. The best engine
is naturally the one which wastes the least power in developing
work. For comparison, engineers use a term, mechanical
efficiency, which indicates the percentage of the indicated horse-
power delivered by the flywheel in a brake test such as just
described. In the highest type of steam engines this is some-
times 98 per cent. More often it is 85 to 93 per cent., and fre-
quently as low as 75 per cent. In the gas engines of smaller
type the mechanical efficiency is somewhat lower, ranging from
75 to 85 per cent., with occasional records of 90 to 93 per cent,
in large stationary plants.

In plowing with ordinary equipment, the best tractor is
one which will deliver the largest percentage of its brake
h.p. at the drawbar, all other things being equal. In other

THE MEASUREMENT OF POWER 21

words, a plowing tractor should have the highest possible
tractive efficiency consistent with other vital features. Tract-
ive efficiency is properly estimated on the basis of the ratio be-
tween the drawbar, or tractive horsepower and the brake h.p.

Tractive horsepower is ascertained by noting the speed of
travel and determining the resistance of the load by means of
a traction dynamometer. This instrument consists fundamen-
tally of a calibrated spring which may be attached between
the engine and its load. The tension on the spring causes it
to move a pointer upon a dial that is graduated to show the
resistance in pounds. There may also be a mechanism operated
by clockwork for driving a graduated tape at a speed propor-
tioned to the duration of the test. A recording pencil attached
to the pointer traces an irregular autograph, the average dis-
tance of which above the base line gives the average draft
during the tests. The distance traveled in a given time,
together with the resistance, gives the tractive h.p.
For example : A tractor moving at the rate of two miles per hour,
travels in one hour 10,560 feet, or 176 feet per minute. If the
average resistance or draft is 7,500 pounds, then in one minute
the tractor does 1,320,000 foot-pounds of work. This divided
by 33,000 gives 40 h. p. as a result. By cancellation of constant
factors we arrive at a much shorter formula, which is: Speed
in miles per hour X drawbar pull -*- 375 = tractive h.p.

The object of a heat engine is to convert the chemical energy
of the fuel into mechanical energy. All other things being
equal, the most efficient motor is the one which will deliver the
largest amount of this energy as useful work. In order to
compare engines in this respect it is necessary to reduce the
energy supplied in the fuel and in the work recovered to the
same basis and thus determine the thermal efficiency of the motor.
In order to determine the heat value of different fuels, engineers
have adopted units of comparison. For English-speaking
countries the standard is the British thermal unit (B.t.u.),
which is the amount of heat necessary to raise the temperature

22 POWER AND THE PLOW

of one pound of pure water from 62° to 63° F. The amount of
heat units in fuel or food can be determined by exploding a
given quantity in a bomb-like vessel known as the calorimeter,
and noting the rise in temperature of a measured quality of
water surrounding the vessel. The calorimeter derives its
name from the French heat unit, the calorie. This represents
the amount of heat to raise one kilogram of water (2.2.pounds)
one degree on the Centigrade scale, or 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit.

By careful experiments, it has been found that one B.t.u. is
equivalent to 778 foot-pounds of work. In other words, the
energy required to raise one pound of water one degree Fahren-
heit in temperature is equivalent to the energy required to lift
a weight of 778 pounds one foot vertically. One calorie, then,
is equivalent to 3.97 B.t.u., or 3090 foot-pounds of work. Since
the energy delivered by an engine and the energy in the fuel
may thus be reduced to a common basis, it is possible to de-
termine the proportion of the heat that has been recovered
in work.

For example: Let us assume that an internal-combustion
engine delivers 1 h.p. at the flywheel for the period of one hour
for every pint of kerosene consumed. By previous calculations
we have found that a pound of this fuel contains 20,000 B.t.u.
and that the fuel weighs 6.7 pounds per gallon or .8375 pound
per pint. Then for each h.p.-hr. of work recovered we will
supply to the engine .8875 x 20,000, or 16,750 B.t.u., equiv-
alent to 13,031,500 foot-pounds of energy. In one h.p.-hr.
there are 33,000 x 60 = 1,980,000 foot-pounds of work. The
ratio of foot-pounds of fuel energy supplied to foot-pounds of
work recovered is, therefore, 1:0.152, which is equivalent to a
thermal efficiency of 15.2 per cent. The thermal efficiency of
an internal-combustion engine usually ranges from 12 to 25 per
cent., though an efficiency of 37 per cent, has been realized.
Steam engines in large central plants, even of a compound
condensing type, seldom reach a thermal efficiency higher than
12 per cent. A steam traction engine under the best conditions

THE MEASUREMENT OF POWER 23

will seldom show a thermal efficiency higher than from 4 to 6
per cent.

In the case of the steam engine there is still another efficiency
which is frequently cited — i. e., boiler efficiency. Under
ordinary conditions the traction engine boiler, which usually
works in an exposed place with none too perfect insulation, has
an efficiency of 50 to 55 per cent. In stationary engine practice
the boiler efficiency often ranges from 65 to 75 per cent.
This means that of the heat which is supposed to be generated
by burning fuel in the fire box, from 50 to 75 per cent, is ab-
sorbed by the water. The efficiency, of course, will vary widely
with the type of boiler, the protection, the quality of water
used, and whether or not salts from the water have been allowed
to form a scale upon the flues and other surfaces exposed to the
heat of the fire.

IV

THE HORSE AS A MOTOR FOR PLOWING

IF WE look backward we will find the first horse
a five-toed animal, no larger than a dog, paddling about
in the marshes. With the drying up of the swamps
he became a land animal, losing a part of his toes.
In the wild state he was obliged to procure his own food
and protect himself from his enemies. The weakest were
eliminated by natural selection, and gradually the race increased
in size and swiftness. Many habits, instincts, and char-
acteristics developed during ages of the survival of the fittest
are not essential in the domesticated horse, but still endure
to affect the efficiency of the animal in its present field.

The present-day farm horse is largely a man-made product.
Starting with the wild horse, man has molded the animal to
suit his various needs. He has taken it out of its wild en-
vironment, given it food and shelter, protected it from its
natural enemies, lengthened its life by breeding from the
hardiest stock, and by studying how to conserve its health and
strength. He has studied its possibilities, made use of its
natural characteristics, has produced widely divergent forms
each fitted for a special purpose. However in nature, selection
was slow, often accidental. Under man's influence the proc-
ess has been only a little faster. Defects could be recognized
and eliminated, but only by the slow process of mating and
waiting for results. A fortunate breeder, starting with the
best of stock, could not take over a dozen steps in advance in
the course of a lifetime. The death of the best individuals

24

THE HORSE AS A MOTOR 25

might wipe out the work of years, and so could a seemingly
capricious reversion to an abnormal or inferior type. Never-
theless, the accumulated improvement of ages of natural se-
lection, thousands of years of selection by man, and two and a
half centuries of scientific breeding, has resulted in a class of
animal motors suitable for all farm work, great in numbers
and value, and understood, almost by instinct, by every farmer
in civilized countries.

The earliest record of man's use of the horse occurs in the
Bible. Apparently the horse was domesticated in Egypt,
about 1740 B. C., and first used for the purposes of war. Three
hundred years later, horse races were among the sports at the
Olympian games, in Athens. Troops of wild horses in Tar-
tary and in South America were first used for food, and then
saddled. Although the prehistoric horse existed in North
America, the modern type in its wild state undoubtedly springs
from horses which were loosed by the earliest Spanish explorers.
History shows that the business of war and conquest have
done more to distribute the horse over the earth than com-
merce. Horses were fit chattels only for kings in the palmy
days of Egypt, and even as late as the tenth century, farmers
in England were forbidden, by law, to harness the horse to the
plow. The ancient Anglo-Saxon and Welsh records contain
no reference to the plow horse, and the first notice of his use
in field labor is given by a piece of tapestry, woven at Bayonne
in the time of William the Conqueror. Even then he was
attached to a light-running harrow. Now, and ever since the
early decades of the nineteenth century, the horse has shoul-
dered the burden of plowing, which fell upon the ox and the
ass long before the Christian Era.

The greatest and most lasting improvement of the horse
came from deliberate crossing and selection. Robert Bake-
well, in England, rendered enduring service by his improvement
a the English cart horse, and founded on his work, we now
ohve wonderful draft breeds, each revealing a certain ideal.

26 POWER AND THE PLOW

The Percheron, Clydesdale, Belgian, Shire, and Suffolk are
the most prominent in England and America, the Percheron
being by far the most popular.

The heavy horse of Flanders was crossed with beautiful
Arabs, taken from the Saracens at Tours, in 732 A. D., after
the world's greatest battle. To this mating we owe the modern
Percheron, whose fire, beauty, action, and massive utility have
carried him to the front. Along the Clyde, we think of the
bagpipe and the Scottish Lowlands, where his strong, lanky
frame, his rapid, easy action, and his endurance on long hauls
have made him popular. The Shire is descended from the low-
built English war horse, which even the Romans were forced
to admire when they landed in Great Britain under Caesar.
He is now best adapted for slow, heavy work. The Belgian
is a direct descendant of the old horse of Flanders. He, too,
is heavy, massive, stocky, and adapted to slow, heavy work
in a congested city thoroughfare. The Suffolk is muscular,
active, durable, of lighter weight, and especially adapted for
rather diversified farm purposes. These breeds have all been
widely used for crossing with grade stock to produce more
efficient motors. In America the bulk of the improvement
of the native horse has been effected since the importation in
1851 of Louis Napoleon, the first great Percheron stallion
imported.

It is obviously impossible to consider the horse simply as a
machine, since in nature he is self -feeding, self -controlling, self-
repairing unless seriously injured, and self -reproducing — func-
tions of which the ordinary traction engine is incapable.
Certain disadvantages, however, tend to offset these good
qualities, such as the necessity for education prior to useful-
ness; frequent attention if confined; shelter from heat and cold,
as well as from rain and snow; variety of foods; frequent
rest; protection from disease and other enemies; and
use in comparatively small power-units. Theoretically,
according to Thurston, the animal is not a heat engine.

THE HORSE AS A MOTOR

Practically, we are concerned with the recovery in the
shape of useful work of the largest possible percentage
of heat units supplied to any motor, and on this basis,
at least, the horse and the machine may be brought into
direct comparison.

THE MECHANISM OF THE HORSE

The animal mechanism is composed of (1) bones, which
constitute a connected system of levers, with automatically
lubricated joints; (2) muscles attached in pairs to these levers
so as to resemble a series of independent motors capable of
producing an alternating or reciprocating movement, like that
of an engine piston; (3) organs of digestion, respiration and
excretion for supply ing fuel and removing waste, perhaps analo-
gous to the automatic mechanical stoker and
ash conveyor; (4) a brain and nervous system
for regulating the action of the muscle motors,
much as a battleship is governed by electric signals
to and from the conning-tower; (5) a covering
of skin and hair, like a dust-proof crank case,
protecting all working parts from outside in-
fluences, and conserving and radiating heat.

The muscles, with which we are most con-
cerned, are made up of bundles of fibers. Un-
der the stimulus that come from the nervous
system, these fibers have the power of contracting,
but only through a short distance. For this rea-
son they must work on the short ends of the bony
levers in order to move them rapidly through
space. In the human biceps, as measured by
Professor King, the ratio of the long and short Muscling of a
lever arms is as great as 6 to 1, hence to lift a
weight of 50 pounds the muscle must exert a pull of 300 pounds
on the shot end of the lever. Unlike the human body,
which is best adapted to lifting and carrying weights, the

28 POWER AND THE PLOW

horse's frame and weight are better disposed to dragging loads
over the surface of the ground.

The fuel of the animal motor is in the shape of hay and grains.
These contain various heat-producing constituents which, in
order to become available as energy, must be transformed in
the animal body into muscular tissue. Of the various grains,
the horse can digest from 70 to 80 per cent, of the total nutrients.
However, of the coarser feeds — such as hay and straw — he
can recover only from 40 to 50 per cent., the remainder being
discarded without benefit to the animal, much as the cinders,
ashes, and unburned gases pass out of the steam engine with-
out being converted into heat.

The food which is taken into the body of the animal is first
chewed fine and softened by mixing with from one to four times
its weight in saliva, to prepare it for the digestive juices of the
stomach. These juices, aided by ferments in the saliva and
in the food itself, start the work of reducing the nutrients in
the food to the soluble form in which they are taken into
circulation. The horse's stomach has a capacity of but
twelve to fifteen quarts, hence must be emptied several times
during a meal. The liver and the intestines, therefore,
perform a large part of the work of digestion. This process
of assimilation plays no small part in the total work of the
animal body. A horse's jaws, moving eighty times per minute,
will require from two and one half to three hours to chew the
hay ration. From five to six hours for oats and six to eight
hours for hay are required for the digestive organs to complete
their work. Frequently, as is the case of straw, the energy
required to chew and digest the food is greater than the energy
recovered from it.

The various foodstuffs are composed of classes of compounds
known as proteids, fats, carbo-hydrates, ash and water. The
ash contains a small amount of mineral matter required in
the bony framework of the body, and the water is necessary
for the free action of the various bodily functions. Otherwise,

THE HORSE AS A MOTOR 29

these two classes have little energy value. Of the other three
classes, the fats are usually unimportant in feeds for horses,
being present in relatively small amounts. They are, however,
rich in heat-producing value, being about two and one quarter
times as valuable in this respect as the proteids or carbo-
hydrates. The fats consist of true vegetable fats and oils, such
as cottonseed and corn oil, waxes, and various coloring matters
in plants.

The muscular tissue of the body is largely composed of
proteids or nitrogen-bearing compounds. A certain amount
of these compounds must, of course, be present in the feed,
in order to maintain the body at its normal state. In the
absence of fats or carbo-hydrates, the proteids may be used
for energy. However, since they are usually much more
expensive than the carbo-hydrates, the most economical
rations contain only sufficient amounts of various proteids to
maintain the body. The bulk of the energy supplied to the
work horse should come from the carbo-hydrates. This class
includes the various sugars and starches, also the crude fiber
or cellulose which give strength to the structure of the plant.

The crude fiber is less digestible than the sugars and starches,
but is equal to them in total heat value. Thus the animal,
in a sense, is less efficient than a steam engine, which can make
use of the entire plant, as, for instance, when straw is burned
underneath a steam boiler. The horse at hard work has less
opportunity properly to chew and digest the rough, coarse
hay and fodder supplied, consequently wastes a much larger
proportion than when at rest. On this account it is probable
that the average farm horse receives much larger amounts of
hay than he can economically use. Even at rest the horse is
much less efficient than cattle or sheep in making use of the
coarse material, such as hay and straw. The latter animals
have greater capacity in the alimentary canal, consequently
retain the food from 50 to 100 per cent, longer than the horse.
This allows extensive fermentation to occur, consequently

SO POWER AND THE PLOW

utilizing a larger proportion of the total heat value of the food.
In comparing the horse and the mechanical motor, we
encounter different standards of estimating efficiency. The
engineer compares the total heat units in fuel supplied with the
equivalent of heat units delivered by the motor as useful work,
calling the ratio thermal efficiency. The physiologist determines
a fuel value for a given feed by ascertaining the percentage
of digestible nutrients, and on this basis, or one even more
favorable, the animal's efficiency is frequently calculated.

Of the fuel value, or digestible nutrients of the food, about
30 per cent, is lost in the energy required to chew and digest
the food; consequently there is a further value of the food,
which is termed by students the maintenance value. This is
the proportion of the food which can be utilized by the horse
in maintaining his body weight while performing no work,
and from this value can be calculated the ration which must
be fed an animal in order to sustain it at a given weight during
idleness. If less digestible food is supplied to the animal during
such idle period than is necessary for its maintenance, the
animal may draw on its store of muscular tissue or fat and con-
tinue to live at the expense of weight.

If work is required of the animal in addition to keeping the
body at its normal size and condition, an excess of digestible
food must be supplied, and experiments go to show that only
about one third of this excess is actually recovered in the shape
of external motion. This leaves, then, a value for the food which
is known as the production value. In other words, out of the
total heat value of the original food, we have now a value repre-
senting the amount of external work that can be recovered from
a given amount of feed. But even of the external work per-
formed by the horse, a certain amount is used in moving his
own body forward, since he is able to deliver work only when
moving, and under the best conditions his efficiency is low. In-
stead of a thermal efficiency (or ratio of work delivered to food
consumed) of 35 to 40 per cent., that has been proclaimed by

THE HORSE AS A MOTOR 31

various writers, including authorities of the United States
Department of Agriculture, the real thermal efficiency of an
average horse, even at heavy, continuous work, is probably
not more than 6 to 10 per cent. Many internal combustion
tractors have done as well as this in draft tests, and some
much better.

Under laboratory conditions, with scientifically fed animals
doing maximum work, a thermodynamic efficiency of 20 per
cent, has been obtained, that is, one pound of food has been
turned into work for every four wasted. Farm conditions, how-
ever, and even teaming conditions in cities, are vastly different
from those of the laboratory.

THE EFFICIENCY OF THE HORSE

THE classic experiments of James Watt placed the
working power of a 1500-pound cart horse at the
ability to lift 33,000 pounds to a height of one foot
each minute, whence came the term "horsepower."
More recent experiments, however, indicate that the energy
delivered by the average horse is nearer 22,000 foot-pounds per
minute, or two thirds horsepower. General Morin, a French
investigator, puts the horse's capacity at .79 h.p. Trautwine
puts the net useful work of the average horse working in a
circular sweep at 10,000,000 foot-pounds per day of eight hours.
Assuming 85 per cent, mechanical efficiency for the sweep, this
would be equivalent to practically J h.p. Langworthy, in
Bulletin 125, Office of Experiment Stations, puts the total
daily work of the average horse at 10,560,000 foot-pounds.
Conclusions of expe imenters vary considerably, doubtless
because they have worked under different conditions with
horses of different size and individual merit.

Numerous authorities unite in putting the working draft
or pulling power of a horse at one tenth his weight when work-
ing at the rate of two and one half miles per hour continuously
for ten hours per day. Under these circumstances a 1200-
pound horse will develop .8 h.p., and a 1500-pound horse
1 h.p. Trautwine and King both state that if the hours of
work be shortened toward a limit of five hours per day, the
draft of the horse may be increased accordingly. They state
also that between the speeds of three fourths of a mile and
four miles per hour the working draft of the horse will be

32

EFFICIENCY OF THE HORSE 33

increased or decreased in inverse proportion to the rate of
travel. The maximum draft of a horse at any time is about
one half his weight, and can be exerted only for a short time
without injury; however, there are numerous instances to show
that for an instant a horse may actually exert a momentary
pull more than equal to his weight.

The proprietor of a very systematically managed ranch of
25,000 acres, in Kansas, with records covering the work of
large numbers of mules for thirteen years, puts the net furrow
travel of a plow team, spending nine hours per day in the field,
at from 1.5 to 1.75 miles per hour, depending upon the severity
of the work. In other words, the plow will actually turn a
furrow 1.5 to 1.75 miles long in an hour, after deducting for
all stops, turns, etc. Assuming Trautwine and King to be
correct as to the possible increase in draft during a shorter day,
a 1000-pound mule on this ranch should be able to overcome a
continuous resistance of 1000 -s- 10 X 10 -5- 9 X 2.5 -s- 1.75 = 159
pounds. This accords closely with what may be concluded
from a knowledge of the draft of plows. We may, therefore,
assume Sanborn to be correct in his statement that 150 pounds
may be regarded as the pulling power of the average plow horse.

According to the investigations in Minnesota, the farm
horse works from five to six and one hah6 hours per day, as an
average for the most active season. During this short day,
he will be able to exert much more pull than his normal ca-
pacity. Investigations in the Central states by one of the
writers showed that the work animals on farms visited, aver-
aged about 1300 pounds, but more than usual use was made of
machinery and animal power. Placing the average farm horse
in the West at 1200 pounds in weight, it is probable that for
the short day he works at the plow, he is capable of developing
under pressure one horsepower, which is equal to a draft of
187.5 pounds at the rate of two miles per hour.

The Bureau of Statistics, United States Department of Agri-
culture, has for about nine years conducted careful investiga-

34 POWER AND THE PLOW

tions as to the cost of producing farm products on a group of
farms at Halstad, Minn., in the Red River Valley. Small grains
are the principal crop on these farms, which average 379 acres
in size, and conditions are quite similar to those where traction
engines are more extensively used. The results of six years of
investigation are published in Bulletin 73 of the above bureau.

From data given therein we find that during the eight months
from April to November, inclusive, 135 horses worked an
average of 4.33 hours per week day, or a total of 906 hours.
For 104 working days, during the four inactive months, the
average was .77 hour per day. It is quite possible that these
horses, which averaged about 1200 pounds in weight, exerted
a full horsepower during every hour of work .in the plowing
season. On the other hand, during other seasons there was
much time while the horses were in harness that they were
exerting very little or no power, since the hours reported
included the entire time they were in the field.

As a yearly average, from 1905 to 1907, each horse at Halstad
consumed 3.64 pounds of grain, and 6.55 pounds of hay for
each hour of work. The grain ration was made up largely of
corn, oats and barley, and the hay ration of timothy, wild
grasses, mixed hays, etc. Some pasturage and straw were
received in addition to the foregoing ration.

According to Prof. H. P. Armsby, of Pennsylvania State
College, who is recognized as the foremost authority on animal
nutrition in America, the total heat values per pound of com-
mon feeding stuffs are as follows, the value in B.t.u. being
computed by the writer from the value in calories:

TOTAL HEAT VALUE OP FEEDSTUFF8

Calories B. t. u.

Timothy hay 2045 8119

Oat straw 2012 7988

Clover hay 2025 8039

Corn meal 2010 7980

Oats 2125 8436

Wheat bran 2065 8198

Linseed meal 2314 9187

EFFICIENCY OF THE HORSE 35

Feeds containing much fat or protein, or both, tend to run
higher than the average, but ordinarily the total heat value
does not vary widely as between the different feeding stuffs.
If we assume the ration at Halstad to have been composed of
mixed timothy and clover hay, and equal parts of corn and
oats, a total of 82,795 B.t.u. was supplied for each hour of work.
This corresponds to a thermal efficiency of 3.07 per cent., on
the basis of an average of .8 h.p. for the year. Langworthy,
Rose, Chase, and others place the working power of the average
horse at f h.p. during the time at work, which would reduce the
efficiency to about 2 per cent, in pulling. For stationary work
through a tread mill, or circular sweep, it would be at least
one tenth less, due to the loss of efficiency in transmission.
If the many hours of light work and the heat units provided
in straw and pastured grass were also taken into consideration,
it might safely be said that under the given conditions the
average farm horse returns in work only from 1 to lj per
cent, of the energy supplied in foodstuffs.

Contrary to popular opinion, the horse is even less efficient
under conditions of diversified farming. On a group of
smaller farms studied in the same manner, at Northfield, in
southwestern Minnesota, more diversification of crops and
live stock is found. Yet at Northfield each hour of work
required 7.46 Ibs. of hay and 5.5 Ibs. of grain. From
various sources it has been determined that the horse requires
at least 2 Ibs. of water at rest, and at least 3j Ibs. at work, for
each Ib. of dry matter, or from 70 to 100 Ibs. per day,
according to the weight of the animal, the ration, and the
amount of work.

The great tax put upon the farmer by the necessity for
maintaining horses throughout the winter months is shown by
the fact that at Halstad, in addition to its care, the average
horse received 9.8 Ibs. of hay, 9.2 Ibs. of grain, and an unre-
corded amount of straw for each hour of work from Novem-
ber to March inclusive. Roughly, this would furnish 155,000

36 POWER AND THE PLOW

B.t.u. for hay and grain alone. The winter work being usually
of very light nature, it is probable that out of 100 pounds of
energy fed, less than one pound is recovered as work. Obvi-
ously, these figures can be regarded as only approximate,
since no tests have been made of the efficiency of the animal
under the above conditions. They furnish, however, striking
exceptions to the general idea as to the efficiency of the
animal as a machine.

If the energy which passes unchanged through the animal
body; the energy required to chew and digest food; the energy
required to maintain vital processes and body heat; the energy
required for moving the animal body — if all this be sub-
tracted from the original heat value of the food, and only the
energy liberated in the animal muscle during work be taken
as a basis, an efficiency of 25 to 40 per cent, may be computed.
This has been the foundation for the statement that the animal
is a much more efficient machine, viewed solely from the stand-
point of transforming fuel into energy, than any made by man.
This is not always the case. Under farm conditions, where
animals are worked only a few hours per day, on the average;
where feeding is usually unscientific and wasteful; and where,
according to T. H. Brigg, an English scientist, the horse
often labors under conditions where 50 per cent, of his en-
ergy is lost, the horse becomes a very inefficient motor, at
least as regards the conversion of chemical energy into
useful work.

Neither animals nor engines are worked to their full capacity
on the ordinary farm, but there is this difference: the fuel
consumption of the engine is measured by the amount of work
done, plus only the energy required to overcome friction within
the engine itself during the time at work, with nothing for
maintenance during long periods of idleness. Speaking of the
horse at rest, Professor Armsby says: "The case is like that
of an engine run with no load, which still requires a certain
amount of fuel to keep it running." Only rarely does

EFFICIENCY OF THE HORSE 37

the farmer understand and meet the food needs of the
horse as accurately as the engineer meets the fuel needs of his
engine.

The thermal efficiency of a motor is, however, not a true
test of its value to the farmer. The economy or commercial
efficiency is of more practical moment. From the investigations
at Halstad, Minn., we find the average farm value of food
alone to be 4.3 cents for each hour of horse labor throughout
the year. On the basis of 4.5 h.p. developed, the cost of fuel
per horsepower-hour is 5.4 cents, and at § h.p., 6.5 cents.
During the motor contests held in Canada in 1909 the cost of
fuel per actual horsepower-hour was Ij cents for steam, and
2 cents for gasoline engines, at stationary work, and approxi-
mately double these figures in plowing. The higher fuel
cost in Canada would tend to effect the difference between
farm and contest efficiency.

The data just quoted for the cost of horse feed were aver-
ages of the period from 1905 to 1907. In 1910, according to
the United States Crop Reporter, the price of grain is about
25 per cent, above the average of those three years, and that
of hay approximately equal. The costs shown for fuel were
taken at Winnipeg, in July, 1909, and would be no higher at
present prices. In Montana, grain is about 50 per cent.,
and hay 100 per cent., higher than in Minnesota, while the
cost of liquid fuel is also considerably advanced. Varying
character and prices of both fuel and food affect the relative
commercial efficiency of animal and mechanical motors in
different sections, but in general farm practice the horse is
less economical in the production of work from latent energy
than the tractor, on either the technical or commercial basis.

VI
ESSENTIALS OF THE DRAFT HORSE

WITH the necessity for greater power, horse buyers
have placed a premium on weight in advance of
all other considerations. During the panic of
1893, when the average price of horses was falling
nearly 100 per cent., the sales by a leading firm of horse dealers
in Chicago showed unmistakably the value of powerful animals.
From 11.1 cents per pound for horses weighing 1400 pounds,
the average price per pound on all horses sold that year con-
stantly increased with added weight to 14.4 cents per pound
for 1800-pound animals. While many of these horses were
bought for the city trade, the figures signify an awakening to
the value of larger power units.

The essentials of a heavy draft horse, such as will most
economically develop power for plowing, are best set forth in
some of the score cards in use at the leading agricultural col-
leges. In the one given herewith, weight, action, and the
conformation of soundness of feet and legs are given their
proper emphasis:

DRAFT HORSE SCORE CARD

CLASS, GELDING
General Characters

Form — Broad, massive, blocky, low-down, compact, and symmetrical.
Scale large for the age.

Quality — General refinement of clean-cut and symmetrical features; bone
clean, large, and strong; skin and hair fine, tendons clean, sharply defined,
and prominent.

38

ESSENTIALS OF THE DRAFT HORSE 39

Constitution — Generous and symmetrical development; lively carriage;
ample heart girth, capacity of barrel and depth of flanks; eyes full, bright and
clear; nostrils large and flexible; absence of grossness or undue refinement.

PERFECT
SCALE OF POINTS SCORE

1. Height, estimated .... hands; corrected . . . .hands

2. Weight, estimated .... Ibs. corrected. . . . Ibs.;

score according to age and condition 10

3. Action, walk: rapid, springy, regular, straight; trot: free,

balanced, straight 15

4. Temperament, energetic, tractable 3

5. Head, proper, proportionate size; well carried; profile straight

6. Muzzle, neat; nostrils large, flexible; lips thin, even, firm

7. Eyes, bright, clear, full, both the same color ....

8. Forehead, broad, full

9. Ears, medium sized, well carried

10. Lower jaw, angles wide, well muscled . . . . . .

11. Neck, well muscled, arched; throat-latch fine; windpipe large 2

12. Shoulder, moderately sloping, smooth, snug, extending into

the back 3

13. Arm, short, strongly muscled, thrown back .... 1

14. Forearm, long, wide, clean, heavily muscled .... 8

15. Knees, straight, wide, deep, strong, clean 2

16. Fore cannons, short, wide, clean; tendons clean, well defined,

prominent 2

17. Fetlocks, wide, straight, strong, clean 1

18. Pasterns, moderately sloping, strong, clean 8

19. Forefeet, large, even size; sound; horn dense, waxy, soles

concave; bars strong, full; frogs large, elastic; heels wide,

one hah* length of toe, vertical to ground .... 8

20. Chest, deep, wide; breastbone low; girth large ... 2

21. Ribs, deep, well sprung; closely ribbed to hip ... 2

22. Back, broad, short, strong, muscular 2

23. Loins, short, wide, thickly muscled 2

24. Barrel, deep, flanks full 2

25. Hips, broad, smooth, level, well muscled ..... 2

26. Croup, wide, heavily muscled, not too drooping ... 2

27. Thighs, deep, broad, muscular 3

28. Quarters, plump with muscle deep 2

29. Stifles, large, strong, muscular, clean 2

30. Gaskins, long, wide, clean, heavily muscled .... 2

31. Hocks, large, strong, wide, deep, clean, well set ... 8

32. Hind cannons, short, wide, clean; tendons clean, well

defined 2

33. Fetlocks, wide, straight, strong, clean 1

34. Pasterns, moderately sloping, strong, clean 2

35. Hind feet, large, even size; sound; horn dense, waxy; soles

concave; bars strong, full; frogs large, elastic; heels wide,

one half length of toe, vertical to ground . . . j, 6_

Total . 100

40 POWER AND THE PLOW

Youatt in his "Treatise on the Horse" quotes an old Eng-
lish description which embodies most of the foregoing points
in more imaginative style:

"A good horse should have three qualities of a woman —
a broad breast, round hips, and a long mane; three of a lion —
countenance, courage, and fire; three of a bullock — the eye,
the nostril, and joints; three of a sheep — the nose, gentleness,
and patience; three of a mule — strength, constancy, and foot;
three of a deer — head, legs, and short hair; three of a wolf —
throat, neck, and hearing; three of a fox — ear, tail, and trot;
three of a serpent — memory, sight, and turning; and three
of a hare or cat — running, walking, and suppleness."

VII

THE STEAM TRACTOR AS A MOTOR FOR
PLOWING

HISTORY

THE early history of attempts to apply the power of
steam to the world's great work of transportation
is of intense interest. The idea of the traction
engine goes back to James Watt, the discoverer
of steam. As early as 1759, his attention was called to the
possibility of building a carriage to be driven by steam. His
partner, Mathew Boulton, was later urged to construct such
a "fiery chariot," but the first self -moving steam carriage was
apparently built by a French army officer, named Cugnot,
whose second engine, built in 1770, is still preserved in Paris.
Sixteen years later an American, Oliver Evans, asked
the Pennsylvania Legislature for a monopoly on his
method of applying steam to the propelling of wagons.
From this time on, until Stephenson's railway locomotive
of 1825, inventors of steam carriages were numerous
in both Europe and America. However, the prevail-
ing idea up to the time of Stephenson's invention and
even later was the development of steam carriages for
the transportation of passengers and freight over ordinary
roads.

The first recorded steam plowing engine in the United States
was that of J. W.Fawkes, who built in 1858 a plowing "drag,"
which he operated in Pennsylvania. A two-cylinder engine,
with 9- by 15-inch cylinders, was geared to a drum six feet

41

42 POWER AND THE PLOW

wide, which took the place of the drive- wheels. Steam was
supplied by an upright tubular boiler, with 300 feet of heating
surface. The driving drum was bulged in the middle like a
barrel to permit of easy turning, the modern compensating gear
not having been invented. This engine drew eight plows
at the rate of three miles per hour over original prairie
sod, hence steam plowing on a large scale is by no means
a modern idea. Several other men in Connecticut,
New York, and New Jersey were at the same time busy
on traction engines for plowing, In 1871 the Royal Agri-
cultural Society of England held trials extending over
several months, in which the adaptability of all plowing
and cultivating engines up to that time were thoroughly
tested. Steam had been applied to the plow through
cables by John Fowler & Sons, of Leeds, in much the same
manner as their outfits are built to-day, and their
tackle won high honors. In the meantime, the steam
carriage as a factor in road transportation seems to have
been lost sight of, largely because of rough roads, hos-
tile public opinion, and the rapid development of steam
railways.

A device for allowing the drive- wheels to travel at different
speeds is mentioned in the early 30's, but the differential gear
which has made the modern power vehicle so adaptable was
not perfected until about 1870, when Prof. R. H. Thurston
described it as "new and very neat." The friction clutch
soon followed, still further adding to the easy manipulation
of the tractor. From 1875 to the close of the century, develop-
ment in American steam tractors was very rapid. Their
utilization in plowing began almost as soon as they became
self-propelling. Their serious use for this purpose, however,
is not recorded until in the years just preceding 1890, when
scattered operators began to use the most powerful threshing
engines of that day for plowing, with only moderate suc-
cess. The steam engine is a century and a half old, but

STEAM TRACTORS

Transmission gear
Complete steam plowing engine

THE STEAM TRACTOR 43

the steam plowing engine of to-day is a creation of the twen-
tieth century.

ESSENTIALS OF THE TRACTOR

The steam tractor consists essentially of a boiler, engine,
traction gearing, and wheels, with all the necessary fittings
for carrying fuel and water, supplying these to the fire box
and boiler, respectively, controlling lubricating the engine,
and steering. Steam is generated in a boiler by the heat
produced in the fire box and admitted to a closed cylinder,
where it moves a piston. The piston rod drives a connecting
rod which in turn causes a crankshaft to revolve. The power
thus produced is transmitted by a belt to a machine requiring
rotary motion to operate it, or is transformed into linear pull
by a train of gears and the wheels which grip the ground.
In discussing the steam engine, only those principles and
devices employed on the leading plowing tractors will be
included. This eliminates much that might be said of station-
ary engines and of many traction engines which have been
designed primarily for threshing and only partially adapted
to the severe work of plowing. Some topics common to both
types of tractor are discussed more fully in the chapters devoted
to the gas tractor.

GENERATOR OF FOWER

Steam is generated in a boiler to which heat is applied on
one side of a metal surface, on the other side of which is water.
The expansion of water decreases its density and colder water
displaces it. The resulting circulation gives the entire mass
a uniform temperature. On reaching a certain temperature,
determined by the pressure upon the surface, the water boils
and steam is formed. This takes place at 212° F. under the
ordinary atmospheric pressure of 14.7 pounds per square
inch. At higher altitudes the boiling point will be reached

44 POWER AND THE PLOW

earlier, and in a steam boiler under considerable pressure,
the boiling point will be higher. We have seen that it requires
one B.t.u. to raise the temperature of one pound of water one
degree F. However, to overcome the cohesion of the water
particles and turn one pound of water into steam, requires
the application of approximately 967 B.t.u. In evaporating
water under pressure, not only this internal resistance, or
latent heat, of the water itself must be overcome, but also
the outside pressure upon it. With 100 pounds of pressure
it requires a temperature of 337° F. to convert water into steam.
During the evaporation of water into steam, the temperature
of the steam will not rise above that of the water, but if heat
be applied to the steam away from the water, it will rise in
temperature and become a superheated, invisible gas. So
long as it remains in contact with water, steam will carry some
water in suspension, hence to produce absolutely dry steam,
without superheating, is next to impossible under the con-
ditions surrounding the ordinary boiler. The amount thus
carried is seldom less than 2 per cent., but anything over 3
per cent, is regarded as objectionable.

COMBUSTION

Fuels used in the steam engine contain a high percentage
of carbon, varying with the material, and amounts of hydrogen,
sulphur, nitrogen, oxygen, moisture, and the mineral elements
which make up the ash. Air is a fairly constant mixture,
composed of about four parts of nitrogen, one of oxygen, and
traces of carbonic acid gas, (or carbon dioxide), water, nitric
acid and ammonia. At a given temperature, depending on
a number of factors, the free oxygen of the air will unite with
the free carbon and other combustible elements to form the
gases of combustion. Heat is thrown off as the union takes
place, and the more perfect the combustion, the greater the
heat produced. In an insufficient supply of air, for instance,
a pound of carbon burns to carbon monoxide (CO) instead of

ENGINE POWER FROM CULTIVATING TO THRESHING

A 40 horse-power tractor and its load in California

The engine that plowed the field hauling the harvesters

A steam tractor furnishing power for a threshing machine

THE STEAM TRACTOR

45

to carbon dioxide (CO2), and produces only 4480 B.t.u. instead
of the 14,647 which should be secured. The hydrogen burns
to form water (ITO), giving off 62,100 B.t.u. per pound. The
sulphur forms sulphur dioxide (SO2), which in the presence of
water, finally becomes sulphuric acid and accounts for the
corroding effect of coal smoke on steel, for example,- on wire
fences along railways.

THE TRACTION ENGINE BOILER

Types of Boiler

Three classes of boiler are used on steam tractors — namely,
the locomotive or direct flue, the return flue, and the vertical.
In the first, which is practically universal on plowing engines,
the gases pass from a fire box at the rear to the smoke box in
front through tubes, or flues, two or three inches in diameter,

Return flue boiler

and thence to the stack. The boiler proper is separated from
the fire box and smoke box by a boiler head or tube sheet, which
is perforated to support the tubes. The fire box is practically
a part of the boiler itself, being built into the boiler shell and

46 POWER AND THE PLOW

partially or wholly surrounded by a water space connected
with that of the boiler. In the vertical boiler the upright
tubes are surrounded by water to a part of their height, the
gases passing directly upward. This is not an economical
type and is little used. The greatest fuel economy is secured
by the return flue boiler, which takes the gases from the fire
box to the front of the boiler and returns them through smaller
flues to the rear. This type is less convenient to handle or
repair than the locomotive type, and cannot so easily be
adapted to the use of wood or straw.

Boiler Construction

Stringent laws in some states and provinces now prac-
tically force the use on plowing tractors of a boiler shell com-
posed of a cylindrical sheet with a single longitudinal seam.
The seam may be lapped or the edges of the plate may be
brought together and double riveted to reinforcing steel
straps inside and out. Steel bolts and cap screws may be and
sometimes are used, provided a reinforcing plate is riveted
on the boiler. In most late types practically no bolts are
used, either in the construction of the boiler or the mounting
of the engine and shafting upon it. Steel wing sheets are
riveted to the boiler for the support of these features, in place
of the cast iron which was formerly used for brackets and
various other parts not exposed to sudden change in tempera-
ture. The boiler on a modern plowing engine can safely be
run at 200 pounds pressure, though 175 pounds is usually
set by law as the maximum. The extreme severity of the
work to which the traction engine is subjected, and the neglect
which it suffers, are nowhere more emphasized than in the
extraordinary precautions which engine manufacturers are
required to take in constructing their boilers.

Ordinary coal-burning "locomotive boilers may be adapted
for burning wood, corncobs, straw, etc. The wood-burning
boiler requires simply larger grate openings, if any change is

DETAILS OF STEAM TRACTOR

Sectional view of locomotive boiler

Cleaning the boiler Rear mounted construction

Single cylinder engine

THE STEAM TRACTOR 47

made. The straw-burning attachment consists of a rather
long feeding chute with a trap door, a dead plate upon which
the straw drops, short grates, and a brick arch which deflects
the draft toward the incoming straw. The draft is consider-
ably reduced, all the straw is consumed in the fire box, and the
gases are fully heated before entering the flues.

The boiler jacket, which may be composed of wood, asbestos,
air spaces, or other non-conducting media, encased in a gal-
vanized steel covering, renders the boiler from 6 to 10 per
cent, more efficient. Considering the exposed nature of the
work, every plowing engine should be thus protected.

The crown sheet — i.e., the top of the fire box — is arched
in the best plowing engines in order to resist the pressure of
the water and steam above it. The bottom of the fire box is
either open or closed. If closed, the fire box is usually sur-
rounded entirely by water. This gives additional heating
surface and better circulation, provided the space at the
bottom is kept free of sediment. In the open-bottom fire
box the water legs, which extend down on all sides, are closed
at the bottom. This allows the grates to be set lower, and
the combustion chamber thus enlarged. It also allows easy
removal of the ash pan and grates, for cleaning or relining the
fire box. The draft may be admitted from either front or
rear without reducing the heating surface. The fire box walls
proper are held in place by tight-fitting threaded stay bolts,
screwed through the plates of the boiler shell and the fire
box. A set of rocker grates is usually installed, so that the
fire may be kept clean without poking from the top, which
invariably causes a loss of heat in unburned carbon.

Owing to the small grate area which can be profitably pro-
vided in a traction engine, it is necessary to have some means
of increasing the draft. Engines are usually provided with a
blower through which live steam can be passed into the smoke
stack, a vacuum being created by its velocity and condensation.
This method is used in getting up steam, the blower being

48 POWER AND THE PLOW

turned on when sufficient steam pressure to operate it has
been secured by ordinary draft. When the engine is running,
the exhaust steam is usually turned into the stack through an
exhaust nozzle. The intensity of the draft created by this
means can, of course, be controlled.

The water space in a boiler extends around the fire box and
to some distance above the highest flues. Above this is the
steam space, including a bell-shaped projection known as a
steam dome, into which the driest steam rises. From the
top of the steam dome extends the pipe for taking steam to
the cylinder, this usually being protected by a wire gauze
strainer in order to mimimize the percentage of water carried
over into the cylinder with the steam.

The Water Supply

For supplying water to the engine the plowing outfit nec-
essarily includes one or more portable tanks, which are usually
made of steel with riveted seams. They have a capacity of
from ten to sixteen barrels and are provided with a hand pump
for filling and emptying. A box on top affords space for
carrying a considerable quantity of coal or odds and ends.
On the engine, in addition to the water contained in the boiler,
there must be tank capacity sufficient for at least an hour's
run. Engines therefore carry from one to three tanks with a
capacity of from fifteen to twenty barrels. These are usually
placed to secure the most advantageous distribution of weight
upon the drivers. It is now possible, by the aid of a hose-
crane and steam jet, to economize labor and time by filling
the engine supply tanks from the wagon tank without stopping
the outfit.

The traction engine boiler is supplied with water from the
supply tanks either by a pump or an injector, and sometimes
both. The pump may be attached to the cross-head of the
engine, in which case it can operate only when the engine is
running. A more convenient type is an independent steam

DETAILS OF THE STEAM TRACTOR

1. Transmission gear
Connecting rod
Piston and cross-head
Double eccentric reverse gear
Single eccentric reverse gear
Crankshaft of two cylinder engine

2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

THE STEAM TRACTOR 49

pump, which is really a small steam engine working a plunger
which is connected directly to the piston rod of the pump.
The injector draws steam from the upper part of the boiler
and feeds cold water into the lower part by the combined
effect of the velocity and condensation of the steam. The
injector is simple and satisfactory, provided it is properly
chosen with reference to the conditions of its work.

In order to protect the boiler from sudden changes in tem-
perature due to the incoming of cold water, the latter is usually
passed through a heater located between the pump and the
boiler. The pipes are usually surrounded by the exhaust
steam, though occasionally live steam is introduced directly
into the water to raise its temperature.

Safety Devices

To prevent the water from being carried too high or too
low, a glass water gauge and several try-cocks are connected
to the boiler near the level of the crown sheet. A steam gauge
is also provided for indicating the boiler pressure. The essen-
tial feature of the steam gauge is a metal tube bent in semi-
circular form. One end is attached to the boiler by a siphon,
which keeps air in the tube and protects it from the heat of
the live steam by a cylinder of water. The pressure of the
steam upon the outside circumference of the tube tends to
straighten it as water straightens a hose. The pressure is
indicated upon a dial by means of a suitable link and needle.

The steam engine boiler must be equipped with a safety
valve for releasing the pressure when it rises to a certain point.
Plowing engines usually have what is known as a spring or lock
pop valve in which the valve is kept in position by a powerful
spring which may be adjusted for action at different pressures.

A soft metal plug, usually of Banca tin, which fuses at a
lower temperature than iron or brass, is placed in the top of
the crown sheet. Should the water become low, the plug will
melt and the steam, pouring through, will put out the fire.

50 POWER AND THE PLOW

Otherwise the sudden conversion into steam of the thin layer
of water above the crown sheet might result in an explosion.
The crown sheet must be kept covered under all circumstances.
The difficulty of doing this on a descending grade has led to
the adoption of special devices in some boilers to maintain
water at a higher level over the crown sheet at such times
than in the rest of the boiler.

The boiler requires frequent cleaning unless very pure, soft
water is used. This is especially true in the alkali districts
of the West, where boilers become incrusted with a heavy
scale in a week's time. Th:s scale prevents the rapid conduc-
tion of heat to the water. It also increases the danger of over-
heating the metal, and it is thought that boiler explosions are
frequently caused when a large mass of scale drops away from
some overheated part, and a large quantity of steam is sud-
denly produced. Convenient hand holes are placed at various
points around the boiler and fire box, especially in the lower
portion of the water legs, as the sediment naturally drops to
the lowest points. In order to facilitate frequent cleaning
of the water legs, blow-off cocks are placed so that the sedi-
ment may be blown out by steam. A large door on the front
end of the smoke box enables the operator to get at the flues
for cleaning them of soot and cinders. A spark arrester in
the top of the stack, or else a sharp angle in the smoke box
through which the smoke must pass, will collect the cinders.
Some such provision is necessary for safety to surrounding
objects.

Boiler Power

Boilers are rated as to horse power according to the amount
of water which they will evaporate. The standard of the
American Society of Mechanical Engineers requires the evapo-
ration on one hour of thirty pounds of water from 100° F.
under a pressure of seventy pounds, which is considered
equivalent to evaporating thirty-four and one half from and

TRACTOR MISHAPS

A wreck in Missouri
A broken bridge in Oregon

THE STEAM TRACTOR 51

at 212° F. The amount thus evaporated, compared with the
heat units supplied in the fuel, determines the boiler efficiency.
Another method of rating is by the area of heating surface.
The heating surface includes all parts exposed to heat on one
side and water on the other. It includes the crown sheet,
the insides of all flues, the water legs, and the part of the tube
sheet exposed to heat. It is customary to allow one horse-
power for from 11.5 to 14 square feet of heating surface. This,
however, gives a rating too low for the majority of traction
engine boilers, on account of the forced draft commonly
employed.

THE TRACTOR ENGINE

Types of Engines

The majority of engines are of the simple, non-condensing
type. In other words, the steam is expanded but once, and
the exhaust steam is not condensed so as to retain its heat.
They are not economical, therefore, as compared with those
found in large stationary plants. In the compound engine
the steam is usually superheated by passing it back through
pipes in the steam space and fire box. It is admitted first to
a small cylinder and again expanded in a larger one. Both
cylinders work through a shorter range of temperature; less
radiating surface is exposed to the high pressure steam, and
much less material is required to make the small cylinder
sufficiently strong for safety. There are very few compound
engines on plowing tractors, though both tandem and cross-
compound engines are used with good results. In the former
the high and low pressure cylinders are placed end to end,
while in the latter they are side by side. Some cross-compound
engines may be converted at will into double simple engines
for starting a heavy load or moving it at a slow speed.

The larger and more powerful simple engines are usually
equipped with two cylinders for plowing purposes. For

52 POWER AND THE PLOW,

light work, the double engine is hardly necessary. Prof. L. W.
Chase says, in "Farm Machinery and Farm Motors": "Al-
though a double engine is more easily handled than a single
one, there are only a few instances, such as plowing and heavy
traction work, where its use is recommended for farm work."
The single cylinder engine is the more economical of fuel and
has fewer parts to get out of order. The double engine with
cranks 90° apart can never be stopped on dead centre so as
to require turning over by hand. (An engine is said be be on
dead centre when a straight line will pass through the centres
of the cross-head, the crankpin, and the crankshaft, so the
thrust of the piston operates directly against solid metal
instead of turning the shaft.) At least one crank is always
in position to be acted upon by the connecting rod, and the
two cylinders working together are able to start a heavy load
easily and without damage to any part. The division of work
between two cylinders naturally gives better balance ' and
greater durability.

As compared with the two-cylinder gas engine the double-
cylinder steam engine gives four impulses to the crankshaft
at every revolution of the flywheel, where the gas engine gives
but one. On this account the crankshaft is not exposed to
the same shock and vibration, hence is made much smaller.

Tandem compound steam engine

By way of illustration it may be said that the crankshaft on
a well designed two-cylinder gas tractor developing 70 b.h.p.

THE STEAM TRACTOR 53

is four and one half inches in diameter, as compared with
three and one half inches on a steam tractor developing 140
b.h.p. A cross-section of the two shows the gas engine shaft
to be nearly two thirds larger than the corresponding part on
a steam engine of the same number of cylinders and double
the power.

The Governor

One of the most vital points of the engine is the governor,
which may be likened to the human heart in its importance
and action, regulating as it does the energy delivered in ac-
cordance with the need. The farm tractor never enjoys
absolutely uniform working conditions. In fact, in plowing
the variation in soil in single field, to say nothing of grades and
other obstructions, creates enormous differences in the power
required. In order to prevent the outfit from stalling on the
one hand, or from running at an abnormal and dangerous
speed on the other, a sensitive governor must be employed.

The speed regulation is effected by means of a flywheel
attached to the crankshaft, and a governor, usually of the
throttling type, which regulates the admission of steam accord-
ing to the needs of the load. The governor consists of two
or more weights which are free to swing outward by centrif-
ugal force, and in doing so pull down upon a spindle which
operates the throttle valve, controlling the opening in the
steam admission pipe. The governor may be set to maintain
various speeds. If the governor permits considerable fluctua-
tion of speed under a constant load, it is either of poor design,
poorly lubricated, or driven by a slipping belt.

Valves

The steam passes through the throttle valve to the steam
chest and thence through a valve to the cylinder. The ordi-
nary type of valve on traction engines used in America is the
slide valve. However, remarkably economical engines using

54 POWER AND THE PLOW

poppet valves, such as are used in gas engines, are used on
tractors abroad in connection with a system of superheating,
and will undoubtedly be introduced into this country. The
American plowing engines are all double acting — i.e., steam
is admitted alternately at either end of the cylinder. The
valve must admit the steam, shut off the supply at the proper
time, and hold the pressure while the piston moves to the
other end of the cylinder, whereupon it must release the ex-
haust steam. The valve is often double ported so as to take
steam from both ends of the steam chest at the same time. The
valve is sometimes provided with a friction ring which fits
tightly against the cover of the steam chest so as to prevent
steam from getting on top of the valve and increasing the
friction. On some tractors what is known as a balanced valve
is used in order to minimize the valve friction. The valve
usually opens the inlet port before the end of the stroke so
that full pressure may be exerted the instant the piston starts
on its return trip. On practically all engines the exhaust port
is closed before the steam has entirely escaped, to form a
cushion and bring the piston to rest gently at the end of its
stroke.

Cylinder and Piston

The cylinder is usually of cast iron, with one head cast on
and one bolted. The piston is usually a hollow cast iron
disk, fitted with two or three expanding rings for preventing
the passage of steam between it and the cylinder wall. Since
the engine is double acting, and both ends of the cylinder are
closed, the piston rod moves back and forth through a stuffing
box in the cast-on cylinder head, remaining parallel to the
engine frame. The connecting rod necessarily assumes various
angles during the revolution of the crankshaft. The wrist-
pin joining the piston rod and connecting rod is carried by
the cross-head, the shoes of which move back and forth between
curved guides, which are usually cast with the cylinder as

THE STEAM TRACTOR 55

part of the engine frame. A removable cover usually excludes
dust and grit from the cross-head and guide.

Control of the Engine

If steam were fed at boiler pressure during the entire stroke
it would convert only about 8 per cent, of its energy into work.
For the sake of economy it is therefore necessary to admit
steam during only a part of the stroke and allow it to expand
during the remainder. An engine working at its greatest
economy will cut off the admission of steam at from two fifths
to one half its stroke. The throw of the valve which accom-
plishes the variation in cut-off is under easy control of the
operator. Where greater power is needed, the steam can be
fed at practically boiler pressure the whole length of the stroke,
and an enormous increase in power may be had, provided the
boiler will continue to generate sufficient steam. This accounts
for the great elasticity of steam for plowing and traction pur-
poses as compared to the internal combustion engine, which
will be discussed later.

The motion of the valve must be controlled in order to
reverse or stop the engine and to vary the point of cut-off. The
means employed to reverse the valve motion can be used in
intermediate positions to control the throw, and in neutral
position to stop the action of the valve entirely. Since a
separate crank for operating the valve is out of the question,
an eccentric takes its place. This is simply a sort of crank
formed by setting a disk off centre upon the crankshaft. The
throw, or eccentricity, of the disk is twice the distance from
the centre of the crankshaft to the centre of the disk. The
valve push rod is driven by a strap which fits around the
eccentric. It is evident that if the disk could be rotated about
the shaft it would give the valve more or less throw, and event-
ually cause it to move in the opposite direction. However,
the setting of a valve is rather a delicate operation, and since
the average operator is none too well qualified, a great many

56 POWER AND THE PLOW

manufacturers key the eccentric immovably to the shaft. For
convenience, a quicker method of shifting is required anyhow.

Reverse Gear

The two systems of reverse in common use are the single
and double eccentric. The latter has two opposed eccentrics
connected by suitable straps and push rods to a vertical curved
link. Sliding in this link and connected directly to the valve
is the link block. By lifting the link, or lowering it, the link
block and valve will be actuated by first one and then the
other of the eccentrics. This system contains a few more
parts, but if provided with removable bushings it proves dur-
able, and its simplicity and economy of steam make it very
popular. In the single eccentric reverse the eccentric strap
carries an extension, at the end of which is carried a pivoted
block or roller. This is free to slide in a pivoted guide which
drives the push rod. The angle of this guide may be shifted
by the reverse lever so as to control the throw of the valve
and reverse the engine.

Crankshaft

On a single cylinder engine the crankshaft is usually pro-
vided at one end with a disk which carries a crankpin at a
point near the rim. This is also known as a side crank. A
double engine has also a centre crank, similar to that on gas
engines — i.e., practically a bend, drop-forged in the shaft.
The crankshaft should be supported by ample bearings, set as
closely as possible to the crank. The proper diameter of the
crankpin, upon which the force of the connecting rod comes,
is given by good authority as at least one fourth of the cylinder
bore, and the length as one third that of the cylinder.

Flywheel and Clutch

The flywheel is commonly attached to the crankshaft so
that it revolves whenever the engine is in motion. It is usually

THE STEAM TRACTOR 57

wide enough to support an eight to twelve inch belt for driving
stationary machines. It is evident that a friction clutch must
be used which will allow the power to be applied gradually to
the traction gearing, otherwise the starting of a heavy load
of plows would require great care and considerable time.
This clutch is usually made up of two or more shoes, and the
necessary collar and toggle levers for holding them against
the inside face of the pulley or flywheel. The blocks or shoes
are usually of wood and frequently faced with some special
friction material. When the clutch is thrown in it locks
itself in position without strain on the clutch lever. Some
clutches are fitted with counter weights, which lift the shoes
from the face of the pulley by centrifugal force as soon as
the clutch is thrown out. Means are provided for
taking up the wear on the shoes so as to keep the clutch
effective at all times.

TRANSMISSION

The power is usually transmitted to the traction wheels
by a simple train of spur gears — i.e., cylinders with teeth
cut on the circumference parallel to the axis. A driving pinion
is attached to the friction clutch. This engages an inter-
mediate gear, and this in turn a large compensating gear on
the countershaft. Pinions on either end of the countershaft
drive the large master gears, which are fastened to the traction
wheels by either rigid or spring connections. On a few engines
the power is taken from both ends of the crankshaft and trans-
mitted by two complete sets of gears, making what is properly
known as a double-geared engine. The intermediate shaft
on late types is attached to the same wing sheets as the engine
frame.

Differential Gear

At some point in the transmission there must be a differen-
tial, or compensating, gear to allow one drive-wheel to revolve

58 POWER AND THE PLOW

faster than the other at times, and both to receive power
equally when moving straight ahead. This is necessary be-
cause of the unequal slippage of the two wheels in soft ground
and the unequal travel in turning. The differential consists
(1) of a large spur gear mounted loose on the countershaft
or axle; (2) a series of small bevel or spur pinions mounted
between the spokes of the main gear; (3) two gears standing
in a vertical plane in mesh with the small pinions between and
mounted on the shaft or axle. One of the two latter gears
is keyed to the shaft, and the other to a sleeve revolving upon
the shaft. Each is connected directly or by gears with the
drive-wheel on that side. When both drivers move at the
same rate, the small pinions do not revolve. When one wheel
lags, the two compensating halves revolve in opposite di-
rections to equalize the travel, and the main gear continues to
transmit power to both sides. The differential, or counter,
shaft is usually continuous, and the compensating halves
and pinions beveled. When spur pinions are used, one com-
pensating half is internal and one external — i.e., the teeth of
the one extend toward the main shaft and the other outward,
the spur pinions being arranged in pairs between. One small
pinion in each pair meshes with each gear, the two pinions
being side by side on a stud parallel with the countershaft.

Mounting

The majority of plowing engines now sold have the counter-
shaft and rear axle mounted at the rear of the boiler. The
bearings for these shafts are commonly supported either by
large cast iron brackets on the corners of the fire box or by a
continuous wing sheet riveted at close intervals around the
top and sides of the fire box. The rear mounted engines are
sometimes hung en springs and links, which relieve the jar
upon the boiler and engine without allowing the gears to become
unmeshed. The wheels sometimes revolve on short axles which
are mounted on brackets attached to the side of the fire box.

THE STEAM TRACTOR 59

This effects a better distribution of weight for tractive effi-
ciency on level ground than the rear mounting, unless the
front wheels of the latter type tractor are set as far forward
as possible. However, the side-mounted construction is more
apt to lift the front wheels from the ground on a grade, and
the fire box may be dangerously weakened in the compar-
atively small area supporting the bracket. It is difficult to
keep the stub axles rigid, and the drive-wheels tend to become
closer together at the top, when, of course, the axle bearings
wear unevenly and the gears are thrown out of proper align-
ment. Truss axles extending underneath the fire box to each
stub axle relieve the strain on the fire box, but do not prevent
the unequal wear on the gears. On return-flue engines the
wheels are often mounted on a continuous axle ahead of the
fire box. On some very successful plowing engines a separate
steel frame is made to carry the engine and gearing, so as to
place no strain from these sources upon the boiler. This is
known as the under-mounted or frame-mounted type. It
accomplishes its purpose and makes the engine accessible at
the expense of greater exposure of the working parts to dust
and grit.

Traction Wheels

The patent expert of one of the great machinery companies
once said* that in building a tractor he would first build the
wheel and then the remainder. The traction wheel is a fun-
damental point, for no matter how much power the engine
may develop, or how efficient the traction gearing may be, the
tractor will not be successful if the wheel fails properly to grip
the ground. The effectiveness of the drive-wheel depends
not only on its character, but upon the distribution of the
tractor's weight. Nor will the same wheel with the same
weight upon it prove equally efficient in all conditions. It
has been claimed by advocates of special caterpillar and walk-
ing wheels that the slippage of the round-wheeled tractor is

60 POWER AND THE PLOW

never less than 6 per cent., and may reach 15 per cent, in ordi-
nary footing; hence some have adopted exteme measures in
order to produce an efficient traction wheel. For general
purpose tractors, however, the problem narrows itself con-
siderably. There are the alternatives of high or low wheels,
and wide or narrow wheels, which, with the type of grouter
or cleat, determine the gripping power of the wheel upon
the soil.

The increasing weight of tractors which has accompanied
the great increase in power has necessitated careful considera-
tion of the weight per unit of bearing surface upon the ground.
In standard tractors from two thirds to three fourths of the
total weight is thrown upon the drivers when the engine is
stationary, and the hitch may be so arranged as to lift con-
siderable weight off the front wheels and place it upon the
rear ones when plowing. At rest the weight per square inch
of bearing surface is usually from one fourth to one third
below the pressure exerted by horses at rest. In plowing,
however, the bearing surface is mostly forward of the
centre line of the axle, and it is probable that this weight
equals, or even exceeds, the figure for a horse's hoof, which
is about twenty to twenty- three pounds per square inch.
In order to increase this bearing surface and, incidentally,
the friction of the wheel upon the ground, wheels have
been increased in diameter in order to present a longer arc
in contact with the ground, and in width further to
increase the area.

In extremely high wheels there is the difficulty of securing
sufficient rigidity and strength without unduly increasing
the weight. The low, wide wheel produces greater
strains upon the axle, and is at a further disadvantage
in comparison with the high wheel, in that as the tire
sinks slightly into the earth the tractor must constantly
propel itself and its load up a slight grade. The percentage
of the radius which sinks beneath the surface represents

THE STEAM TRACTOR 61

the grade, and the higher the wheel the less it will be
affected in passing over soft ground or rough roads. In order
to compromise, designers have had to sacrifice something of
both advantages.

The drive wheels on steam plowing tractors are not so ex-
treme in variation as on gas tractors, since the engines are more
nearly uniform in size and weight. The wheels are usually
from 24 to 36 inches wide and 6 to 8 feet in diameter, with
extension rims 10 or 12 inches wide. The built-up type of
wheel is most common, with steel tires, to which are attached
either round or flat steel spokes, which in turn are fastened to
a cast iron hub.

Steering Wheels

The front wheels are usually of the built-up type, but are
more often made with cast iron rims than the rear wheels. A
flange or collar around the middle of the wheel prevents
it from lateral slippage. Steering is done by guiding the
front wheels, which are rotated with the axle by means of
a chain winding shaft, worm gear, and hand wheel. At
some additional cost a steam steering apparatus may be
attached to certain engines whereby the heavy work of
steering is performed by power and the wheels can be kept
more rigidly in line.

Lubrication

It is evident that different parts of the steam engine will
require different methods of lubrication. Steam cylinder oil
is a rather heavy liquid with a considerable percentage of
animal or vegetable fat mixed with mineral oil in order to
make it capable of emulsifying or mixing with the steam. It
is commonly fed into the steam pipe outside of the throttle
valve, and sometimes between the throttle and the cylinder as
well. It may be delivered by a mechanically driven oil

62 POWER AND THE PLOW

pump, or by a lubricator which feeds the oil by displacing it
with water. The former is preferable, as it eliminates danger
from freezing and is more economical and positive in its action.
On the cross-head, crankpin, and similar places a sight-feed
oil cup, feeding a rather thin oil by gravity, may be employed.
For lubrication of bearings, however, the tendency is to now
use grease cups and hard oil or greese, which is converted into
a fluid by the heat of friction. In the compression grease cup
the grease is forced on to the bearing by a plate and spring, or
by screwing down the cover of the cup. For lubrication of
the heavy gears axle grease is frequently employed, but since
this is apt to form a grinding paste with the dirt and sand which
are thrown up, means of washing the gears by a drip of thin
cheap oil are frequently employed.

Modification of the Steam Plowing Tractor

In some cases the traction wheels are made with removable
cleats, and an attachment provided whereby a drum can be
substituted for the front wheels, thus converting the engine
into a road roller. Some tractors may be equipped with an
attachment for running an elevator grader by the power of the
engine. A level gear on the countershaft drives through a
universal joint and telescopic shaft, doing away with loss
occasioned by the failure of the light grader wheels to provide
sufficient traction. English tractors equipped with cables
for pulling plows have already been mentioned. Some Ameri-
can tractors have a drum and short cable for pulling stumps
or lifting the engine out of difficulty. Others may be provided
with a derrick and cable to fit them for pulling stumps or for
steam-shovel work. Very interesting modifications of the
ordinary steam tractor are used in California in the soft re-
claimed tule lands. Some of these have drive- wheels and
extensions up to eighteen feet in width, and front wheels up to
eighteen feet wide, the entire tractor being forty to forty-five

THE STEAM TRACTOR 63

feet wide. In other cases a type of caterpillar, or walking,
wheel is made to carry the weight over ground which is so
soft that horses can bring fuel and water to the outfit only
over permanent roads, to which the tractor must go for its
supplies.

VIII
PERFORMANCE OF STEAM TRACTORS

STEAM-PLOWING tractors range in size from 50
to 120 rated brake horsepower, and a general
ratio of brake horsepower to nominal rating is
about three to one. In other words, steam tractors
of the sizes used for plowing are rated at from 20 to 40 nominal
horsepower. Practically every steam engine will carry at
least 10 per cent, more load than is called for by the rating.
Three classes of 20, 25, and 30 to 35 nominal horsepower are
manufactured by most engine companies. These will handle,
roughly speaking, about seven, ten, and twelve or fourteen
plows, respectively. Ordinary steam-plowing engines, fully
equipped and ready for work, range in weight from ten to twenty-
five tons. They cost from $1800 to $3000 in the United States,
and possibly 30 per cent, more in Canada, owing to freight and
duty. Many smaller tractors are made for lighter work, but
since the steam engine is not so economical in small units for
plowing, the larger engines are practically the only ones which
have been constructed especially for this purpose.

Some tractors are given only the brake rating, but it is cus-
tomary to use the term "nominal" in rating engines for sale.
This has no definite meaning, being simply the designation
adopted by the manufacturer in listing his various tractors.
Some tractors are rated on their actual drawbar horsepower
under what may be assumed as average conditions. Naturally
the matter of a tractive rating is very complex, since the con-
ditions over which the tractor must run are widely variable.

64

PERFORMANCE OF STEAM TRACTORS 65

A standard basis for tractive rating, however, would be of
great assistance to purchasers, since the differences in design
will enable one tractor to deliver a greater percentage of the
brake horsepower at the drawbar than another. This is a
matter which has been the subject of considerable discussion by
agricultural engineers, but as yet no solution has been reached.

Unfortunately, no scientific tests of tractive efficiency have
been conducted in this country, at least, not for the benefit
of the public. The pulling power of the tractor depends on a
great many different factors, such as the total weight, the
weight in relation to the area of the supporting wheels, the type
of transmission, and the distribution of weight upon the front
and rear wheels. The tractive efficiency has usually been
estimated by comparing the brake horsepower developed in
one test with the tractive horsepower developed in another.
However, this gives no check on the comparative amounts of
power developed at the crankshaft, and is apt to be very
misleading. After holding down the power of any tractor on
a brake test it can be made to show a high proportion of this
power at the drawbar simply by increasing the brake horse-
power developed during the tractive test. This automatically
increases the fuel consumption in a given length of time, hence
the increased drawbar horsepower will be at the expense of
fuel consumption. A more accurate but still imperfect
method has been to base the tractive efficiency on the relative
fuel consumption in the brake and tractive tests.

In July, 1909, during tests at Winnipeg, four steam engines
had a total weight of 585 pounds per inch in width of drivers,
and 456 pounds for each brake horsepower developed on
economy tests. Over a firm plowing course they were able
to show 56.6 per cent, as much power at the drawbar as at the
belt in the economy tests. Over a hauling course, which
presented nearly every possible condition of ground from pave-
ment to sand patch, the limitation of the load by the bad spots
reduced the drawbar horsepower to 29.3 per cent, of the economy

66 POWER AND THE PLOW

load. The ratio of fuel per brake horsepower-hour to fuel per
drawbar horsepower-hour was 59.9 per cent, in plowing and
34.4 per cent, in hauling. During the two-hour hauling tests
the steam tractors,traveling at from 2.04 to 2.34 miles per hour,
developed individual averages of 25 to 34 actual drawbar horse-
power in moving the dead weight of other steam tractors rated
at from 25 to 36 h.p., one engine being used as a load in each
case. In plowing tests conducted in 1910, six steam tractors
plowing on firm sod ground showed a tractive efficiency, based
on comparative fuel consumption, of practically 48 per cent.
These figures quite effectively illustrate the tractive efficiency
which may be expected of the average steam tractor in con-
ditions where the footing is neither the very best nor the very
worst that might be found.

A mean of percentages indicates that the weight borne by
the drive-wheels of the steam tractors at Winnipeg in 1910
was about 73.5 per cent, of the total. In plowing, the steam
tractors showed an average drawbar pull of 26 per cent, of the
total weight and 36 per cent, of the weight on the drivers.
In plowing, the preceding year, the drawbar pull was ap-
proximately 11 per cent, of the total weight in hauling and 22
per cent, in plowing. Averaging the plowing and hauling tests
for 1909, the steam tractors have credit for one tractive horse-
power for each 1033 pounds of total weight.

Steam tractors are as a rule geared to run somewhat higher
than gas tractors, but owing to the many delays incident
to starting and taking on supplies, they actually net only about
15 miles of furrow travel in ten hours as compared to 17.5
for the latter. In the various motor contests, however, where
the start has been made with steam up, and every facility
provided for keeping outfits in motion, the steam outfits as
a whole have shown higher net speeds than the gas tractors.

The indicated horsepower of steam tractors is sometimes
specified, and in general practice the indicated horsepower
will be from 20 to 25 per cent, above the manufacturer's brake

PERFORMANCE OF STEAM TRACTORS

67

rating. The mechanical efficiency will range from 85 to 93 per
cent. In the Winnipeg motor contest of 1910 the steam en-
gines carried an average of 97 per cent, of their rated brake
horsepower in an economy test and 132 per cent, in a maximum
test. The drawbar horsepower was 95 per cent, higher than
the nominal rating. Steam tractors are not as a rule over-
rated. However, their power for steady work is much less
than could be maintained on a short run, unless a much larger
boiler is provided than usual for a given size and speed of
engine.

Steam tractors have competed in three motor contests held
in Canada during the last several years. The following table
shows the average coal and water consumption of all engines
in the economy tests in these competitions. It is not to be
supposed that the load in every case was exactly at or even
near the point of greatest economy, though this condition was
usually aimed at. There was but one test of a compound
engine on the brake, against six single and eleven double cyl-
inder engines. In plowing there were four single and six double;
and in hauling, one single and three double. To these figures
there should be added a certain percentage of coal and water
used in actual practice in getting up steam, and for waste
after the close of the day's work.

POUNDS OF COAL AND WATER USED PER DELIVERED HORSEPOWER PER HOUR

Test

Single Cylinder

Double Cylinder

Compound

Coal

Water

Coal

Water

Coal

Water

Brake

3.72
7.46
14.18

30.11
52.8
114.6

4.43

8.87
12.84

32.43
69.0
91.1

4.96

34.94

Steam tractors as a rule use from seven pounds to eight
pounds of water per pound of coal. Reports from 333 plowing
engines of all types in the United States and Canada indicate

68 POWER AND THE PLOW

an average of 7.67 Ibs. Twenty-four public brake tests
show a mean of 7.78 Ibs.; sixteen plowing tests 7.08 Ibs.,
and four hauling tests 7.4 Ibs.; or a mean of 7.42 Ibs. for
the forty-four tests. Single-cylinder engines show a range of
from 5.78 Ibs. to 9.97 Ibs.; and double-cylinder from 3.3
to 10.3, according to official reports. Conditions were such
however, as to arouse doubts as to the accuracy of such ex-
treme figures. By making enough assumptions one can com-
pare these data with those furnished by operators of eleven oil-
burning steam engines in California. These men report the
use of 9.4 gallons of water per gallon of oil. Assuming the oil
to be of 20° Baume and to contain 20,000 B.t.u. per pound,
they used 1990 B.t.u., in evaporating one pound of water.
The ordinary run of coal used contains not over 13,000 B.t.u.
per pound; hence 1700 to 1740 B.t.u. would be furnished per
one pound of water.

The cost of operating a steam tractor varies even more
widely than that of operating the gas tractor. The various
conditions are fully covered in Bulletin 170, United States
Bureau of Plant Industry, from which the average performance
of steam tractors as shown in 1907 and 1908 can be ascertained.
The following quotation gives quite accurately what may
be expected of steam tractors taken as a class, except that the
great improvement in both engines and plows, even in the short
interval, has added greatly to the efficiency of outfits. In
addition, the rapid education of operators, the improvement
in other equipment for use with engines, and the tendency to
use the tractors for a longer period of time each year, would
all help to increase the performance and reduce overhead
charges.

AVERAGE RESULTS WITH STEAM-PLOWING OUTFITS

In view of the extreme variation in conditions encountered by individual
operators, any averages of results must be taken with due regard for local con-
ditions. The following table presents a summary of the data taken from re-
ports complete enough to give the desired information. These include results

PERFORMANCE OF STEAM TRACTORS

69

for a part of the season of 1908. For the purpose of comparison, two columns
are shown for Canada. The first is from direct reports from operators. In the
second column averages are taken from the annual traction-plowing numbers
of the Canadian Thresherman and Farmer, from 1905 to 1909, inclusive, and
represent 214 letters of steam plowmen hi answer to that journal's annual
circular letters on this subject. A small percentage of the letters are dupli-
cated — that is, they are from the same operator hi different years — and
several correspondents reporting under column 1 are also found under column
2. The average of coal used given in column 2 is from 150 operators, many
using either wood or straw or not reporting at all. Those using wood report
about two cords a day as an average. The average number of barrels of water
used by Canadian operators apparently varies greatly. However, a difference
in standards may explain the variation. If the 72.8 barrels in column 1 were
of 31.5 imperial gallons of 10 pounds each, and the 57.1 barrels in column 2
were of 42 imperial gallons, the water used per pound of coal would be 7.21 and
7.82 pounds, respectively. It is difficult otherwise to account for such a wide
variation.

COST OF PLOWING WITH STEAM ENGINES

Data in reference to steam-plowing outfits operated in California, in the
Southwestern and the Northwestern sections of the United States, and in
Canada.

WORK ACCOMPLISHED, ETC.

CALI-
FORNIA

SOUTH-
WEST

NORTH-

CANADA

WEST

1

2

Number reporting

11

2,800

689
3,489
20
110
$5,500
23.3
20.45
$506
10.6
20.4

100
475

580
1,055
55
26.46
$2,680

60

310

348
658
53
27.5
$2,505
9.85
11.18
$657
11.44
16.9

23

379

628
1,007
61
29
$3,420
11
12.83
$860
12.31
13.8

214

Acres plowed annually for
self

Acres plowed annually for
others

Acres plowed annually, total
Percentage of custom plowing
Size of engine (horsepower) x
Cost of engine

27.28

8.6
10.03

Number of plows

Width of furrow cut (feet) 3 . .
Cost of plows'

12.8
$451
11
16.4

Hours of work each day ....
Miles covered each day 3

16.75

1 Brake horsepower. Nominal or tractive rating about 60 horsepower.

2 Less than one-fifth of the outfits reported in the Southwest use moldboard
plows. These average 9.18 bottoms, cutting 10.7 feet, and cost $561 each.
From 10 to 20 disk plows would be used to cut the average of 13.2 feet reported.
These sets average $428 in price. The figures hi the table are for the average
of both types.

* "Miles a day" is miles traveled with plows in the ground, as figured from
the daily acreage and the average width of the furrow. The distance traveled
in turning, etc., is not included.

70

POWER AND THE PLOW

WORK ACCOMPLISHED, ETC.

CALI-
FORNIA

SOUTH-
WEST

NORTH-
WEST

CANADA

1

2

Acres covered each day

50.6
69
6
5.5
$16.50
7.16

0.14

$7.28
$0.144
3,367
$1.00

25.7
41
3.43
3.1

$11
2,508

98.4
$6.91
$0.273
74.1
$0.57

22.9
29
4.24
4.5
$14
2,735

126.6

$8.71
$0.38
77.75
$0.59

21.4

47
4.11
3.9
$14
3,151

147.4

$8.34
$0.39
72.8
$0.87

20.37

"4'.64
3.36

Days of plowing for the year .
Mien employed

Horses used

Labor and board (by day) . . .
Quantity of fuel used each day*
Quantity of fuel used for each
acre 2 .

3,064
150.4

Cost of fuel for each day . . .
Cost of fuel for each acre ....
Quantity of water used each day
Cost of oil, etc., for each day

57.1

lFor California expressed hi barrels of crude oil; elsewhere in pounds of coal.

2 For California expressed hi gallons; elsewhere hi the United States in barrels
of 31.5 gallons.

The data for 1907 and 1908 under column 2 are much nearer the figures
contained hi first-hand reports from the Northwest and Canada, as is to be
expected hi view of the time covered by the latter. For these two years the
averages of data contained in 118 letters show the size of the engine to be 27.7
horsepower; number of plows, 9.09; width of furrow, 10.6 feet; miles a day,
16.75; acres a day, 21.52; number of men, 4.53; number of horses, 3.57; quantity
of coal a day, 3245 Ibs.; quantity of coal for each acre, 150.8 Ibs.

It will be noted that from three to six men are needed in
operating a steam plowing outfit. A full crew would consist
of an engineer, fireman, plowman, cook, and two or more
men with teams to haul coal and water. Wages range from
$1.75 for ordinary help to $4 or $5 a day for the engineer, though
many receive more than that. Horses cost about $1.00 a
day each, and board costs from 50 cents to 75 cents for each
man. The Bulletin just quoted estimates the cost of steam
plowing in 1907 and 1908 at 85.3 cents per acre in California,
$1.14 in the Southwest, and $1.73 in the Northwest, aver-
aging the entire season's run of both sod breaking and stubble
plowing, and figuring all overhead charges on the basis of
about seven years' life of equipment. With gas tractors of
smaller size, under the same conditions, the cost was estimated
at $1.12 for the Southwest and $1.46 for the Northwest, the
differences being due largely to the more rapid work accom-
plished with disk plows and a lower cost per unit of fuel.

IX

FUELS FOR STEAM TRACTORS

THE fuels for steam tractors which are in common
use include coal, straw, wood, and crude oil. An-
thracite coal is seldom used, the ordinary grades
ranging from lignite, which is a very soft, peaty
product, to the highest grades of bituminous steam coal. The
cost of coal naturally varies widely in different sections, as
well as the grade which is commonly used. In some sections
of Montana and the two Dakotas cheap coal, both lignite and
a better grade, are to be found underlying large areas. The
quality is not such as to encourage extensive shipping, conse-
quently local mines supply coal at from $2.00 to $3.00 per ton.
Coal which is shipped in from the Eastern mines costs as high
as $8.00 or $9.00 per ton at the railroad station, but will usually
produce as much power as one and one half to two tons of the
local product. In the Southwestern States of the Great Plains
area the coal is usually brought from Missouri or Oklahoma
fields and costs in the neighborhood of $6.00 per ton, plus the
cost of hauling. In Iowa and Missouri, where a fair grade of
bituminous coal is obtainable, the price is usually around $4.50
to $5.00 in carload lots. It is the custom of many steam engine
operators to have the coal delivered in carload lots and stored
in a dealer's warehouse, whence it is hauled as needed. Coal
may be had from $3.50 to $4.00 per ton in carload lots in
Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa, although little steam-traction plow-
ing is done in this section.

Bituminous coals, such as are ordinarily used in plowing.

71

72 POWER AND THE PLOW

contain from 12,000 to 14,500 B.t.u. per pound. The best
coal contains from 80 to 90 per cent, of carbon and hydrogen.

Crude oil and its products are nearly pure carbon and hydro-
gen in varying proportions. Wood and straw contain only
about 50 per cent, of carbon. A large part of the possible
oxidation has already taken place in the latter, hence their
heating value is low. Alcohol, as it will be seen later, comes
from vegetable materials and has also a lower thermal value
than coal and oil. Were it possible for all engines to utilize
all fuels with equal efficiency, the steam engine would have
a tremendous advantage on account of the cheapness of its
fuel. If its energy could all be utilized, one pound of coal,
costing two fifths of a cent and having 14,000 B.t.u., would
produce about eleven million foot-pounds of work, or ap-
proximately the useful work of one horse for one day.

Straw is used only where it has no value for feeding or
bedding purposes, consequently straw-burning engines are
commonly found only on the Great Plains. If we disregard
the fertilizing value of the straw, the use of it in engines is a
source of economy, as the first cost of coal is saved. The labor
of keeping the engine supplied with straw is practically the same
as the average for hauling coal from the railway station. The
use of straw in plowing is not convenient, as a large tender must
be carried for rounds of any length. For threshing, however,
it is convenient and cheap. Straw contains about 8000 B.t.u.
per pound, or a little more than half the heat value of the best
grades of coal. It requires somewhat more skill in firing than
does coal, owing to the rapidity with which it generates heat.

Wood is used to a very limited extent in plowing, owing to
the scarcity of timber on most of the Great Plains area. Where
abundant, however, it can be used at the rate of about two
and one fourth pounds of wood for one pound of coal. Air-
dried wood will net about 5000 to 6000 B.t.u. per pound.
Fresh wood contains from 30 to 50 per cent, of moisture, ac-
cording to species, and seldom dries in the air to less than 20

FUELS FOR STEAM TRACTORS 73

per cent. The heat required to evaporate this must be de-
ducted from the 8000 to 8500 B.t.u. which will be contained
in a pound of good air-dried wood. A cord of 128 cubic feet of
ordinary wood contains 60 to 80 cubic feet of solid wood.
When thoroughly air dried, hickory or hard maple weighs about
4500 Ibs.; white oak, 3850 Ibs.; birch, red oak, or black oak,
3250 Ibs.; poplar, chestnut, or elm, 2350 Ibs.; and average
pine, 2000 Ibs.

Crude oil makes an excellent fuel, being cheap, highly con-
centrated, and easily handled. The usual cost is from two to
three cents per gallon, which will usually weigh about seven
and one half pounds and contain about one and one half times
as many heat units per pound as the best steam coal. Many
builders of steam tractors furnish attachments for converting
coal-burning engines into oil burners. The usual method is
to mix oil and steam by forcing them through a jet located in
the fire box, the vapor burning readily and producing an abun-
dance of heat. Oil is used almost entirely by steam plowing
tractors on the Pacific coast, but not extensively elsewhere.

THE INTERNAL-COMBUSTION TRACTOR

THE third great source of power for direct traction
plowing is the internal-combustion tractor, which
differs from the steam tractor in the kind of fuel
used and the method of transforming the chemical
energy in that fuel into mechanical energy for useful work.
We have seen that in the steam engine the heat is applied
externally to a vessel containing some liquid medium, ordi-
narily water. The temperature of the water is thus raised above
the vaporizing point. The resulting gas is admitted to the
cylinder under pressure and performs work by its expansion
and cooling. The internal-combustion engine admits the
fuel directly to the working cylinder, where it is vaporized.
It is compressed to a density of four or more atmospheres and
ignited. The combustion is practically instantaneous; hence
the pressure rises with the force of an explosion behind the pis-
ton. The action may be compared to that of a gun, the piston
taking the place of the bullet, but constantly returning to be
acted upon again. The gases work directly upon the piston;
hence there is little chance for loss of heat by radiation, as is
the case at every step in the steam engine cycle, and much
greater efficiency is the result.

The essential parts of the internal-combustion engine con-
sist of a cylinder and movable piston, with means for vapor-
izing the fuel and delivering it to the cylinder; for regulating
the power of the engine; for igniting the charge; for allowing
the charge to enter and the burned gases to escape; for cleaning

74

THE INTERNAL -COMBUSTION TRACTOR 75

76 POWER AND THE PLOW

the cylinder after the explosion; for transforming the movement
of the piston into rotary motion suitable for driving machines,
and for lubricating the engine to reduce friction. In other
words, we must have a cylinder, cylinder head, piston, fuel
supply, carbureter, governor, ignition system, valves, cooling
system, wristpin, connecting rod, crankshaft, flywheel, and
lubricating devices, with a base for the support of all these
parts.

In the early nineties, or shortly after the gasoline engine
was first successfully used for stationary purposes, a tractor
equipped with such an engine for power was offered for sale.
This proved unsuitable in many respects, and, since at that
time there was much competition from steam threshing engines
and little demand for a plowing tractor, the venture did not
survive. At least ten years elapsed^ before foe gas tractor
proved at all successful commercially. The year 1903 really
marks the beginning of the great development of gas tractors,
which has been one of the marvels in the history of agriculture.
By the spring of 1908 the builders of the first successful tractor
had about 300 machines in the field, and the sales that year
equalled those of the five years preceding. The following year
the number hi the field was again doubled, and by the close
of the year 1910 over 2000 of these tractors were said to be in
active service. Another company began to produce a small
tractor in 1907 and by the close of the decade was selling several
thousand yearly. Dozens of gas tractor factories sprang up,
and practically every manufacturer of steam traction engines
either went out of business or added an internal-combustion
engine to his line. At present over sixty firms are offering gas
tractors to the public and the number is being added to almost
weekly. For plowing purposes there is little question that this
type of prime motor has taken a permanent lead over the steam
engine. On that account, and because of the comparative
newness of the field, the mechanical features of the gas tractor
will be dealt with in greater detail.

GAS TRACTORS

Left-hand side of motor plant
Right-hand side of motor plant

THE INTERNAL -COMBUSTION TRACTOR 77

The fundamental principles of the internal-combustion
engine are the same, no matter what fuel is used, and for con-
venience we may speak of it as the gas engine. The class may
first be divided into the two-cycle and the four-cycle types. By
a cycle we mean a complete series of events in which one work-
ing stroke occurs. In the two-cycle engine the charge is drawn
into a separate chamber, usually the crank case, and there
partially compressed by the outward movement of the piston.
At the end of its working stroke the piston uncovers a port
in the cylinder which is connected by a side passage with the
crank case, and forces a charge into the combustion chamber.
At the same time it opens a port on the opposite side of the
cylinder, out of which the exhaust gases rush while the incoming
charge is filling up the combustion chamber. A projection on the
end of the piston deflects the new charge toward the head end of
the cylinder, with the result that the cylinder is more effec-
tively scavenged of the burned gases, which would tend to
dilute the fresh mixture. As the piston is carried back through
the force of the flywheel, the charge is compressed in the
cylinder and ignited at the proper time. Thus a working stroke
occurs to each revolution of the flywheel, or to each two strokes
of the piston.

The two-cycle principle is used largely on marine engines,
where lightness and compactness are the prime essentials. It
is used on tractors to a very limited extent. Having twice
the number of power strokes at a given speed, the two-cycle
engine will naturally deliver more power than the four-cycle.
However, owing to the difficulty in combining the suction,
power and exhaust strokes in one, the power developed is only
from one third to three fourths more than would be obtained
from a four-cycle engine of the same dimensions and speed.
This type is also less economical of fuel.

In the four-cycle engine, which is practically universal on
tractors, the piston moves outward on what is known as the
suction stroke, during which a charge is drawn into the cylinder.

78 POWE2, AND THE PLOW

On its return trip it compresses the charge into a small clearance
space at the head of the cylinder. At a point usually previous
to the end of the compression stroke, the charge is ignited. By
the time the piston starts outward on the third, or power,
stroke, the full force of the explosion is exerted against the
piston head. As the flywheel again carries the piston back-
ward, the exhaust valve opens and the burned gases are expelled
from the cylinder, thus completing the cycle. There is but
one power stroke to four strokes of the piston; hence the name.
It will be seen that on the suction stroke the exhaust valve is
closed and the inlet valve open. On the exhaust stroke the
inlet valve is closed and the exhaust open. One automobile
manufacturer has aptly compared the four-stroke cycle to the
operations involved in firing an old muzzle-loading rifle. First,
the charge is admitted, and next it is rammed home. The
third step is the firing and the fourth consists of swabbing out
the gun barrel.

DESIGN OF GAS TRACTORS

The gas tractor consists essentially of power plant and traction
mechanism. The former consists of the same essential parts
as a stationary gas engine, while the latter includes the support-
ing frame, wheels, shafting and gearing for transmitting power
to the traction wheels. At the present time there are probably
one hundred distinct types and sizes of gas tractor. Variations
in design are so great that a strict classification would be
extremely complicated, and for general purposes they are
roughly divided into low, medium, and high speed types, with
a further class for those of special nature. For tractors of
standard types the above classes correspond quite closely to
the single, double, and four cylinder classes, and to a less extent
represent the power developed, the single-cylinder engines
as a class being the smallest and the four-cylinder the largest.

The engines on single-cylinder tractors usually run at from
220 to 300 revolutions of the crankshaft per minute. The two-

DETAILS OF THE GAS TRACTOR

Twin cylinders Piston and connecting rod

Top view of twin cylinder-engine
showing method of lubrication
Governor Crankshaft

THE INTERNAL -COMBUSTION TRACTOR 79

cylinder engines range from about 300 to 400 r.p.m., the three-
cylinder a trifle higher, and the four-cylinder from 450 to 600
r.p.m., though these limits are by no means absolute. The
speed is based largely upon the piston travel, which ranges
from about 600 to 750 feet per minute. The multiple-cylinder
engines are usually smaller in diameter and stroke; hence
require a higher speed to accomplish the desired piston travel.
The cylinder, even on a low or medium speed tractor, is
seldom over twelve inches hi diameter, owing to the difficulty of
cooling larger sizes through the cylinder wall. The stroke of
the piston is usually longer in proportion to the diameter in
the lower speed engines, the ratio ranging from an average of
about 1.65 for the low speed single-cylinder tractors to 1.5
for the medium speed, and 1.15 for the four-cylinder high-speed
engines.

GOVERNOR

Excellent regulation is especially necessary on a gas engine,
where perfect combustion, clean cylinders, and economy of
fuel depend upon a good mixture at all times. Only two sys-
tems of governing are in common use on tractors. In one of
these a fuel charge is taken for each cycle until the speed of the
engine runs above a certain limit. Thereupon the explosions
are automatically cut out until the speed drops below normal.
This sequence of power cycles and idle cycles gives rise to the
name of "hit-and-miss" governing. This system is economical
of fuel, especially on small engines, but naturally is not adapted
for work requiring close regulation. It is better adapted to
plowing than to threshing, sawing, and other stationary work,
where a constant speed must be kept in spite of great variation
in the load. An ordinary fly-ball governor, driven in some
way by the flywheel or crankshaft, is commonly used. The
governor weights act through suitable push rods, which in turn
may lock the fuel valve so as to choke off the supply or else
will prevent a spark while retaining an unexploded charge in
the cylinder.

80

POWER AND THE PLOW

The other method of governing is that of taking and ex-
ploding a charge at each cycle, the amount taken in varying
with the requirements of the load as in the throttle-governed
steam engine. This method is used on practically all of the
high-speed engines and some of the low and medium speed
types. It is capable of very close regulation and is more
sensitive than the hit-and-miss to the requirements of irregular
loads. Many tractors are equipped with devices for changing
the speed of the engine while in motion by controlling the
governor.

CARBURETER

The object of the carbureter is to mix fuel and air in the
proper proportions to form an explosive mixture. If the gover-

Fuel Chamber

Principle of the carbureter

TYPES OF GAS TRACTORS

Four cylinder vertical motor

A self-contained motor plow

Bevel gear and chain driven tractor with three cylinder motor

THE INTERNAL -COMBUSTION TRACTOR 81

nor is the heart of the engine, then the carbureter may be said
to be the lungs, which bring the life-blood and oxygen into the
necessary contact. Of the three general classes of carbureter,
only one is used to any extent upon tractors. This is the spray
type, which divides the fuel into a fine mist rather than a true
gas. The carbureter must deliver the fuel to the cylinder in
proper proportions, at any speed or load, regardless of varia-
tions in the temperature of fuel and air, the difference in
density in the air at different times and altitudes, and the
wide extremes in the volatility of fuels secured from different
sources. In order to meet all the varying requirements, many
carbureters are so complicated and delicate that they are
not suitable for the rough work which a tractor is called upon
to do.

In brief, the spray carbureter delivers the fuel through a small
opening or needle valve, situated in a passage through which
air rushes, in obedience to the difference in pressure between
the outside air and the contents of the cylinder on the suction
stroke. The fuel is atomized by the air current and turned
into gas by the heat of the cylinder. Gasoline is sufficiently
volatile to give an explosive mixture in a cold cylinder.
Kerosene requires more heat for its evaporation; hence it is
usually necessary to start on gasoline or alcohol and switch to
kerosene after a half minute's run. Sometimes two car-
bureters are provided for starting, but a simpler way is to add
a gasoline compartment to the kerosene carbureter.

The majority of carbureters are designed to overcome the
fluctuation in outside conditions by keeping the air and fuel at
a constant temperature, through heat from the water jacket
or exhaust pipe. All are provided with a wide range of adjust-
ment, and some meet the many different conditions auto-
matically. Most carbureters provide for a constant quality
of mixture — i. e., a fixed proportion of fuel and air. However,
on a throttling governed engine, running at high speed and tak-
ing full charges, the compression is considerably increased

82 POWER AND THE PLOW

To prevent preignition, and at the same time make the fuel
do the increased work of which it is capable at the higher
compression, the tendency is now to adopt a form of car-
bureter which will automatically vary the quality as well as
the quantity of the mixture under different loads. This type
of carbureter, intimately connected with a positively driven
governor, has given excellent regulation, approached only by
first-class steam engines in large stationary plants. The nu-
merous adjustments are being dispensed with and the simple
expedient of controlling the vacuum in the carbureter has been
adopted. This is accomplished by varying the relative pro-
portions of the passages from the atmosphere to the carbureter,
thence to the cylinder. Substantial sliding plates directly
connected with the governor displace many of the delicate
parts which formerly handicapped the tractor in rough work.
The uniform conditions in the cylinder, which are thus ob-
tained, allow the use of gasoline, kerosene, or even heavier
oils under a wide range of conditions.

It has been stated by eminent authority that some heating
apparatus is necessary in order to vaporize kerosene success-
fully. However, at the present time, thousands of tractors are
working in the field on gasoline, kerosene, or distillate without
changing the carbureter and without requiring heat for the
action of the latter. Both "hit-and-miss" and throttling
governors are employed on kerosene engines, in spite of other
high authority to the effect that a change must be taken at
every cycle to prevent cooling and loss of efficiency.

FUEL SUPPLY

In some tractors the fuel is delivered to the carbureter by
gravity, the carbureter being required to control the supply
to the cylinder against the pressure of the liquid in the tank.
This method does away with fuel pumps and additional piping,
but is not positive in its action, as the pressure varies with the

TYPES OF GASOLINE TRACTOR

Single-cylinder tractor Tractor with opposed cylinder

Motor plow High speed

Twin cylinder tractor with'open

Tractor with self-steering device

tractor
radiator

with closed

radiator
Farm truck

Auto-pulverizer

THE INTERNAL -COMBUSTION TRACTOR 83

height of the oil in the tank. Plunger, centrifugal, and ro-
tary gear pumps are used successfully to deliver fuel. Owing
to the rapid deterioration of leather when exposed to gasoline,
the pumps are usually without leather valves.

IGNITION

Having secured a proper proportion of fuel and air in the
cylinder, the next problem is to ignite it at such a point during
the compression stroke as to allow the charge to be fully ignited
as soon as the piston starts upon its third, or working, stroke.
This point, in a high-speed engine, or one using a slow-burning
mixture, may be as much as one eighth of a revolution of the
flywheel before the end of the compression stroke; or, as more
often stated, 45 degrees before dead centre. Kerosene
engines and those using a "lean" mixture (one with a low
proportion of gasoline to air) are ignited early.

Of the many types of ignition only two, both electric, are
used to any extent on tractors. These are the jump spark
and the make-and-break systems. In the former a high tension
current is employed. A spark coil and con-
denser are used to increase the tension and a
vibrator rapidly opens and closes the circuit,
causing the electric current to leap across the
gap between the ignited points, thus forming a
spark which explodes the mixture. This system
is free from the difficulty of using delicate mov-
ing parts on an engine which is exposed to very
severe conditions. On the other hand it involves
more complicated wiring and greater danger of
short circuit, besides being less easily compre-
hended by the average farmer.

The make-and-break system commonly uses - ^
a low tension current which passes through a pair of
electrodes fitted to a plug inserted in the cylinder. One

84 POWER AND THE PLOW

of these is fixed and the other movable. At the proper
point in the cycle the points of these electrodes are sepa-
rated by a violent blow and the current leaps across in an
arc hot enough to fire the charge.

The current is commonly produced by either a wet or dry
battery, a magneto, or a small dynamo, which is sometimes
termed an auto-sparker. On small stationary engines batteries
are often used alone, but as these deteriorate rapidly, they are
used on larger engines simply for starting, current afterward
being supplied by mechanical means. The dynamo is less
frequently used than the magneto. Both are usually gear-
driven, as it is of the utmost importance that they be kept
in exact time with the events in the cycle.

CYLINDER

In single-cylinder engines it is customary to place the cylinder
horizontal. Double-cylinder engines have cylinders arranged
in pairs and set either vertically or horizontally. Some are
set on a slight incline from the horizontal. In what is known
as the opposed type, the cylinders are placed horizontally on
opposite sides of the crankshaft. All of the three cylinder
tractors now on the market empty the cylinders vertically. In
some cases they are set lengthwise and in other cases crosswise
of the frame. The following arrangements are found in four-
cylinder engines :

(1) Cylinders vertical with crankshaft lengthwise of the
frame.

(2) Cylinders vertical and set crosswise.

(3) Cylinders horizontal with crankshaft crosswise to the
frame.

(4) Cylinders horizontal with one pair opposed to the other,
the crankshaft being crosswise to the frame. The first class is
by far the more numerous.

The cylinder is commonly made of cast iron and provided

THE INTERNAL -COMBUSTION TRACTOR 85

with a water jacket through which a liquid cooling medium
circulates. The cylinder may be provided with a removable
head or the head and cylinder may be cast in one piece. The
removable head permits easy inspection of the interior of the
cylinder, while the cast-on head obviates difficulty from im-
perfect joints between the cylinder and the head. Owing to
the inaccessibility of the one-piece cylinder and the higher
manufacturing cost, the great majority of tractor cylinders
are provided with the removable heads. One tractor has a
separate liner for the cylinder so that in case it becomes badly
worn or warped it may be removed without substituting an
entire new cylinder. Cylinders are usually cast separately
and bolted to the base or crankcase, though in four-cylinder
engines they are frequently cast in pairs.

VALVES

The valves of gas tractors are of the poppet, or mushroom,
type. They may be set in the cylinder head, in the cylinder
walls, or in a vertical engine, in a chamber projecting to one
side of the cylinder. They are set to act vertically, wherever
other features of design will permit, in order to avoid unequal
wear on the valve stem guide, followed by imperfect seating
of the valve. By having the valves in the cylinder head they
may be removed with the head for examination. Where the
valves are placed opposite each other on the sides of the cylin-
der they are usually provided with removable seats or cages,
so that a valve may be examined without taking off the cylin-
der head. The valve cage contains a seat for the valve and a
guide for the valve stem, which, especially in case of the
exhaust valve, is usually surrounded by a water jacket.
The intense heat of the exhaust is otherwise apt to cause the
valve stem to warp and stick in its guide. The inlet valve is
also frequently jacketed to prevent too early expansion of the
incoming charge and consequent decrease in the heating value

86 POWER AND THE PLOW

of a cylinder full of gas. The inlet valve is frequently auto-
matic — i. e., opened by the suction of the piston — but in the
majority of higher priced tractors both inlet and exhaust valves
are mechanically operated. The controlling mechanism usually
consists of a rocker arm and push rod, driven by an eccentric
or cam. The camshaft is driven by gears from the crankshaft,
but at a lower speed than the latter. In case of valves set in
an offset chamber, the rocker arms are dispensed with and the
push rods act directly upon the valves.

Some engines are provided with an auxiliary or relief exhaust.
This consists simply of a port, which, at the will of the operator,
is uncovered at the end of the outward stroke of the piston,
thus allowing part of the products of combustion to pass out
immediately into the exhaust pipes. The hottest gases are
thus removed from the vicinity of the exhaust valve, and
danger of corroding and sticking the valve stem is thus les-
sened. The use of this feature is advisable at heavy, con-
tinuous loads, and in very hot weather.

PISTON

The piston is of the trunk type commonly used on single-
acting engines. The explosion acts on one end of the piston,
the other being open to receive the connecting rod. The
piston is of cast iron turned to size. In order to allow free
movement it is made slightly smaller than the bore of the
cylinder, usually one thousandth of an inch less for each inch
in diameter of the latter. In order to retain the compression
the piston is encircled by expanding rings set in grooves
machined out of the piston. There are usually three or four
rings at the head of the piston and sometimes one ring near
the open end. This latter ring is sometimes used for the
purpose of distributing the lubricating oil and sometimes its
main purpose is to assist in preventing the loss of compression.
In other cases it is to prevent the wearing of the cylinder wall

THE INTERNAL -COMBUSTION TRACTOR 87

to form a shoulder at the end of the piston stroke. In the latter
case both this ring and the one at the other end of the piston
are allowed to travel half their width beyond a counterbore,
or enlargement of the cylinder diameter. In the absence of
some such provision the end of the piston wears the cylinder
until a shoulder is formed, and if at any time the length of the
connecting rod is even slightly increased, knocking in the cyl-
inder will result. Where splash lubrication is used, this ring
wipes the excess oil back into the crankcase. The cylinder
rings are of cast iron and machined to size. After being
ground to a size larger than the cylinder, a segment is cut out.
The ring is then compressed into place so that its tension causes
it to fit snugly against the cylinder wall.

CONNECTING ROD

About midway of the piston there are interior enlargements
or bosses for supporting the wristpin, to which the connecting
rod is attached. The wristpin itself is usually hollow and
provided with holes for lubricating its bearing with the oil col-
lected from the cylinder wall. The connecting rod, which
transmits the power from the piston to the crankshaft, is usually
of I-section, drop-forged steel, as on the best locomotive and
marine steam engines. There are numerous devices for at-
taching the connecting rod to the crankpin, it being frequently
necessary to withdraw the piston and connecting rod to examine
the former. The same devices serve to provide adjustment
for wear. The most common and probably the most satis-
factory method is a removable cap attached to the connect-
ing rod by bolts on either side of the crankpin. Both ends of
the connecting rod are commonly lined with an anti-friction
material, most of which goes under the name of Babbitt-metal.

CRANKSHAFT

The crankshaft must be proportioned to meet the strain
which is placed upon it, and must be well supported by wide

88

POWER AND THE PLOW

Twin Cylinder
\3ubte-throw crank sfiaff

Rtartylinder

Types of crankshaft

THE INTERNAL -COMBUSTION TRACTOR 89

bearings. The variation in number and arrangement of
cylinders requires material differences in the crankshaft. The
arrangement of the crankpins with respect to one another
has an important influence upon the sequence of the strokes
of the engine, as shown by the accompanying diagrams. It
will be noted that the power strokes of the four-cylinder
engine are the most evenly balanced, and those of the three-
cylinder next. In the two-cylinder engines the explosion
balance may be obtained by the opposed type, or else the twin-
cylinder type in which the pistons move together, both crank-
pins being on one side of the crankshaft. The opposed engine
with pistons working opposite each other gives also a rotative
balance, which in the twin-cylinder engine can be had only by
adding counter weights to the crankshaft or flywheel. In
the twin-cylinder engines which have the cranks on opposite
sides of the centre of the shaft, the pistons travel opposite
each other, thus obtaining rotative balance at the expense of
explosion balance. In the single-cylinder engine there can be
no explosion balance, and rotative balance is secured by counter
weights, which should be as close to the centre of the crank
shaft as possible in order to balance properly at all speeds.
The four-cylinder engine, which gives the most continuous
succession of power strokes, is, of course, much more compli-
cated than one with fewer cylinders. In the opposed engine
the necessity of operating the valves at such a distance from
each other is one disadvantage, and the distance of the intake
valves from the carbureter is another, which makes for higher
fuel consumption. The opposed engine is used on only a
few tractors.

FLYWHEEL

The flywheel of the gas engine is for the purpose of storing
up part of the power developed by one stroke of the piston in
order to insure the other three events of the cycle. In many
tractors a single flywheel is used, the belt pulley being mounted

90 POWER AND THE PLOW

upon the opposite end of the shaft. In a few cases the two
flywheels are used, the pulley being attached to one of these.
The permissible rim speed of a cast-iron flywheel is between
5000 and 6000 feet per minute, hence small flywheels are the
practice on high speed engines. With the power strokes
coming closer together as in a four-cylinder, high speed engine,
a large flywheel is not so essential. The weight of the flywheel
should be as near as possible in order to give the greatest
possible momentum. As the flywheel is heavy, sometimes
weighing 1300 pounds, it is necessary that it be put on the
shaft in such a way as to remain there indefinitely, and yet
be easily removable. For this reason, and for ease in casting,
it is now customary to split the hub of the flywheel. It is
locked by means of a key seated in both the shaft and hub,
after which it is tightened on by two bolts through the hub
on either side of the shaft.

CRANKCASE

In stationary engines it is customary to provide a heavy
base, either cast or bolted to the crankcase. In tractors this
base is discarded, and the frame takes its place. The crank-
case, however, is retained to provide a foundation for the
crankshaft, camshaft, and cylinders. The protection of the
moving parts inside the crankcase requires not only the ex-
clusion of dust but that some form of lubrication be provided.
The splash lubrication commonly used necessitates a tight
crankcase, which in turn is frequently difficult of access. To
combine the two extremes of accessibility and protection is
a difficult problem for the designer, yet in some cases it is
possible to expose the entire internal mechanism of the tractor
by the removal of a tight-fitting cover.

LUBRICATION

For the lubrication of the gas engine any one or all of three
systems may be used — namely, gravity, force-feed, or splash.

THE INTERNAL -COMBUSTION TRACTOR 91

In the gravity system small sight-feed oil cups are placed at
convenient points, and the amount of oil delivered is governed
by the size of the opening from the cups. On a small horizontal
engine this method is quite satisfactory, more so than on up-
right engines unless oil cups are placed on either side of the
vertical cylinder. Owing to the severe conditions which the
tractor must meet, a more positive system is necessitated.
The force-feed system consists of a mechanically operated
lubricator with a number of separate pumps capable of deliver-
ing oil against considerable pressure. This is commonly used
to supply oil to the cylinder and to the camshaft and crank-
shaft bearings. The drip from these sources is usually col-
lected in the crankcase where a considerable quantity is allowed
to accumulate. At a certain level this oil will be dipped by
the rapidly revolving crankshaft, and a spray will be sent into
the cylinder and every part of the crankcase. This is called
the splash system, and on some engines it is depended en-
tirely upon for lubricating the cylinder. However, the heat
will evaporate some of the lighter parts of the oil and in the
course of time it becomes heavy and dirty. The splash, there-
fore, is used most successfully in connection with a force-feed
lubricator, which is constantly bringing fresh oil, while an over-
flow drains off a certain quantity from the crankcase to the
gears below.

The lubrication of bearings on gas tractors presents no new
problems, but the lubrication of the cylinder is vastly different
from that of the steam cylinder. In the latter the effort is
made to procure an oil which will emulsify and cling as a thin
film to the cylinder wall, resisting the high temperature for
a considerable length of time. In the gas engine the oil must
do its work in the face of so high a temperature as to make it
impossible for the oil not to be broken up. As a result, part of
any oil will be burned, and the best gas engine oil is one that,
after performing its duty, will mix with the charge and be
burned completely.

92 POWER AND THE PLOW

In both the steam and the gas engine cylinder, there is dan-
ger of feeding too much oil and creating a heavy deposit. This
will act as a collector of the scale-forming material which comes
over in the priming of the steam boiler, and the grit which
comes through the air intake pipe on the gas engine. The
paste thus formed is ideally adapted to cutting and scoring
the cylinder, just as emery paste will remain longer between
two metal surfaces than dry emery powder. As one of the
leading lubrication experts, Mr. F. M. Williamson, put it:
"You see the danger of assuming that if a little oil is good,
more is better." A number of special gas engine oils of
excellent quality are put out by the oil companies, and in
justice to the tractor a good brand should be used, and used
judiciously.

COOLING SYSTEMS

The exhaust will carry from 35 to 40 per cent, of the total
heat generated in the gas engine. Since only from four to
five per cent, will be consumed in friction of the piston and
bearings, and, as a rule, not more than 20 to 25 per cent, will
be delivered as useful work, it follows that the cooling system
must remove at least one third of the heat. The cylinder is
cooled in order to make it possible for the operator to work in
comfort; to prevent damage to the cylinder and valves, since
cast iron melts at a lower temperature than is frequently
realized at the moment of explosion; to prevent burning the
lubricating oil before it completes its work; to avoid igniting
the incoming charge by the heat of the cylinder walls; and in
order to allow a higher compression pressure, which in turn
gives a greater amount of power for a given size of cylinder
and a given quantity of fuel.

A number of systems which are feasible in stationary work
are unsuitable for tractors. In the case of the self-contained
portable motor, the quantity of cooling medium which can be
transported is necessarily limited and the unusually rough,

THE INTERNAL -COMBUSTION TRACTOR 93

dirty nature of the work prohibits the use of open water tanks.
Owing to the size of the motors employed, the air-cooled traction
engine is practically out of the question, and the cooling
medium is usually either water or oil. The water should be
as pure as possible, owing to the fact that mineral salts in
solution may be precipitated by heat at temperatures even
below the boiling point. The scale thus formed tends to im-
pede the circulation, and if deposited on the cylinder wall of
the water jacket will decrease its conducting capacity and
tend to produce overheating in the cylinder. The oil used
for cooling is of rather heavy mixture with a high fire test. Its
boiling point is considerably higher than that of water, hence
it does not evaporate and require frequent replacement. It is
not so rapid a conductor of heat, yet on the other hand it has
the advantage of not freezing or depositing scale. One man-
ufacturer recommends a mixture of kerosene and water to
prevent corrosion and scale. Others suggest the use in severe
weather of some anti-freezing compound, such as a solution
of calcium chloride (specific gravity 1.2) or of equal parts of
glycerine and water, or a mixture of alcohol and water.

In engines of ordinary design the cooling medium should
not be heated above the boiling point, nor cooled so low as
to absorb heat from the gases before they have had time to
act. In practice the temperature ranges from 160 to 180
degrees F., varying considerably with the movement of the
tractor with or against the wind.

The medium is commonly circulated by either a centrifugal
or a plunger pump, though, in rare instances, it circulates en-
tirely by the difference in specific gravity between the liquid
in the tank and the hotter liquid in the cylinder jacket. One
simple, popular and effective system of removing surplus heat
from the water, which is used in this case, is that of an open
evaporating radiator. The water is sprayed over a screen,
along which it passes back to the tank, the partial evaporation
absorbing enough heat to cool the remainder rapidly. One

94 POWER AND THE PLOW

great objection to this system is the large quantity of water
used and the necessity for frequent re-filling of the tank.
Another arises from the fact that in alkali districts the rapid
evaporation leaves behind a solution of increasing density
from which scale-forming material will be deposited. Unless
the screen is protected, dust from the atmosphere will add
further difficulties. In some enclosed coolers the spray of
water, or oil, is met by a current of air, generated by a fan.
The liquid being finely divided, a large area is exposed to the
air, hence cooling occurs quickly.

In the closed type of radiator the air is separated from the
liquid medium by metal walls. On some small tractors are
found tubular or honeycomb radiators in connection with
fans, similar to the system used on most automobiles. Or-
dinarily, however, the radiating sections are not so delicate,
and a larger quantity of liquid is necessary in order to expose
sufficient area to the draft. In several cases the fan is dis-
pensed with, and the process simplified. The cooling of the
exhaust produces a partial vacuum and thus induces a strong
draft upward, which cools the liquid satisfactorily. In one
case the cooling arrangement is simply a huge tank, the water
being circulated by a pump, and the cooling being effected by
the evaporation of the water from the surface.

A very effective method of cooling which may be used in
connection with some of the foregoing is that of using water
vapor with the mixture of the fuel and air to cool the cylinder.
In one tractor the steam which is formed in the radiator is
piped to the carbureter and inhaled with the fuel. In other
cases water is taken with the fuel through the carbureter and
vaporized in the cylinder. The amount of water is, of course,
slight, increasing automatically with the increase of heat
generated at the higher loads, or being cut out entirely at the
will of the operator. The latent heat of water is so high that
the evaporation of a very small quantity will prevent preignition
and the steam will have in addition a cleansing effect upon

THE INTERNAL -COMBUSTION TRACTOR 95

the cylinder. By this method the water cools the hottest
projecting points first, the exact reverse being true when
cooling is done from the outside. This means is particularly
advantageous with engines using the heavier fuels, as it allows
the use of higher compression, and thus materially increases
the power of the oil engine. It also produces a smoother
and quieter running engine, by retarding the spread of the
flame cap throughout the mixture. Instead of a sharp initial
blow, followed by a rapid decline in pressure as the gases ex-
pand and the cooling medium takes effect, the explosion pressure
is not only less violent but the piston receives a sustained
push after the manner of a steam engine. The water is usually
injected only at half load or above.

FRAME

No part of the traction mechanism or foundation can be
neglected without impairing the efficiency of the tractor. The
frame must be strong enough and large enough to support
the weight of the engine, radiator, and operator's platform,
and rigid enough to furnish a stable bed for the engine. The
work is necessarily rough, and if in addition there is constant
vibration of the tractor frame, a smooth-running, durable
motor cannot be expected. For this reason the frames are
usually of heavy, continuous, steel I-beams or channels, ex-
tending from front to rear. These are usually tied together
crosswise with other members of ample dimension. Since
the frame, if heavy enough, will never need replacing, many
builders are riveting it throughout into one solid block.
The frame should support the brackets for the impor-
tant shafts, including the rear axle. In order to provide
for all this without excessive weight in castings a sub-
frame, also of steel, is added often to the main frame. In
some cases the two are combined in one trussed frame of
bridge construction.

96 POWER AND THE PLOW

TRANSMISSION

In transmitting power from the crankshaft to the drive-
wheel, we find almost our widest variation among tractors,
and the comparative efficiency of the various types of trans-
mission has never been even partially determined by accurate
competitive tests. This is unfortunate, for tractive efficiency
is one of the prime essentials of a plowing tractor. It is by
no means the only essential, for great tractive efficiency can
be obtained by any designer who is willing to sacrifice other
features of equal importance. All other things being equal,
however, it is obvious that the most desirable tractor is one
which will consume the least power in moving its own weight
and overcoming the friction of its transmission. The crank-
shaft makes many more revolutions than could be allowed for
the drive-wheel, consequently the speed of rotation must be
reduced and the power at the same time delivered to the
drive-wheel at some little distance from the engine. The
transmission systems may be divided into friction, chain and
gear drive, and the latter again into systems employing all
spur gear, or part bevel and part spur gear. Combinations of
all systems are found. The size and strength of the various
parts of the transmission must gradually increase as their speed
is reduced, owing to the greater strain upon each link or tooth.

FRICTION CLUTCH

It is evident that there must be a friction device which will
allow the load to be applied gradually. Otherwise, especially
in plowing, the initial effort of starting the load would require
much greater power and strength than ordinary requirements
would justify. The friction clutches which are used represent
practically every type found on automobiles and steam engines.
Probably the most common is the internal expanding clutch,
commonly found on steam tractors. This is equipped with
two or more friction shoes, which when thrown in are locked,

THE INTERNAL - COMBUSTION TRACTOR 97

thus avoiding any tension upon the clutch lever. The external
type, gripping the outside circumference of a wheel, is also
used, as well as planes gripping both sides of a revolving disk.
In place of an internal shoe, an expanding ring is employed
by some, also a cone, which is forced into a similarly shaped
ring. Several disks tightly pressed together, as in the multiple
disk clutch of an automobile, are also employed.

BAND-WHEEL

Without notable exception, all tractors are provided with a
band-wheel, or belt-pulley for transmitting power in stationary
work. This is most often placed upon one end of the crank-
shaft, where it acts as a second flywheel, but in a number of
high-speed engines it is placed upon a countershaft which re-
volves at a lower speed. As in steam engines, the band-wheel
is frequently made part of the transmission system, a single
clutch driving the band-wheel, which may drive either the belt
or traction gearing. Suitable provision is made to throw the
traction parts out of gear when work is to be done by the belt.

GEAR DRIVE

Where the crankshaft lies crosswise of the frame, the power
is usually taken directly to the drive- wheels by a train of spur
gears — i. e., cylinders with parallel teeth cut or cast on the
circumference. Chains or friction wheels may replace part
of these gears. A large gear on the countershaft receives power
from the crankshaft and transmits it through a smaller gear on
the same shaft to the master gear, which drives the traction
wheel. When cylinders are mounted lengthwise of the frame,
it is necessary to change the direction of rotation to one which
will drive the tractor forward. This is accomplished by means
of bevel gears in addition to the ordinary set.

The gears may be either of steel or semi-steel, the latter
being a mixture of steel and cast iron. The crankshaft pinion
and the gear it engages are usually of cast steel with machine-

98 POWER AND THE PLOW

cut teeth. The shafting must be made of the highest quality
of steel and carefully machined to size. If a sliding gear
transmission is used it is the practice of the leading de-
signers to cut from two to four keys out of the solid steel shaft
for the gears to slide upon. This is an extremely expensive
construction, but, since the keys are a part of the shaft itself,
it overcomes stripping or damage to gears from loose keys.
The sliding gear and those which it engages, usually have
the teeth beveled on the side so as to slide into mesh more easily.

CHAIN DRIVE

The chain drive has the advantage of flexibility and may
be combined to good advantage with the spring-mounted frame.
A well-designed chain and sprocket form an efficient trans-
mission, but the number of joints renders it subject to greater
wear than gears, and only a few tractors employ this method.
A pinion and master gear are sometimes used in place of the
final chain for driving the wheel or axle. In one three-cylinder
tractor both bevel and spur gears are used in connection with
a chain drive from countershaft to master sprocket.

FRICTION DRIVE

Few friction-drive constructions have been attempted, and
few of these survive, except on tractors designed for lighter
work than plowing. In one of the most successful, fibre-covered
disks take the power from the inside rims of both flywheels
for the forward speed and from the hub for the reverse. This
construction is simple and easily managed, and it eliminates
the use of a clutch, but it is doubtful if the disks can be made
durable enough for heavy plowing service. The experience
of automobile manufacturers has been that the best friction
material is too short-lived, even for such light work.

REVERSE

Easy manoeuvring requires some provision for reversing the
direction of movement. In the steam engine this is accomplished

THE INTERNAL - COMBUSTION TRACTOR 99

simply by reversing the engine itself. The gas engine,
with very few exceptions, is made to run only in one direction,
hence the reversing must be done by other means. The
reversing mechanism which may be used is limited to some
extent by the arrangement of the cylinder.

On tractors which have the crankshaft crosswise to the frame,
reversing may be accomplished by the use of a sliding gear
and a separate idler shaft carrying two pinions. When the
sliding gear is in mesh with the differential gear the tractor
moves forward. When it engages the larger of the two pinions
on the idler shaft, the other of which constantly engages the
differential, the tractor is reversed. Some tractors are equipped
with two or more forward speeds, and one on the reverse.
One speed-changing system involves a combination of gears
and sliding clutches. This is known as the selective type of
transmission, since any speed or the reverse may be selected
without the use of a separate idler shaft. Many tractors are
provided, however, with two large gears on the countershaft,
three on an idler shaft, and two on the sliding-gear shaft. This
gives two forward speeds and the reverse. Separate trains
of gears on opposite sides of the tractor are used in certain
cases to obtain the forward and reverse motions, clutches being
provided for gripping the two sets independently. In some
small tractors the friction pulley is retained for the reverse
motion. An eccentric shaft brings the pulley into contact with
a similar pulley on the crankshaft, a toothed gear attached
to the driven pulley driving the large gear on the countershaft.

The planetary reverse resembles somewhat a spur gear
differential. A "sun" gear, moving with the crankshaft, is in
mesh with small pinions, and these in turn with an internal
gear which is part of the belt pulley. The pinions are held
on a spider connected to a large disk by a long hub which is
loose on the crankshaft. The reversing process consists in
holding the disk stationary by a pair of clutch-blocks. This
holds the axles of the small pinions stationary, and since the

100 POWER AND THE PLOW

sun gear is in rotation forward, the internal gear is driven back-
ward through these pinions. For the forward motion the
entire system moves as a unit. In this system a single lever
controls the entire mechanism for forward and reverse travel.
The pinion which drives the traction gears fits loosely on the
long hub of the reversing disk, and is attached to the belt
pulley by a key. This key moves radially on the back of the
pulley and enters a slot in a flange cast on the "sun" gear. This
pin is operated by a small lever extending through to the outer
face of the pulley, so that the pulley can be disengaged from
the spur flange pinion at the will of the operator and used for
belt driving.

DIFFERENTIAL

The differential may be mounted on either the counter-
shaft or the real axle. In the former case, which is the rule
on the most powerful tractors, power is applied to either wheel
by means of a master gear, which is braced to the rim. The
spokes then serve only to support the weight of the tractor.
The axle often remains stationary, or "dead," both wheels
turning upon it. In gas tractors the axle is usually continuous,
though short, or stub, axles are occasionally employed. When the
differential is located on the real axle, power is applied through
the axle, hub, and spokes, which adds a twisting strain to the
load upon the latter. The wheels are necessarily independent,
hence a sleeve revolving upon the axle is used to drive the
wheel which is loose on the axle. In many cases the dif-
ferential may be locked, so that if one wheel gets into soft
ground the other may propel the tractor out of the difficulty.

BRAKE

Control of the tractor on sharp inclines and in other emer-
gencies requires the installation of a powerful, quick-acting
brake. Where a band- wheel clutch is used in the transmission,
a simple form of brake is a shoe on the face of the band- wheel.

THE INTERNAL - COMBUSTION TRACTOR 101

This stops the traction gearing when the clutch is thrown off,
the two actions being performed in concert. A band-brake,
operating on a drum on the differential shaft or the rear axle,
is another successful device.

TRACTION WHEELS

The high and fairly narrow wheel, 18 to 30 niches wide and
70 to 96 inches in diameter, and of sufficient strength to en-
dure ordinary service, is apparently the most popular for gas
tractors, judging from recent design. Extension rims of 10
or 12 inches are provided in most cases for use in soft ground.
The wheels are usually of the built-up construction. This
consists of -a steel tire plate to which the cleats are attached;
round or flat steel spokes; and a cast-iron hub into which the
spokes are either riveted, cast or screwed. The spokes are most
often arranged radially, are occasionally on a tangent, and even
rarely are continuous, extending star-fashion, clear across the
wheel on opposite sides of the hub. The spokes may be stag-
gered — i. e., from the outside of the spokes are frequently
upset to "T" shape so that two rivets may pass through the
head of the spoke and the tire. Flat spokes are sometimes
bent to fit the tire and then riveted, this being a weaker con-
struction. In some cases the end of the spoke is flattened out
like a paddle, and this riveted to the vertical flange of an angle
or channel iron which has been put on to reinforce the tire.
The round spokes sometimes extend through the tire from the
outside and are screwed into the hub. This holds the tire to,
instead of away from the hub, making what is known as a
tension spoke in contrast to the compression spoke usually
employed.

The best type of grouter is a very unsettled problem. The
most common form is a V-section made of cast or malleable
iron. These may be attached parallel with the axle, or at an
angle in order to faciliate self-cleaning. Grouters set at an

102 POWER AND THE PLOW

angle are usually placed so that the rear end of one comes
opposite the front of another to make the circumference more
continuous and reduce jolting. Some firms use pressed steel
plates which, when attached, form a continuous succession of
corrugations clear around the wheel. This is claimed to pass
over soft ground without tearing up the surface and still prove
efficient in gripping hard roads and wild sod. One firm has
a peculiar crow's-foot grouter, while several use sharp spikes,
either conical or pyramidal in shape. The English tractors
sold in this country and Canada are not ordinarily provided
with such sharp cleats, using instead flat strips of steel put on
at an angle with narrow spaces between. They prove efficient
on good roads rather than in field work, and separate mud lugs
are provided for emergencies.

STEERING WHEELS

The majority of tractors have two steering wheels in front,
though there is a respectable number of three-wheeled types.
The three-wheeled tractor will turn in a somewhat shorter
radius, but the four-wheeler with the weight carried on a ball
and socket joint has practically a three-point support and is
less affected by minor irregularities in the ground surface.
The front wheels are usually built up, with a raised collar
shrunk on the tire to prevent lateral slippage. A few wheels
are made, however, with steel spokes cast into an iron hub
and rim.

STEERING MECHANISM

The steering mechanism usually operates on the front wheels,
though some attempt has been made to guide through the
drivers, and on one light traction cultivator a single steering
wheel is placed in the rear. In the majority of tractors a chain
is attached near either end of the front axle, after being
wrapped several times around a horizontal shaft, which is
rotated by a worm gear and steering wheel. The entire axle

THE INTERNAL -COMBUSTION TRACTOR 103

is rotated about a pedestal which supports the frame. In
another type the axle remains stationary. The wheels turn
about short axes, being mounted on independent knuckles,
as in an automobile. A single wheel in front is sometimes
directed by means of a spur pinion and a segment of spur gear.
The upright shaft carrying this pinion may be operated from
the platform through a steering wheel and cable, or a line shaft
with a bevel or spiral gear may take the place of the cable.
In one friction-drive tractor a pair of friction disks are con-
nected by a horizontal shaft and bevel pinions to an upright
shaft which in turn acts upon the ordinary chain and drum.
By bringing one or the other disk in contact with the rim of
the adjacent flywheel, the power of the engine can be used for
steering. In another case the steering is done almost auto-
matically hi plowing by a long triangular frame which extends
forward of the front axle, carrying at the end of the frame a
wheel which hugs the wall of the previous furrow. Cables
extending from the hand steering wheel to the wheel on the
triangular frame enable one to steer by hand for turning and
for other kinds of work.

HITCH

The drawbar to which the plows are attached is usually
supported by a strong truss riveted to the tractor frame. On
most plowing tractors a plow beam, made of two pieces of angle
or flat steel, extends across the rear, being punched at intervals
to allow the insertion of a pin and clevis. In some tractors
this crossbar is merely to hold in place a swinging drawbar
which is attached at a point near or in advance of the rear
axle. This places the load nearer the center of the engine,
and makes turning much easier. Frequently the tractor is
equipped with an eyebolt and spring to absorb the jar on
starting. Since a variation in the point of hitch may either
increase or decrease the draft, it has been found advisable on
some tractors to provide some means of adjusting the height

104 POWER AND THE PLOW

of hitch. This is done either by a vertically swinging rod
or a series of holes in an upright beam.

SPECIAL TYPES

For overcoming the disadvantage of the tractor in extremely
soft ground, no device appears to be more successful than the
substitution of a caterpillar tread for the ordinary round
traction wheel. Although the idea is several generations old,
a tractor with this type of transmission has only recently been
put on the market in large numbers. The weight of the tractor
is supported on steel rollers, which run upon the inside of a
continuous belt made of pressed steel plates. The belt is
driven by a sprocket and chain, so that the tractor virtually
lays its own track and picks it up again. A single wheel in
front supports part of the weight of the tractor at rest. Under
working conditions, practically all the weight of the tractor
is borne on the rear, where it is distributed over such an area
as to reduce it to seven or eight pounds per square inch. Steer-
ing is done by driving the caterpillar webs independently of
each other, a slight amount of flexibility in the joints allowing
them to turn sidewise. The power is transmitted by a line
shaft connected to the crankshaft by a multiple disk clutch.
The connection is semi-flexible so that the bevel pinion on the
end of the shaft may be shifted to engage a smaller driving
gear for a change of speed. Two bevel driving gears are con-
nected to the countershaft by independent friction clutches
in order to accomplish the forward and reverse motions.
This tractor will work in many sections where the round- wheeled
tractor is impracticable, but the natural wear on the many
joints and the difficulty in turning the outfit are disadvantages
which accompany high tractive efficiency. Power in this
tractor is supplied by a high-speed four-cylinder four-cycle
verticle engine set lengthwise of the frame.

A light tractor on the order of a motor truck, but adapted

THE INTERNAL - COMBUSTION TRACTOR 105

especially to farm work, has been well received by many farmers
having a greater variety of work than those in the grain belt.
The tractor is equipped with a pulley for driving stationary
machinery, and a drawbar for pulling plows. It has also a
hauling body which will carry a load of three or four tons.
The weight of the tractor is quite evenly distributed over the
four wheels, hence for plowing it is more efficient when carrying
some load over the drivers. The tractor is spring-mounted
and adapted to speeds of from two to fifteen miles per hour.
Wooden plugs, set in round sockets on the circumference of
the wheels, take the place of rubber tires in adapting the tractor
to hard roads. An extension rim is provided with mud lugs
which automatically grip the soil when the wheels sink to a
certain depth, and by a hand lever on each driver a series of
sharp spikes may be thrust out beyond the periphery of the
wheel and locked in position.

The field of cultivating intertilled crops, which has long been
regarded as the exclusive province of the farm horse, has been
invaded by a tractor designed essentially for cultivating. This
is a light outfit with large drivers carrying the weight of the
engine and frame, and a small steering wheel in the rear. The
cultivator is built in sizes for taking care of one and two rows
respectively, but has been sold as yet in a very limited way.

Gas tractors have been adapted to nearly as many different
purposes as steam tractors. One type is built low for orchard
cultivation. Others may be converted into road rollers.
Mention has been made in a previous chapter of the long list
of gas-propelled farm machines, out of which may come some
universal type. Perhaps the latest adaptation is the use of a
six-cylinder tractor for pulling a combined harvester. A
belt extends from the flywheel of the engine to an electric
generator mounted on the harvester, to furnish power for driv-
ing the cutting, threshing, cleaning, and elevating mechan-
isms of which the harvester is composed.

XI

EFFICIENCY OF GAS TRACTORS

GAS tractors range in size from 12 to 110 b.h.p., and
from two and one half to fifteen tons in weight. The
brake horsepower ratings are usually placed closer
to the maximum load than for steam engines. This
is logical, since the engines should be rated at the load which
they will carry safely and economically. It is customary to
provide 10 to 20 per cent, of power over the rating in order to
protect the machine from overloading and the customer
from disappointment. The gas tractors are fairly well divided
by manufacturers into three classes. The first consists of
tractors of from 18 to 30 b.h.p., capable of handling three or
four plows in ordinary sod-breaking. The second is provided
with from 40 to 50 b.h.p., handling from five to seven plows in
heavy work. The largest class ranges from 60 to 75 b.h.p.,
with the ability to pull from eight to ten plows under the same
conditions. A few have been made even larger than these,
but are not as yet sold so extensively as either the smaller
gas tractors or steam engines of large size. They will pull
ten or twelve breaking plows, comparing in power with
steam engines of 30 to 32 h. p., nominal rating. Recently
there have also been put on the market a number of small
outfits weighing from two to four tons, and having as low as
12 b.h.p.

The indicated horsepower of gas tractors is seldom given
among the manufacturer's specifications. The brake horse-
power at full load is usually from 75 to 85 per cent, of the

106

EFFICIENCY OF GAS TRACTORS 107

indicated horsepower, though often lower. In the Winnipeg
motor contests few gas tractors have equalled their rated power
in brake tests. In 1910 the class as a whole averaged 86.5
per cent, of the brake rating on a maximum test, and 80.9
per cent, on an economy test. The actual drawbar or tractive
power of tractors cannot so easily be compared on account of
lack of uniformity in rating. The sales rating is sometimes
based on brake and sometimes on tractive horsepower,
while in many cases it bears little relation to either. As a
general rule the tractive ratings are about one half the brake
rating.

The tractive efficiency of the average round- wheel gas tractor
on good footing ranges from 50 to 60 per cent., dropping some-
times to as low as 30 per cent, and occasionally reaching 70
per cent. In the trials at Winnipeg in 1909 seven single-cylinder
gasoline tractors, using comparatively low, wide wheels, weighed
299 pounds per inch in width of driver and 535 pounds per
brake-horsepower developed in an economy test. In plowing,
they delivered 61.4 per cent, of the brake-horsepower at the
drawbar and in hauling, 50.8 per cent, assuming, of course,
that a comparison of separate brake and traction tests is reliable.
Basing the tractive efficiency on the fuel consumed per unit
of work in the various tests, it fell to 44.1 per cent, in plowing
and 35.5 per cent, in hauling. Ordinarily, of course, the trac-
tive efficiency in hauling would be the greater, as road surfaces
would be more solid than that of plowing fields. The hauling
course for the tests afforded poor footing, as has been stated
already.

In the same tests, several multiple-cylinder gas tractors,
equipped with high, rather narrow wheels, weighed 407 pounds
gross per inch in width of driver, and 416 pounds per economy
brake-horsepower. They were less affected by the adverse
conditions in the hauling tests, both horsepower and fuel
consumption indicating a tractive efficiency of a trifle over
50 per cent. The actual figures were 53.1 per cent, in

108 POWER AND THE PLOW

plowing and 4*9.9 per cent, in hauling, when based on a
comparison of horsepower developed; and 53.8 per cent,
and 53.3 per cent., respectively, when based on a comparison
of fuel consumption. With high wheels, tractors are able to
negotiate extreme ground conditions with less loss in efficiency
than the low-wheel types, especially if accompanied by light
weight.

In the motor contest of 1910, with an average of 70 per cent,
of the total weight resting upon the drivers, seven gas tractors
exerted in plowing an average drawbar pull of 25 per cent,
of their total weight or 35 per cent, of the weight on the drivers.
In 1909 the gas tractors at Winnipeg averaged about 17 per
cent, of their total weight in drawbar pull in two-hour hauling
tests over a very uneven course, and about 24 per cent, in
plowing firm level sod ground. As a mean of the two traction
tests they developed one drawbar-horsepower for 922 pounds
of total weight, or much more than could be reasonably expected
of horses.

In private tests made on a good stone road, one large gas
tractor, drawn at its own rated speed of travel, required one
sixth its rated brake-horsepower to move it. At the rate
of two and one half miles an hour on an earth road, approx-
imately 25 per cent, of its maximum brake-horsepower was
consumed in moving. This shows clearly the loss due to mov-
ing the weight of the tractor with merely its traction gearing
in mesh and motor plant idle. Data on the loss in tractive
efficiency due to grades, will be found elsewhere in this
book.

The gas tractor has small overload capacity, if it is run ordi-
narily at its most economical load. In the last motor contest,
eight tractors out of eleven were able to show less than 7 per
cent, increase in power between the economy and maximum
brake test. The engines were not necessarily run at the most
economical or the maximum points in either case, and in fact,
two showed a decrease in fuel consumption on developing a

EFFICIENCY OF GAS TRACTORS

109

greater horsepower in the maximum test. Even with a slight
increase in load, the majority of tractors consumed from 13
to 35 per cent, more fuel per unit of work. The present types
of tractor are considerably less flexible than the steam engine,
and infinitely less so than the horse.

From the various motor contests, we obtain the following
table, which shows the amount of fuel consumed by gasoline
engines in various classes of work. The fuel consumption in
the brake tests increases with the number of cylinders, as is
to be expected.

GASOLINE CONSUMED PER DELIVERED HORSEPOWER PER HOUR

1 CYLINDER

2 CYLINDERS

3 & 4 CYLINDERS

Test

No.

.Tests

Lb.
Fuel

No.

Tests

Lb.
Fuel

No.
Tests

Lb.

Fuel

Brake

11
6
5

0.567
1.273
1.536

4
4

1

0.836
2.076
3.97

12
9
6

0.965
1.778
1.88

Plowing

Hauling

The gasoline used was of 70 specific, 64 Baume gravity.
The average consumption for 27 brake tests was 0.747 pounds,
or a trifle over a pint per horsepower hour. Nineteen brake
tests averaged 1.67 Ibs. and 12 hauling tests 1.91 Ibs. per
drawbar-horsepower hour. These averages are not strictly
comparable with each other, owing to the fact that some
tractors did not complete all of the tests and the data represent
results in two succeeding years. No kerosene tractor has as
yet achieved the thermal efficiency of the best gasoline tractors,
but in all but the most remote districts the wide and growing
disparity in fuel costs gives the former a marked commerical
advantage.

Gas tractors have a wide range in speed, but for plowing
few travel over 1.75 to 2.25 miles per hour, and the majority

110 POWER AND THE PLOW

have plowing speeds of about 2 miles per hour. Owing to the
fact that the majority carry fuel and water for a continuous
run of ten or twelve hours, they are able to deliver from 85
to 90 per cent, of their rated plowing speed in net furrow
travel. For hilly country, tractors are geared for speeds of
from 1 to 3 miles per hour. For Western conditions, even the
high speeds are seldom above the latter figure.

The cost of operating a tractor hinges on so many varying
factors that dependable averages are scarcely to be had. Two
men will handle almost any gas tractor and its load of plows.
These two men and their board will cost from $6.00 to $7.00
per day of actual work. A well designed and well built
tractor should give 1000 days of service, working 10 hours
per day. Interest rates range from 6 to 8 per cent, in the North-
west. Repairs should not exceed 10 cents per acre at the out-
side, and a reasonable figure is 2 per cent, annually of the first
cost. Gasoline costs from 10 to 25 cents per United States gallon
in different localities, and from 15 to 30 cents per imperial
gallon in Canada. Kerosene costs from 3 to 18 cents in United
States and from 11 to 25 cents in Canada. Distillate can be
had at from 1 to 4 cents below the cost of kerosene in various
localities. The consumption of kerosene or distillate, taking
the leading kerosene and gasoline engines as a whole, will prob-
ably be slightly in excess of the consumption of gasoline,
both in volume and weight, but the fuel costs per acre will
be much less, ranging from 10 to 100 per cent, or even more
in districts close to refineries. Lubricating oil will cost from
50 cents to $1.00 per day in plowing, depending upon the size
of the tractor and severity of the work.

The following estimates of the comparative cost of production
of wheat on old ground in eastern North Dakota are comparable
for that section. However, the character of the soil, the dis-
tance over which supplies and products must be hauled,
the type of machine and the personality of the operator are
all influential factors.

EFFICIENCY OF GAS TRACTORS 111

COST OP WHEAT PRODUCTION PER ACRE

WITH HORSES WITH TRACTORS

Land rental, $2.00 $2.00

Plowing, 1.35 .76

Seed, 1.13 1.18

Pulverizing and seeding, .63 .17

Twine and cutting, .75 .39

Shocking, .22 .22

Threshing, .65 .65

Machinery costs, .62 .67

Hauling, 1.00 .26

Incidentals, .30 .30

?$8.65 $6.55

In the above summary of costs the overhead charges on the
prime mover are included in the various costs of operation.
Machinery costs for the tractor are a trifle higher, because
of the added investment in suitable plows.

The manager of a noted Dakota bonanza farm puts his cost
of raising wheat with horses at $8.45, a figure which is lower
than the average recently reported for that section by the
United States Crop Reporter. A traction farmer only recently
produced a 2000-acre crop of flax in the same section for
$6.56 per acre, allowing for all overhead charges on engine,
machinery and land. Roughly speaking, the gas tractor cuts
10 cents per bushel from the cost of producing an acre of
twenty-bushel wheat.

XII
FUEL FOR GAS TRACTORS

THE internal-combustion, or gas, tractor is of the
greatest importance in the future development of
power plowing. We need, therefore, to give con-
siderable attention to the question of fuel for this
type of motor, since the ultimate success of mechanical power on
the farm will depend upon the certainty of an adequate supply
of suitable fuel. It is obvious that certain fuels, which are
so well adapted to stationary practice, that in some localities
they predetermine the type of gas engine, may be utterly im-
practicable for use in the gas tractor. We shall discuss in
detail, then, only those which may be used economically in
plowing.

By their very nature and source, natural, blast furnace, and
city coal and water gases are not suitable for use in portable
motors. However, Ocock suggests that the farm tractor's
fuel will ultimately come from gas, which will be made directly
from waste materials and compressed in tanks. This would
allow the temperate zones to use the power of tropical vege-
tation, saving the loss of energy encountered in converting
raw vegetable materials into alcohol, and alcohol again into
gas, but would entail the danger and expense of handling
high-pressure tanks. Suction gas producers, making gas
directly by drawing steam and air over an incandescent bed
of anthracite coal, have been mounted on wheels with great
economy of fuel as a result, but have proved too large and heavy
to be considered seriously for traction work. Benzol, a volatile

III

FUEL FOR GAS TRACTORS 113

distillate of coal used extensively in Europe, has not yet been
produced in America on a large scale. Up to the present
time engines capable of burning heavy crude petroleums suc-
cessfully have also been too heavy to mount in tractors. Our
discussion then will be limited to alcohol and the petroleum
distillates, since these are at present the most promising from
all standpoints.

Alcohol is the fuel of the distant future. While tests have
shown that this fuel has many advantages over gasoline, such
as safety, freedom from carbonization, less offensive exhaust,
ease in mixing, and greater power from the same size of engine,
the cost at the present time puts it out of the question for gen-
eral use. Alcohol costs from three to five times as much as
gasoline. Ordinarily it contains only from 10,200 to 12,900
B.t.u. per pound, according to its purity, as compared with
about 20,000 for gasoline or kerosene. According to prolonged
scientific tests of an engine designed for gasoline, reported in
Farmers' Bulletin 277, it required 1.8 times as much alcohol
as gasoline for the same amount of power, with the engine at
its best adjustment, while it was found possible by poor adjust-
ment to double the consumption of alcohol. Engines designed
for using alcohol, however, have shown a much higher thermal
efficiency running on alcohol than the best gasoline engines
running on gasoline. Since the burning of alcohol produces
no smoke to reveal an improper mixture, the ordinary operator
is very apt to use fuel wastefully. However, much attention is
being given to the production of alcohol from cheaper materials
by cheaper processes, and it is logical to expect that denatured
alcohol will eventually be sold as cheaply as gasoline. This
is especially true, since the price of gasoline is steadily advancing
and much of the present high price of alcohol is due to the
federal regulations imposed upon its manufacture. We may
also expect even a greater degree of improvement in efficiency
in alochol engines than in gasoline engines, which are already
in a high state of perfection.

114 POWER AND THE PLOW

Alcohol is derived from vegetable products by distilling a
fermented mixture, a large per cent, of the heat value of the
original material being lost in the process. Practically all
vegetable products contain sufficient cellulose, starches and
sugars to yield a considerable amount of alcohol. However,
the cost of most raw material is so great as to make its use out
of the question. Either it is too valuable for other purposes
or the cost of bringing it to the still is prohibitive.

The sun is hottest at the equator, and since plants can store
up only about one fifteen-hundredth part of the heat which
streams down upon a given area, we may expect some day to
derive the greater part of our alcohol from tropical plants.
Aside from this source the need seems most likely to be met by
the fermentation and distillation of wood waste, sugar-beet
molasses, or potatoes and on the crops bred especially for the
purpose. A bushel of such potatoes will produce from two
thirds to one and one half gallons of 90 per cent, alcohol. The
average production of ordinary table potatoes, even for the
state of Maine, is about 275 bushels to the acre, while an acre
of German alcohol potatoes often yields as high as 400 or 500
bushels. From two to three gallons of alcohol, used in the
engine of the future, will suffice to plow an acre, hence one acre
may furnish power enough to plow 200.

To put it another way, the sun stores up power enough in
an acre of plants, in a single season, to plow, sow, and harvest
that acre for a century, since, for most crops, plowing takes
more power than all other operations put together. So long
as the sun shines and rains fall, alcohol represents an inexhaust-
ible and universal source of fuel, hence, even with the inevi-
table exhaustion of our stock of petroleum and coal, there is
no cause for alarm. The immense deposits of the latter fuels
seem to have been given to the world merely to sustain it until
men could learn to use the power of the sun more directly.

Steel and gasoline made the gas engine a success. All
our gasoline comes from petroleum. Neglecting alcohol

FUEL FOR GAS TRACTORS 115

for the present, we usually think of some petroleum product
when we discuss fuel for internal-combustion engines. Crude oil
or petroleum is now generally thought to have been formed
from vegetable or animal matter deposited in sedimentary
rocks at the time of their formation. Oil and gas seem to have
been produced by some sort of distillation, natural gas being
a secondary product formed from the vaporization of petro-
leum. Petroleum is usually found at depths of from 300 to
2000 feet, or even more, under great pressure. The most
profitable reservoirs or pools are found in inclined but unbroken
strata of sand or porous rocks, covered with an impervious cap
layer of shale rock or fine-grained limestone. The basins in
which the oil accumulates are not underground caverns, but
masses of coarse-grained rock. Oil, gas, and salt water are
found together in nearly all oil fields. In fact, along our
Pacific coast, and elsewhere, oil wells are sunk in the sands of
the beach and sometimes in the ocean itself. The gas and
water separate from the oil in layers according to density.
In consequence the same field may have wells which tap the
reservoirs at different points and produce natural gas, pure
oil, and a mixture of oil and water, according to the layer
tapped.

Crude oil, as it flows or is pumped from wells, is usually
rather thick, of medium weight, and ranges from a light yellow
or green to black in colour. Some oil, practically free from
color, has been obtained from older geological formations.
Some California oils are so heavy that they cannot be piped,
hence are transported in V-shaped troughs. Coal as it comes
from the mines is practically the same, except as to size, as
when it gets to the consumer, though it varies in quality
and composition according to the source from which it comes.
Crude oil likewise varies a great deal in its original character,
but it is different from coal in that the quality of its products
can be further varied to an enormous degree by the method
of refining.

116 POWER AND THE PLOW

\

If crude oil is left standing at ordinary temperatures a part
of it will be given off as vapor. On a warm day more vapor
will be given off before evaporation stops than on a cold one.
Likewise, if the oil is placed on a stove more gas is given off and
the remaining liquid grows denser. At each rise in temperature
more of the oil is vaporized, until nothing is left but a solid
residuum. This behavior shows that petroleum is not a uni-
form substance, but a mixture composed of large numbers of
different compounds. '• In order to separate the oil into liquids
which are uniform in quality a process similar to the one just
described is used, this being known as fractional distillation.
It consists of applying successively higher temperatures to
the crude oil to vaporize the various compounds, which are
again condensed, provided, of course, they are liquid at ordi-
nary temperatures. Each time evaporation stops, the tem-
perature of the liquid is raised and another portion is distilled
over, until finally the volatile matter is all driven off.

From the foregoing it will be seen that petroleum contains:

(1) some compounds which are gases at ordinary temperatures;

(2) some which are normally liquid when confined, though
evaporating quickly when exposed; (3) some which are liquid
and require considerable heat to vaporize; (4) some which are
normally liquid, vaporizing only with difficulty and at very
high temperatures; and (5) some which for practical purposes
are not volatile at all. The first group, roughly speaking,
contains the natural gases. The second comprises the grades
variously known as gasoline, benzine, naphtha, petroleum spirit,
petrol, etc., and a few rare products not of commercial importance
such as rhigolene and cymogene. The third group is made up
of illuminating oils, kerosene, paraffin oil, etc. "Middlings,"
or "distillate," comes under this head, though as a matter of
fact all the foregoing products are distillates of crude oil.
The fourth group contains the heavy fuel, gas, and lubricating
oils, while the fifth comprises the solid lubricants, paraffin
wax, petroleum coke, pitch, asphalt, etc.

FUEL FOR GAS TRACTORS 117

The weight of a given volume of these successive groups
increases in a ratio roughly corresponding to their chemical
composition. To obtain liquids which should each contain
but a single chemical compound, hence be homegeneous in
composition, the temperature of distillation for each fraction
of the oil would have to be based on the boiling point of one
compound. Even then it would be possible to obtain a pure
chemical product only after several further refining processes,
which would make the cost prohibitive. The very best com-
mercial oils then, from the standpoint of uniformity, are the
mixtures of several substances very nearly alike in composition
and evaporating at nearly the same temperatures.

All petroleum distillates are composed of varying propor-
tions of carbon and hydrogen and on that account are known as
hydrocarbons. In the process of combustion they unite readily
with oxygen, usually forming water and carbon dioxide, or
carbonic acid gas. The lowest unit in which the two elements
are chemically combined is known as the molecule, and the
lightest molecule found in the Pennsylvania oils is that of
marsh gas, or methane. It contains one atom of carbon and
four of hydrogen, represented by the formula CH4. The bulk
of the more complex compounds occur in a practically regular
series known as the paraffin series. Each contains one more
atom of carbon and two of hydrogen than the one next below.
Thus we have C2H6,C5H12, etc., as formulas for higher com-
pounds. The latter is the lowest which is normally liquid,
being one of the lightest constituents of gasoline. The carbon
atom is heavier than the hydrogen atom in the ratio of 12 to 1.
The marsh gas molecule, therefore, is three fourths carbon.

Every reader knows that hot air will sustain a greater
weight of vapor than cold air. A given volume of gas contains
exactly the same number of molecules, no matter what kind it
is; hence a cylinderful of kerosene vapor will weigh more than
an equal volume of vapor from gasoline. From this fact arises
the necessity for a higher temperature within the cylinder to

118

POWER AND THE PLOW

vaporize and burn kerosene than to handle gasoline, also the
practice of running kerosene engines on gasoline for a moment
on starting.

The only commercial standard of quality for liquid fuels
ordinarily considered, aside from their color, is the Baum6

Asphalt

Residuum
and Wast*

T>ennsylvaniaOih California Oils

Composition of crude oils

gravity, in which the weight is compared with that of water.
Water, which weighs eight and one third pounds per gallon
at 60° F., is placed at 10° on the Baume scale. Liquids heavier
than water have a lower value and lighter liquids a higher value.
The Baume gravity may be calculated by the following formula

FUEL FOR GAS TRACTORS 119

if the weight in pounds per gallon is known at a temperature
of 60° F.:

(Weight in Ibs. per gal. X 12 ) -5- 100 = specific gravity
(140 -T- specific gravity) — 130 - degrees Baume

For example: Common engine kerosene weighs about 6.7
Ibs. per United States gallon. Applying the first formula is
equivalent to dividing by the weight of water, and gives a
specific gravity of .804. 140° -+• .804=174°H-130°=440, the
Baume gravity.

The crude oils from different districts vary widely in their
weight and composition. Those from the Appalachian dis-
trict have a paraffin base, while those from the Southwest and
California have largely an asphalt base. The two latter
yield a much lower percentage of the lighter oils, such as com-
mercial gasoline or naphtha, and a larger quantity of the
heavy fuel oils, lubricants, wax, and solid waste. The differ-
ence in weight of crude oils is shown in the following table of
Baume gravities:

DISTRICT DEGREES - BAUME

Pennsylvania 42 to 50

West Virginia, Kentucky 40 to 46

Ohio, Indiana 37 to 40

Illinois 30 to 34

Kansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana 22 to 32

Texas 16 to 26

California 12 to 28

Though crude oil and its products vary in weight per gallon,
they are remarkably uniform in heat value for a given weight.
American crude oils range from 18,000 to 22,000 B.t.u. per
pound, an analysis of fifteen from various sources averaging
20,400. A conservative estimate will place commerical gaso-
line and kerosene at 20,000 B.t.u. per pound.

The world's first systematic boring for oil occurred when
the Pennsylvania field was opened in 1859, and, until the
rapid introduction of the gasoline engine made greater produc-

120

POWER AND THE PLOW

tion necessary, this and the adjoining states supplied the great
bulk of the petroleum refined in America. A work published
prior to 1899 gives the following results from fractional distil-
lation of a Pennsylvania petroleum having .80 specific (45 B.)
gravity. The Baume gravity is added by the formula quoted.
It represents roughly the classification of petroleum products
at that time:

TEMP. OF

DISTILLAT'N.

DEG. FAHB.

DISTILLATE

PERCENT-
AGES

SPECIFIC
GRAVITY

BAUME
GRAVITY

113°

113°-140°

Rhigolene \ petroleum
Cymogene / ether

Traces

.590-. 625

108-94

140°-158°

Gasoline (petroleum

1.5

.636-. 657

90-83

spirit)

158°-248°

Benzine, Naptha C,

Benzolene

10.

.680-. 700

76-70

248°-347°

Benzine, Naphtha B

2.5

.714-. 718

66-65

" A

2.5

.725-. 737

63-60

Polishing Oils

-

—

—

338° and

Kerosene (Lamp Oil)

50.

.802-. 820

45-41

upward

482°

Lubricating Oil

15.

.850-. 915

35-23

Paraffin Wax

2.

Residue & Loss

16.

The products lighter than lamp oil comprised only about 16
per cent, of the total and showed a much wider range in gravity
than kerosene.

The mid-continent and Western oil fields were opened
at a much later date. They are now producing oil in abundance,
but yield even a lower proportion of the lighter oils. The
following recently compiled percentage analysis of a typical
California crude illustrates the difference in character of
supply:

Naphtha, gasoline, benzine, etc., 2.8; commercial "distillate,"
23.1; kerosene, 14.4; lubricants, 34.1; wax or asphalt, 21.4;
residue and waste, 4.2.

Many of the former grades have now been abandoned and

FUEL FOR GAS TRACTORS 121

the naphthas from 52° to 80° Baume are commonly grouped to-
gether to form a yield of about 10 per cent, of commercial
gasoline. The gasoline of to-day is the " Naphtha A" of
ten years ago, while true gasoline is rare and issued almost
solely for aeroplanes, racing automobiles and other extreme
purposes. Distillates of 52° to 58° Baume, which are now sold
as benzine to the paint trade, become naphtha to the owner
of a motor boat.

There are two ways in which fuel of a certain specific gravity
can be obtained. One way is to distil into it only that fraction
of crude oil which approximates the desired density, thus
gaining a very uniform product. The other is to mix together
distillates of high and low gravity so as to obtain -a mean some-
where near what is required. It is obvious that at any given
temperature a portion of the latter oil will evaporate at a much
more rapid rate than the remainder, so that the oil left in the
reservoir will continue to grow heavier. The ideal fuel is the
one which is uniform in composition, as it is equally obvious
that a carbureter adjusted to handle the lighter constituents
will be unable to handle the heavier parts without readjustment.
Uniform fuel would require but one adjustment of the mixture
for any given condition of work. The weight or Baume gravity
of a liquid fuel is not a reliable indication of its composition —
i. e.9 its vaporizing qualities. Nothing but fractional distilla-
tion will disclose whether or not heavy and light products have
been mixed.

If commercial fuel oils were pure chemical compounds it
would be a much simpler process than at present to supply the
proper conditions of temperature and mixture to insure perfect
combustion. But we have seen that Pennsylvania crude oil,
which weighs about the same per gallon as ordinary engine
kerosene, is composed of substances varying from solid residues
to liquids which vaporize at low temperatures. From this
it is evident that the amount of uniform fuel of high Baum6
gravity which could be supplied was always limited.

122 POWER AND THE PLOW

A long period of use and waste has exhausted many of the
valuable wells. Not only that, but oil from the older fields
has lost much of its volatile matter in the form of gas, and is
heavier than formerly. Crude oil from other and newer sources
has seldom duplicated the high percentage of light gravity
distillates, hence has yielded even less of the high grade fuels.
Heavy-producing foreign fields, also, generally yield oils of
much greater density, and crude oil engines have been more
in demand abroad than in this country.

High gravity fuel is constantly changing in quality and
advancing in price. Makers of gasoline carbureters are
constantly being forced to meet a new situation. In order to
obtain fuel enough to supply the growing trade, and at the
same time avoid mixing distillates of a wide range in weight,
it will be necessary to use oil of comparatively low gravity on
the Baume scale. By using gasoline of 56° B. we can obtain
a sufficient quantity from Texas and Oklahoma oils without
straining the natural constitution of the oil. This in turn
presents greater difficulty in carburetion and involves the
changing of the design of most of the present carbureters.
Once they are adjusted to heavier fuels, they should be able
to handle them without difficulty, except on starting. To
do so, however, will require automatic means for taking care
of the constant variation in conditions presented by the chang-
ing loads. By adopting the lower gravity products the situa-
tion will become settled for many years. The heavier standard
fuels can already be supplied in abundance, and permanent
standards of quality can be set up for the benefit of refiner,
user, and designer.

Great changes took place in the oil situation hi the last
few decades. Forty years ago kerosene was refined for use in
lamps, while gasoline was a by-product. Gasoline of 76°
to 85° B. was disposed of hi enormous quantities by burning
in the open air. The change in quality of crude oil brought
a decrease in the percentage of gasoline and an increase in the

FUEL FOR GAS TRACTORS 123

percentage of kerosene. Where Pennsylvania oils formerly
yielded as high as 16 per cent, of gasoline, benzine, and naphtha,
they now yield less than 10 per cent., and the Appalachian
district, which includes the surrounding states, yields now only
about 15 per cent, of the total supply of crude oil. The Illinois,
the mid-continent fields, Texas and California, now yield
from nine to thirteen gallons of kerosene and so-called engine
distillate to each one of gasoline where distillation is complete.
Furthermore, the commercial gasoline is much less volatile,
having been lowered from 76° to 60° B., in about fifteen years.
The percentage of gasoline of the former quality from
the present heavy-producing districts would be practically
negligible.

The shift of the centre of production has been no less rapid
than the invention of apparatus for using the more volatile
hydrocarbons. The gasoline stove taught the people the use
of gasoline, and during the last two decades the development
of the gas engine for automobile, stationary, traction, marine,
and commercial purposes has increased the demand by leaps
and bounds. The domestic consumption of gasoline has in-
creased from 14,000,000 gallons in 1905 to 50,000,000 gallons
in 1910. A surplus of kerosene is being refined simply to
furnish an adequate supply of gasoline, even though much
of the crude oil at the present time is merely skimmed — i.e.,
the gasoline is taken out to supply the present demand, and
the rest, including the kerosene, either stored or used for
fuel under steam boilers.

The use of the kerosene lamp is now all but confined to
rural districts. In many large sections of the country the
consumption of kerosene for all purposes is less than that of
gasoline. The tail wags the dog. Gasoline, formerly a by-
product of illuminating-oil refining, is now the only petroleum
product which taxes the capacity of the refineries. Refiners
have stored kerosene to the limit of their tank capacity, and
from every source comes the information that unusual methods

124

POWER AND THE PLOW

are being adopted to create a demand for it. Oil companies
are pushing the kerosene stove instead of the gasoline stove.
They are handling oil heaters, lanterns, lamps and every
device for increasing kerosene consumption. Refiners are
stipulating the purchase of a carload of kerosene with every
carload of gasoline.

In the ten years previous to 1909 the export value per
gallon of naphthas rose 56 per cent, as against 19 per cent,
for kerosene and practically nothing for crude oii. The ex-
ports of kerosene increased twenty-three and one half times

The bigger the cow the thinner the cream

faster than those of gasoline. Even
in far-off China 400 million people are
being taught the use of our discarded
. , kerosene lamp, to provide a market

nsPenaytoitoJtav for the by.propduct.

It is difficult now to secure the lightest crude oil products
in the open market, since they assist the refiner to dispose of
some of the heavier compounds in mixtures sold as commercial
gasoline. A prominent oil man says that the proposition
is like that of a dairy farmer. His Jersey cows can produce

FUEL FOR GAS TRACTORS 125

only a certain amount of milk to supply a certain town. Some
of his cows go dry, Jerseys are scarce, and he has to replace
them with Holsteins which give more milk but less cream.
At the same time new-fangled breakfast foods have increased
the demand for cream. The dairy man at first has his choice
of two courses: first, to advance the price of cream and throw
away the skim milk entirely; and second, to dilute the cream
with as much skim milk as he dares, sell the rest of the milk
for what he can get, and make up the profits by advancing the
price on the lower grade of cream. In order to meet the de-
mand for cream he is finally forced to the latter course. In
this comparison the Jersey cows may be likened to the Penn-
sylvania oil wells, which produced a higher percentage of gas-
oline than any other oil field ever opened. The Holsteins
which replace these are the oil wells of Oklahoma, Texas,
and California, which yield even more oil, but of lower quality
from the vaporizing standpoint. The breakfast foods are the
hundreds of thousands of gasoline engines used for every
conceivable purpose. It is not a question now of the price
of kerosene or gasoline.

The problem is to supply the demand for the latter and dis-
pose of the former on any basis whatever. The scarcity is
not of whole milk but of the cream in that milk. In con-
sequence of the changes there has been a natural shift in
prices. Gasoline has increased threefold in price in fifteen
years and is steadily advancing. Engine kerosene, on the other
hand, is about one seventh the price received for illuminating
oil twenty-five years ago, and in the last two years has declined
40 per cent, in price at the refinery. It costs now from one
third to two thirds as much as gasoline, according to the amount
of freight which is added after it leaves the refinery. The cost
of the lighter oils such as gasoline and benzine, is even higher
in Europe than in America owing to the scarcity of the lighter
constituents in Russian and Roumanian oils. The question
naturally arises as to the future of fuel for gas engines, as

126 POWER AND THE PLOW

there is abundant petroleum for many generations, provided
ways are found to make economical use of it all. The present
rate of expansion of the supply is due to the fact that most
common internal combustion engines have been capable of
using only the slight percentage of oil which is refined into gaso-
line, while a large part has been wastefully burned under
steam boilers. There is no cause for alarm as carburetors can
be made to handle the heavier fuels if the latter are at all uni-
form, and they are more apt to be so than is gasoline at present.
It is simply necessary for manufacturers to reconcile themselves
to the situation and develop carburetors for handling fuel
which can be supplied in adequate quantities without leaving
an enormous surplus of unsalable by-products. In any event,
there is no use in complaining, as gasoline cannot even now be
furnished in sufficient quantities. The world has plenty of
crude oil that will yield the heavier distillates. The principal
producing fields are hi Russia and America, which together,
yield about 90 per cent, of the supply. Galicia, Roumania,
and India yield about 4 per cent., and the remainder comes
from Canada, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Burmah, Japan, Ger-
many, Austria, Italy, and newer fields. It is being found in
new places each year. Nearly every South and Central
American country has been found in the last few years to
contain paying deposits.

Oil has been found in paying quantities in Pennsylvania,
West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana, which form what
is known as the Appalachian group. Illinois, Kansas, Okla-
homa, Louisiana and Texas produce abundantly and Califor-
nia constitutes still another important area. The real develop-
ment of Texas and Oklahoma as important fields did
not begin until about 1902. From 1902 to 1908 Texas
produced 122,500,000 barrels and an immense area of costal
plain has not yet been tapped. In 1907 Oklahoma produced
over 44,000,000 barrels and it was estimated that only one
per cent, of the state's oil and gas has been developed. It

FUEL FOR GAS TRACTORS 127

has recently been estimated that in California it will take oil
companies one hundred years at the present rate simply to
open up the field, and new fields have just been discovered in
the Northwest.

Canada produces about one fifth of the petroleum fuels
consumed in the Dominion. At the present time all grades of
gasoline, benzine, and naphtha are brought in free of duty, pro-
vided they are lighter than .730 specific gravity. This fuel
corresponds to about 63j° B. All grades of crude oil heavier
than .8235, corresponding to about 40° B, enter free. Kero-
sene and light-coloured engine distillate must pay a duty of
2J cents per imperial gallon, which brings the price relatively
much nearer the price on gasoline than in the United States.
The imperial gallon used in Canada is one fifth larger than
the standard gallon of the United States.

Petroleum fuels are commonly shipped to distributing points
in tank cars holding from 6000 to 8000 gallons. From these
points they may be distributed by means of tank wagons hold-
ing about 500 gallons, or in steel or wooden barrels of 42 gallons
each. In many localities wonderful tank wagon service brings
fuel to the farmer's door at, or very slightly above, the whole-
sale price. Most operators find it convenient and even nec-
essary to own tank wagons of their own, either for hauling
from the distributing point or for service while the engine
is at work in the field. The storage of gasoline or kerosene
on the farm previous to the opening of the season's work has
many advantages. A better price may often be obtained and
the work can be done more cheaply at odd times.

In storing gasoline it must be remembered that the vapor
is given off very readily and is extremely difficult to confine.
Being heavier than air, it will spread out and flow along the
ground. In consequence, a light even at some distance may
ignite the gas and cause a flame to travel back to the place of
storage. Before this was understood and the necessary pre-
cautions taken this caused many accidents in the oil districts.

128 POWER AND THE PLOW

A cubic foot of gasoline vapor will form a violently explosive
mixture with a large quantity of air, at ordinary temperatures,
hence we can readily understand the cause of many explosions
where volatile oils are kept in enclosed rooms. Absolute
freedom from leakage is therefore an important essential.
Steel tanks are to be preferred to wood receptacles, and welded
to riveted seams.

It frequently happens that the evaporation from the sur-
face of gasoline is sufficient to reduce the temperature to the
point at which moisture from the adjacent air will condense
upon the surface. Being heavier, the water will find its way
to the bottom of the tank. As the pump to the carbureter
is usually connected with the lowest point in the storage tank,
water is thus very apt to get into the carbureter and stop the
engine. There are many patent filters for removing water,
the common chamois skin being employed in a great many.
The gasoline passes readily through this fabric, leaving the
dirt and water behind.

Dirt finds its way into the storage tank through careless
handling of the fuel, through rusting of some of the parts and
through the chipping off of small pieces of solder. These are
naturally pumped into the carbureter, where they clog the
small needle- valve openings and stop the engine for lack of fuel.
Great care should be taken to keep the storage tanks clean and
to prevent the introduction of water and dirt in fuel.

The water required by gas tractors varies with several
factors, such as the load, the atmospheric temperature, and
the type of cooling system used. In brake tests during tractor
competitions, where steam engines used from 28 to 36 Ibs.,
gas tractors used from practically nothing up to 2.9 Ibs. of
water per brake-horsepower hour, averaging about ij pints.
The non-evaporating cooler required the least, and the
simple evaporating cooler, the most. Some kerosene tractors
which do not use water for cooling, use it in connection with
the fuel in the cylinder, at from half to full load. In this case

FUEL FOR GAS TRACTORS 129

the ratio of water to fuel increases with the load until at full
load it is practically 1.1. Roughly, it may be said that few gas
tractors use a barrel of water per day in the heaviest work
during the hottest weather.

THE PLOW
Will H. Ogilvie, in the London Spectator

From Egypt behind my oxen, with their stately step and slow,
Northward and east and west I went to the desert sand and the snow;
Down through the centuries, one by one, turning the clod to the shower,
Till there's never a land beneath the sun but has blossomed behind the power.

I slide through the sodden rice-fields with my grunting, hump-backed steers,
I turned the turf of the Tiber plain in Rome's imperial years;
I was left in the half-drawn furrow when Cincinnatus came,
Giving his farm for the Forum's stir to save his nation's name.

Over the seas to the north I went; white din's and a seaboard blue;
And my path was glad in the English grass as my stout, red Devons drew;
My path was glad in the English grass, for behind me rippled and curled
The com that was life to the sailormen that sailed the ships of the world.

And later I went to the north again, and day by day drew down
A little more of the purple hills to join my kingdom brown;
And the whaups wheeled out to the moorland, but the gay gulls stayed with me
Where the Clydesdales drummed a marching song with their feathered feet
on the lea.

Then the new lands called me westward; I found on the prairies wide

A toil to my stoutest daring and a foe to test my pride;

But I stooped my strength to the stiff, black loam, and I found my labor sweet

As I loosened the soil that was trampled firm by a million buffaloes' feet.

Then farther away to the northward; outward and outward still,

(But idle I crossed the Rockies, for there no plow may till!)

Till I won to the plains unending, and there on the edge of the snow

I ribbed them the fenceless wheat fields, and taught them to reap and sow.

The sun of the Southland called me; I turned her the rich brown lines
Where the paramatta peach trees grow and her green Mildura vines;
I drove her cattle before me, her dust and her dying sheep,
I painted her rich plains golden, and taught her to sow and reap.

From Egypt behind my oxen, with stately step and slow,

I have carried your weightiest burdens, ye toilers that reap and sow"

I am the ruler, the king, and I hold the world in fee;

Sword upon sword may ring, but the triumph shall rest with me.

XIII
EARLY HISTORY OF THE PLOW

THE plow is our oldest agricultural implement. In-
deed, systematic agriculture began when man first
took his crude war club and with it stirred the
soil. The shape of the primitive plow suggested the
first letter of the alphabet. The Book of Job is the oldest
part of the Old Testament, yet this work begins: "And
there came a messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were
plowing and the asses feeding beside them; and the Sabeans
fell upon them and took them away; yea they have slain the
servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped
alone to tell thee." Ancient monuments, dating back
forty centuries, bear sculptured representations of the plow.
Ulysses was plowing among the sands of the shore at Ithaca

'when he feigned madness
before the messengers of
Agamemnon. Virgil de-
scribes the plow used by
Cincinnatus, and Horace,
warning the Roman Repub-
lic against encroachment of
From an Egyptian monument, 3000, B. C. the nobles' fish ponds upon

the peasants' fields, writes

in his Ode, ''only a few more acres are left for the plow."
Ceres, the patron Goddess of Agriculture in Greek mythology,
inspired Triptolemus to invent the plow at the time she taught
him the art of husbandry and placed him in charge of her work

130

EARLY HISTORY OF THE PLOW 131

of distributing corn to all the inhabitants of the earth. The
ancient Egyptians had progressed from the crooked stick to a
plow consisting of wooden beam, shank, and handle. As early
as 1100 B. C., two thousand years before the horse was har-
nessed to the plow, the Israelites, who were unskilled in work-
ing iron, "went down to the Philistines to sharpen, every
man, his share and his coulter."

History does not give the date of the first plow nor the
name of its inventor. The earliest records chronicle its gen-
eral use in the preparation of the soil for the harvested crop,
but long before written history began men must have observed
that the loosened earth bore most abundantly. Perhaps the
snout of the wild boar, in its quest for grubs, suggested the
shape. A bludgeon sharpened to a point was the crude
imitation, and later a widening of the point into chisel shape
made the instrument more rapid in its work. The primitive
man — the savage — unused to monotonous toil, first yoked
his womankind to the plow, then, with forked stick and thong
pressed into service the cattle grazing on the hillsides about
him. The long end of the fork at the horns of the bull, the
short in the ground, the trunk as a handle, and the plow was
invented. The marvelous ease with which the new implement
loosened the soil, as compared with the muscle-straining
drudgery of the pointed stick, overwhelmed the devout and
overawed the superstitious. Plow and power alike took
on Olympian attributes. A writer of the last mid-century
suggests that the early and widespread belief in the divine origin
of agriculture, which discouraged as impious any improve-
ment in ancient processes, may have been responsible for the
centuries which passed without any alteration in the character
of the plow. Certain it is that in many parts of the world, to
some extent even in the very foremost agricultural districts,
nothing is harder to introduce than new farm methods, as
though the shadow of that ancient delusion still fell upon the
tiller of the soil. The native Egyptian plow from the valley

132

POWER AND THE PLOW

Plow from Asia Minor

of the Nile shows no improvement over the plows of five
thousand years ago; in Mexico and Spain the wooden plow of
the Moors outnumbers the steel plow of America; all of our
civilization lies this side of the stick-plow of the Cingalese.

The first plows for brute power were made wholly from the
natural crooks of the branches of trees, each with a brace added

to strengthen the union
between the beam and the
upright share. Pins in the
forepart of the beam con-
nected it with the square
yoke then used on draft
oxen, and a natural crook
gave the plowman a handle for guiding. Such were the plows
used by Job and Ulysses.

Three thousand years before the Christian Era the Egyptians
had evolved a broader, triangular share to take a wider furrow
than the plow of Asia Minor just described. Two handles in
place of one made it easier to guide. The plow used by Cin-
cinnatus and Cato was an improvement over a still older
form used in the days of the Tarquins. Their plow for a
long time seemed incapable of improvement. Virgil, in his
Georgics, describes the plow of his day, which coincides with
the earlier descriptions. It had a point made of two pieces of
wood meeting at an acute angle. An iron plate covered the
point, and two pins, or teeth, set obliquely, one into each leg
of the angle, performed the office of a moldboard in lifting and
pulverizing the soil.

In Britain an implement called the caschrom served the
early husbandmen, and
was in use in the Hebrides
and the Isle of the Sky
until late in the nineteenth
century. A single curved
piece of wood, the lower Javanese stick plow

EARLY HISTORY OF THE PLOW 133

end nearly horizontal, the upper resting on the plowman's
shoulder, forms the share, beams and handles of the caschrom.

The only additions of inventive genius were a sidewise
projecting pin for convenience in regulating the depth
by the foot and an iron chisel-point for the share.

The plow up to this point was merely an instrument which
pulverized the soil by passing through it and disturbing it in
its place. Next came the conception of the plow as a wedge
for moving the earth and redepositing it in a broken condition.
Some wedges acted horizontally, lifting the earth and allowing
it to fall back in the furrow. Others acted laterally, pushing
aside the furrow slice and
leaving a clear space for
the next furrow. Plows
in which this crude appli-
cation of the single wedge
is found are still widely
used in Mexico and Spain, Ancient Mexican plow. This type stil1
occasionally in France and

Italy. They represent the only improvements in plows
during the long Middle Ages over the round-pointed or tri-
angular sticks of the ante-Christian Era. Except for the in-
vention of the coulter about the eleventh century no one had

Old English plow, 1470 A. D.

yet conceived the idea of both lifting the soil and shoving it
aside by a combination of horizontal and lateral wedges, though
in a type of French plow used in the Middle Ages a hint
of the modern curvature of share and moldboard is given.

XIV
THE PLOW IN GREAT BRITAIN

THE Dutch, owing to the difficult conditions to be
met in their lowlands, were among the first really
to improve upon the primitive Roman plows.
They evolved a moldboard which twisted and
turned aside the furrow, and protected the wooden parts
from ground friction by a covering of iron. The revival of
interest in agriculture in England in the early part of the
eighteenth century turned concerted attention toward the
improvement of the plow. Some of the Dutch plows imported
about this time were copied by English makers. The first
of these, known as the Rotherham plow, was made by Joseph
Foljambe, of Yorkshire, who received letters patent in
1720. Foljambe Js plow, as afterward made by Staniforth, was
of wood, with a short-lived sheet-metal covering. The point
was conical, rather than sharply chiseled, and burrowed rather
than cut its way. A bridle, or clevis, was provided for the
first time so the point might be set for depth and either to or
from the land. The vertical and horizontal wedges were
combined in the moldboard and connected by a curved line,
so that the furrow slice was first raised a little and gradually
inverted clear of the space in which it lay.

Jethro Tull, published in 1731, the first edition of his "New
Horse Houghing Husbandry." In this work, the outgrowth of
his travels and experiments, he set forth radically new theories.
He emphasized the beneficial effects of tillage after the sowing of
the crop, the current practice being to perform the entire work

134

THE PLOW IN GREAT BRITAIN 135

of cultivation during the preparation of the seed bed. He
saw that the more finely divided the soil, the more readily plants
grew, and "the stronger the soil is, the more benefit will it
receive from this method of culture, if the land be thereby
more pulverized." While devising many interesting horse-
drawn tools, the more easily to carry out the methods he pro-
posed, he gave much attention to the improvement of plows.

"'Tis strange," Tull says, "that no author should have
written fully of the Fabric of Ploughs! Men of the greatest
Learning have spent their Time in contriving Instruments to
measure the immense Distance of the Stars, and in finding out
Dimensions, and even Weight of the Planets; they think it
more eligible to study the Art of plowing the Sea with Ships
than of tilling the Land with Ploughs; they bestow the utmost
of their Skill, learnedly, to prevent the natural Use of all the
Elements of Destruction of their own Species by the Bloody Art
of War. Some waste their whole Lives in studying how to
arm Death with new Engines of Horror and inventing an
infinite Variety of Slaughter; but think it beneath Men of
Learning (who only are capable of doing it) to employ their
learned Labors in the Invention of new (or even improving the
old) Instruments for increasing of Bread."

Tull was the first to proclaim aloud the necessity for inten-
sive cultivation. In his time the present countless variations
in tillage implements were not available for purposes of "The

The old Berkshire four-coultered plow v

New Husbandry," hence it is not surprising to find him giving
preference, not to the Rotherham plow, which approached

136 POWER AND THE PLOW

more closely than any other of that time, the modern imple-
ment, but to the old Berkshire plow. This plow had a pair of
wheels to support the beam and a clumsy device by means of
which front of latter could be elevated or depressed to change
the depth of plowing. The point was of iron, also the ground
wrest, which in later plows has been superseded by the con-
tinuation of the point into a share. The ground wrest was
placed at an angle to the landside in the horizontal plane,
like the edge of a modern share, but stood nearly perpendicular
to the bottom of the furrow. It constituted the wearing plate
and supported the wooden moldboard. The latter, only
slightly curved, joined the ground wrest at an angle which was
sufficient to invert the furrow slice. In shape and ease of
draft it was inferior to the Rotherham plow, but in its four-
knife coulters it possessed the capacity for pulverizing the soil
better than any previously known tillage implement, and this
outweighed all other considerations with Jethro Tull. Three
of these coulters were mortised into the beam ahead of the
plow point, and the fourth about midway between the point
and the forepart of the moldboard. Each of the last three
was an equal distance to the left and rear of the one ahead,
and inclined a trifle more from the perpendicular.

TulPs argument in favor of the plow is substantially as
follows: "It divides the land more completely, affording
greater access to air and moisture. The furrow being cut into
four parts, it will have four times the superfices that it would
have without the coulter cuts; but this is not all. It is more
divided crossways, viz. : The ground wrest presses and breaks
the lower (or right hand) quarter; the other three quarters, in
rising and coming over the earth board, must make a crooked
line about a fourth longer than the straight one they made
before being moved; therefore, their thinness not being able
to hold them together, they are broken into many more pieces
for want of tenacity to extend to a longer line. This is con-
trary to a whole furrow, whose great breadth enables it to

THE PLOW IN GREAT BRITAIN

137

stretch and extend from a shorter to a longer line without
breaking, and as it is turned off the parts are drawn together
again by the spring of the turf, and so remain whole after
plowing."

TuU's analysis of the objects desired and the exact manner
in which the old Berkshire plow accomplished them should
have led to a much earlier solution of the problem. His system
of horse-hoe husbandry, however, was derided at the time
and the four-coultered plow was never widely adopted. Its
functions have since been accomplished by more scientifically
shaped plows and other tillage tools, but, as will be seen
later, in much the same manner as he described nearly two
centuries ago.

James Small, of Scotland, took the Rotherham plow and from
it made a light draft instrument which turned the furrows
smoothly, without crumbling them. His factory at Black

f

Small's East Lothian plow

Adder Mount in Berwickshire was established in 1763, and
before his death, thirty years later, he had so perfected the plow
by experimental methods that almost exact duplicates of his
models are still popular in Scotland. Many of these plows,
with moldboard of cast iron, and share, beam, and handles of

138 POWER AND THE PLOW

wrought iron, are to be found in Ontario and Quebec, still
known as of the old Scotch model.

Small's crowning achievement was the East Lothian plow.
It had a curved beam, which was continued to form the left
handle. From the points of the share of a perpendicular line,
dropped from the fore end of the beam, the plow measured
about twenty-four inches, only slightly more than the twenty-
inch projection customary in modern walking plows. The
handles, however, extended about five and a half feet back-
ward from the rear point at which the moldboard touched the
ground, as compared with about three feet from the heel of
the share at present. In many of the later models handles
seven to eight feet long were added. A keen blade coulter
extended from the beam at an angle of about fifty-five degrees
to landward to just opposite the point of the share or sock.
The moldboard, instead of being fitted to the upper edge of
the share, as is common in modern American plows, was set
into the rear of the share, forming a continuation of the neck,
or gorge of the latter. Its front edge, or breast, stood vertically,
continuing the landside. Its heel was nine inches distant on the
ground from the plane of the landside, while its upper edge
overhung the heel a distance of ten inches on the furrow side.
The plow bottom, or sole, was thirty-six inches long. The
extreme breadth of the share was from six to six and one half
inches, but the moldboard, which was set only a half inch above
the base line, served to tear loose several inches of uncut earth
and turn a furrow ten to twelve inches wide. The bridle,
by means of which the plow was made to run deeper or shal-
lower and to or from the land, was a distinct step in advance
and has not been changed materially up to the present time.

One reason for the long-continued popularity of Small's
plow lies in the ideal of plowing which prevails in Great Bri-
tain. A high-shouldered, sharp-cornered furrow is desired,
one furrow slice lapping its neighbor, perfectly straight and
unbroken from one headland to the other. The angle of the

THE PLOW IN GREAT BRITAIN 139

coulter insured a sharp crest on the furrow edge left uppermost.
The narrow share and long curving moldboard turned over a
deep furrow without wrenching it apart, and the narrow cut-
ting edge made it possible to maintain the proper depth of
furrow, even in hard ground. The resulting plow was one
which would not, of itself, swim freely, but the long handles
gave the plowman the easy control essential to a straight fur-
row. The plow is not regarded in England as a pulverizing
instrument; hence there is little longitudinal twist to the
moldboard, and only enough vertical curvature to invert the
furrow slice. Small's plow did not crumble the crest of the
furrow slice, and this, rather than its lightness and superior
mechanical construction, rendered it immediately popular. The
same feature to-day leads British farmers to give preference
to plows of heavy draft but capable of turning their ideal
furrow.

By this time the conception of a plow as a combination of
vertical and lateral wedges had been expressed in practice, if
not in words. While shapes had been rendered in iron, plow-
making was largely the joint office of the village carpenter and
blacksmith, each of whom often carried out his ideas without
reference to the other's. Plows were generally of wood, faced
with strips of iron, or cast-off horseshoes. The shaping of
plows was largely empirical. One good plowmaker after
another lived, flourished, and died, and his art died with him
for lack of a formula for transmitting his results to his suc-
cessor. The maker himself could seldom duplicate an ex-
ceptionally fine plow, and real progress was slow. There
gradually came a conviction, however, that some definite
rule — some law of nature — should govern the shape of the
plow, that in some way the cumbersome implement could be
simplified, lightened, its draft diminished.

To Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States,
must be given undying fame for evolving a mathematical analy-
sis of the moldboard, one whereby its shape could be forever

140 POWER AND THE PLOW

established, or altered with a foreknowledge of the results.
His discovery marked a real epoch in agriculture and the
beginning of the march of progress which has brought to us the
perfect implement of to-day. He first brought denial to
Jethro lull's lament of a half dozen decades before, and was
the leader of a long line of men who, for the nation, have ful-
filled the prophecy of Isaiah — "They shall beat their swords
into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks." His
contribution to the history of the plow was really first utilized
in Europe.

During a trip through Lorraine in 1788, while serving as
American Ambassador to France, Jefferson observed carefully
the teams and implements used by the plowmen. In his
diary he wrote: "Oxen plow here with collars and names.
The awkward figure of their moldboards leads one to con-
sider what should be its form. The offices of the moldboard
are to receive the sod after the share has cut under it, to raise
it gradually and to reverse it. The fore end of it should, there-
fore, be horizontal, to enter under the sod, and the hind
end perpendicular, to throw it over, the intermediate surface
changing gradually from the horizontal to the perpendicular.
It should be as wide as the furrow, and of length suited to the
construction of the plow." He proposed a plan not only for
making a moldboard which would present the least possible
resistance to the passage of the earth, but for making any
number of such moldboards by a common workman, using
a process so exact that their forms should not vary by the
thickness of a hair. On his return to America, having for-
mulated his theories into a practical rule, he made several
plows, and in 1793 put them into use on his estates in Albe-
marle and Bedford counties, in Virginia. He satisfied himself
as to their practical utility and, probably before any other
American inventor, proposed to have his moldboards made in
future of cast iron. The English Board of Agriculture elected
Jefferson an honorary member, and the French Academy ac-

THE PLOW IN GREAT BRITAIN 141

knowledged him as the inventor of the moldboard founded on
mathematical principles.

Jefferson demonstrated that the shaping of the moldboard
could be reduced to an exact basis, but his plow was defective
in many points. A diagonal drawn on the surface of the plow
from the point of the share to the tip of the overhang on the
moldboard was a straight line. At every point on the diagonal
an intersecting line touching the upper and lower edges of the
moldboard would have been straight. On a vertical section
of the moldboard, at any point except one, the line representing
the face of the moldboard would have formed the hypotenuse
of a right triangle if taken with the base line and a perpen-
dicular dropped from the upper edge of the moldboard. The
one exception is where points in the upper and lower edges
were in the same vertical line. The absence of curves made
it necessary to make the moldboard twice as wide as the furrow
to prevent the earth from surmounting it and falling behind
in the furrow. For the same reason it was necessary to make
the moldboard very long and the twist very gradual.

This reduced moldboard friction in one way, but the long
bearing surface offset this advantage. It was impossible to
secure enough overhang to turn the furrow under all conditions
without making the share too blunt and the plow impractical
on account of draft. Small, in Scotland, had in the meantime
worked out by experiment the moldboard on his East Lothian
plow, which, when analyzed, is seen to have followed a curve
instead of a straight diagonal. This allowed a greater over-
hang, without too blunt a share, and the precise nature of the
curvature back of the centre of the moldboard reduced the
abrasion of the crest of the furrow, as previously noted.

After Small, Mr. Wilkie, of Uddingstone near Glasgow, was
the next to alter the shape of the plow. His inventions were
embodied in the Lanarkshire plow, the moldboard of which
presented convex lines to the passage of the furrow slice, and
thus minimized the friction on the cherished crest. He also

142 POWER AND THE PLOW

raised the heel, or rear corner, of the share above the point.
Thus he produced a furrow of trapezoidal section, partially
to reduce the draft, but mainly to secure a sharper angle to
the crest. These features are still in vogue and this plow has
always been a close rival of the East Lothian among farmers
who wish to see their furrows stand like saw-teeth. For plow-
ing matches in Eastern Canada, even in late years, manu-
facturers have built special plows incorporating these features,
though plows for general use have conformed more closely to
modern practice.

Early in the century Stephens, in his "Book of the Farm,"
gave a mathematical method of shaping the moldboard. This
was similar to Jefferson's, but by using the arc of a circle to
generate the surface lines, instead of a straight diagonal, he
produced a greater overhang at the rear and an easier slope
in front. He conceived of the furrow slice as a right prism,
elastic enough to yield to the passing form of the plow, and
tenacious enough to resume its shape when laid in position.
The slice must be turned on the lower right-hand edge as an
axis through an arc of 90 degrees, then on what was the upper
right-hand edge, through 45 degrees more, leaving it on a 45-
degree slant instead of completely inverting it. To accomplish
this he proposed a wedge, twisted on its upper surface, and to
find the form and dimensions of this wedge was, in his mind,
to solve the problem of the shape of the moldboard. His
plow was the first on which the neck of the share was elim^
inated, the moldboard extending forward to form an angle
with the heel of the share. In this respect, and in making the
share cut the full width of the furrow, his plow still further
resembled modern American practice. He advocated the
use of malleable in place of cast iron for the moldboard by
reason of its resistance to shocks, though pointing out the
increased cost. The ideas worked out in Scotland by Small,
Stephens, and Wilkie have influenced the design of plows to
the present day.

THE PLOW IN GREAT BRITAIN 143

In England a great step in advance was made when, in 1785,
Robert Ransome, of Ipswich, obtained a patent for making
plowshares of cast iron, and again in 1803, when the same
man perfected a method of case-hardening, or chilling, shares.
Between 1800 and 1810 the plow made entirely of cast iron came
into general use, and for the next quarter century the changes
were largely in the way of local adaptations. About 1840 Rev.
W. L. Rham proposed that all lines of the plow running from
front to rear should be straight, the vertical lines being suited
to the different soils — i.e., convex for stiff clay, straight for mel-
low loams, and concave for sandy and loose soils. His theories
were generally adopted in England, and in America plowmakers

Howard's plow. The utmost perfection in English plows of 1870

were already following Pickering's teachings in this respect.
About the same time, Mr. Howard had produced a plow with
a share closely resembling modern types. Both his plow and
Ransome's had jointers, gauge wheels, knife coulters and other
improvements, and represented the latest stage of perfection.
Factories established by these two men are still in operation.

XV

THE PLOW IN AMERICA

THE policy of England toward Colonial America was
not such as to encourage manufacture, and few
plows seem to have been imported. In 1631 there
were but thirty-seven plows in Massachusetts Bay
Colony. Owners were frequently granted a bounty for keep-
ing plows in condition to do the work of the entire town. By
1648 the Colony of Virginia had one hundred and fifty plows.
The Colonial wheeled plow of 1748 was clumsy and short.
Kalm, in his "Travels in North America," writes: "The ill-
shaped share and moldboard did not plow deep or straight,
and great strength and skill were necessary to guide the
plow. The wheels upon which the plow beam is placed are as
thick as the wheels of a cart, and all the woodwork is so
clumsily made that it requires a horse to draw the plow
along a smooth field."

Jefferson's work was in advance of his generation. His
scientific principles were lost in America during the first
quarter of the last century, and the improved methods of Ste-
phens and others had not been put into practice. Until the
beginning of the nineteenth century plows were made by rule
of thumb and by the least qualified artisans. A. B. Allen, in
1856, described the methods as follows:

"A winding tree was cut down, and a moldboard hewed
from it, with the grain of the timber running so nearly along its
shape as it could well be obtained. On to this moldboard, to
prevent its wearing out too rapidly, were nailed the blade of

144

THE PLOW IN AMERICA 145

an old hoe, thin straps of iron, or wornout horseshoes. The
landside was of wood, its base and sides shod with thin plates
of iron. The share was of wood, with a hardened steel point.
The coulter was tolerably well made of iron, steel edged, and
locked into the share nearly as it does in the improved lock
coulter plow of the present day. The beam was usually a
straight stick. The handles, like the moldboard, were split from
the crooked trunk of a tree, or as often cut from its branches.
The crooked roots of the white ash were the most favored
timber for plow handles in the Northern States. The beam
was set at any pitch that fancy might dictate, with the handles
fastened on at almost right angles with it, thus leaving the
plowman little control over his implement, which did its work
in a very slow and most imperfect manner."

The Old Colony plow, as used in the Eastern States as late
as 1820, had a ten-foot beam and a four-foot landside. "Your
furrows stand up like the ribs of a lean horse in March. A
lazy plowman may sit on the beam and count every bout of
his day's work."

The first American after Jefferson to advance a real im-
provement was Charles Newbold, of Burlington, N. J., who
made the first cast iron plow ever made in America. It was
cast all in one piece, share, landside, sheath (or standard), and
moldboard. Cast and wrought iron shares were in use before
Newbold 's invention, but in some way farmers developed the
notion that the use of cast iron poisoned the land, injured its
fertility, and promoted the growth of weeds, and Newbold's
plow was never generally adopted. As late as 1837 farmers in
New Hampshire clung to this idea.

Gideon Davis, in 1818, patented a plow built on the lines
laid down by Jefferson. He also fastened the coulter to the
side of the beam instead of perforating the latter. This greatly
strengthened the beam as compared with the usual practice.
September 1, 1819, on which date Jethro Wood patented his
plow, has been set by some as "the natal day of the modern

146 POWER AND THE PLOW

plow." He developed in theory and worked out in practice
both the vertical and transverse straight lines of the moldboard
which had been presented in theory by Timothy Pickering, and
by Thomas Jefferson in practice. He made a light iron plow,
on which the pressure of the furrow was evenly distributed
over the surface, so that the wear was equal on all parts. His
greatest contribution to progress, however, lay in the inter-
changeability of parts, so that a broken or wornout casting
might be replaced by any farmer. He thus instituted the era
of plow manufacture, as distinguished from that of plow build-
ing in small quantities by local carpenters, blacksmiths, and
plowwrights. To his everlasting credit it may be said that he
was instrumental in driving out of use thousands of the clumsy
"Bull" plows in existence. Sadly enough, Wood died a poor
man. He spent his fortune in protecting his patents. A grant
of $2000 to his heirs by the New York State Legislature was
the only substantial compensation growing out of his efforts
to improve the plow. William H. Seward, Lincoln's Secretary
of State, said: "No citizen of the United States has conferred
greater economical benefits on his country than Jethro Wood —
none of her benefactors have been more inadequately
rewarded."

Pickering noted that the soil, when adhesive, filled the
hollow of the moldboard and assumed a straight line from its
fore end, near the point of the share, to its upper projecting
hind corner, also that it maintained that same straight line.
This struck him as proof that this straight line should exist
in every moldboard as essential to the form giving the least
resistance. Said he: "No earth can be left on such a mold-
board; for every succeeding portion of earth which the plow
raises pushes off that which is on the transverse straight line
behind it; and the face of the moldboard consists — is made up
(mathematically) — of an infinite number of such transverse
straight lines."

Edwin A. Stevens, in 1817, so shaped a moldboard that it

THE PLOW IN AMERICA 147

would take a land polish over its entire surface. He also
invented a process for cold chilling the base of the landside
and the lower edge of the share, not knowing that that same
thing had been done by Ransome, in England. This improve-
ment lengthened the life of these wearing parts. Henry Burden,
two years later, constructed a well-shaped plow which was
widely popular on account of its light draft. In 1820, in the
first recorded dynamometer tests of plows made in New York,
his plow had a draft of 250 pounds for a ten-inch furrow to
325 pounds for Jethro Wood's, depth of furrow not stated.

After buying shares and moldboards for his plows for a
number of years, Joel Nourse, of Shrewsbury, Mass., and his
partners, failed in the manufacture of plows built according to
Jefferson's principle. Nourse then cut and hammered from
a sheet of lead a moldboard which he believed would overcome
the greatest defect in the Jefferson plow — i.e., failure to turn
the furrow over at all times. In 1842 he brought out the
Eagle No. 2 plow, which was popular form any years. The
moldboard was of greater length than on the majority of
American plows, and had more twist at the rear than the
English and Scotch plows. It also approached more closely
than either to straight lines in a longitudinal direction. With-
out planning for this result, he found that the extra twist of
the moldboard pulverized the soil admirably.

Governor Holbrook of Vermont later assisted Nourse in
designing plows and devised a system by which, if the longitud-
inal lines were carefully laid down upon the pattern, the vertical
lines were sure to be right, no matter what size or shape of
moldboard was desired. By his method straight lines ran from
front to rear, and from the sole to the upper parts of mold-
board and share. None of the lines was parallel, nor yet
radiating from a common centre. A change in the angle
formed by any of the transverse lines changed the direction
of the vertical lines also. The surface of the moldboard was
such that different parts of the furrow slice moved at different

148 POWER AND THE PLOW

velocities, a fundamental principle involved in pulverization
noted by Jethro Tull in his description of the old f our-coultered
Berkshire plow.

J. Dutcher, of Durham, N. Y., claimed discovery of a valu-
able principle in relation to the line of draft. He provided his
landside with "suction" — i.e., an upward curvature of one
half inch maximum from a straight line drawn from point to
heel. This allowed the beam of the plow to be set level with
the base line. The plow would penetrate hard ground as well
as before, when the fore end of the beam was set high, and, the
entire sole being more nearly in contact with the bottom of the
furrow, the plow ran more steadily than when" running on its
nose." He pointed out that the draft line must be straight
from the horse's breast to the centre of resistance on the plow,
and that the point of hitch on the beam must lie within that
line. He condemned the long beams then in use as tending
to thrust the hitch forward of the proper line and necessitating
an upward inclination of the beam to counteract this ten-
dency. Two feet for hard ground and two feet four inches for
mellow he regarded as the extreme distances to which the
beam should extend forward of a perpendicular from the point
of the share

John Mears, of the firm of Prouty & Mears, observed about
1833 that the irregularity in the running of the plows of that
time was caused to a large degree by the fact that the beam
was usually set so that the front end lay an inch or two to the
right of the plane of the landside produced to that point.
This was done to counteract the tendency of soil pressing on
the rear of the moldboard to force the plow point away from
the land. Mears saw that the centre of resistance lay only a
short distance to the right of the plane of the landside, the
force required for cutting the vertical wall of the furrow nearly
balancing the work of the share and moldboard. He inclined
the landside seven degrees toward the land, leaving the beam
directly over the point of the share, but parallel throughout

THE PLOW IN AMERICA 149

to the landside, this exactly balancing the resistance on either
side of the line of draft. The study of the line of draft by
these men and others who followed resulted in plows of lighter
draft and easier guidance.

Daniel Webster, in 1836, planned and constructed a plow
which had little bearing on the development of plows for farm
use, but illustrated the possibilities of a single plow bottom

Daniel Webster's plow

in the way of deep tillage. It was 12 feet long, with a 15-
inch share, and a moldboard 4 feet long by 28 inches high.
The furrow was 12 to 14 inches deep and nearly two feet
wide, the moldboard having a spread of 18 inches at the
heel and 27 inches at the tip of the wing. It had an iron
share and landside forged together, a wooden beam and
handles, and a wooden moldboard plated with straps of iron.
Webster made the moldboard along Jefferson's lines with
certain modifications such as greater relative length and
overhang. He believed in deep plowing, and the success of
his plow in a brush-covered pasture may be told in his own
words: "When I have hold of the handles of my big plow in
such a field as this, with four yokes of oxen to pull it through,
and hear the roots crack and see the stumps all go under the
furrow, out of sight, and observe the clean, mellowed surface
of the plowed land, I feel more enthusiasm over my achieve-
ment than comes from my encounters in public life in
Washington."

In 1852 Samuel A. Knox patented a method of forming a

150 POWER AND THE PLOW

moldboard on mathematical principles and is given credit for
being the first to lay down all the lines of a plow on a plane sur-
face. His plow was of light draft, but pulverized the furrow
very little, hence did not meet with the approval of the Eastern
plowmen so well as the same type when later presented to
prairie farmers.

In order to bring out the existing merits of the plows and
ascertain certain principles in design and construction, the New
York Agricultural Society in 1850 and again in 1867 held
famous trials which provided a fund of information for inventor,
maker, and farmer alike. Gould's report of the latter in the
" Transactions of the New York Agricultural Society" is believed
to be the first attempt at a complete history of plows and a
discussion of their principles. A larger part of the foregoing
information has been abstracted from this source. Many
improvements have been made since then in the materials
from which plows are constructed, but changes in the shape
have been in detail rather than principle and need not be
further reviewed.

Gould does not mention the progress that had taken place
in the West in the art of plowmaking, but pioneer inventors
had met and solved problems which were as great as had been
encountered in the East. The early emigrants to the prairies
of Illinois and Iowa found new conditions — tough sod, diffi-
cult soils, and larger areas — under which their older plows were
hopelessly inefficient.

In the colonial period the cultivated land was largely that
which had been cleared of timber. It was generally porous
and penetrable, with neither old clay land's tendency to stick
and bake, nor the mat of living and dead grass, which, above
and below the surface, harassed the pioneer plowmen of the
plains. The great variation in the soils of a single New Eng-
land field made it next to impossible to adjust the plow to the
nature of the soil, and as a rule cast iron plows scoured well
enough anyhow. Again, farming was hardly on the commer-

THE PLOW IN AMERICA 151

cial scale which now prevails in the West — rather the home-
spun type, where, as already pointed out, the average farmer
raised a variety of products for his own use, with a small sur-
plus to exchange for the few articles of commerce indulged
in at that time.

The long, gently curving moldboard, with friction reduced
to a minimum, enabled the farmer to uproot the stubborn sod
with the""nTSritecr power at his disposal, and other tillage im-
plements were devised to make up for the deficiencies of the
plow as a pulverizer^ The firm, tenacious nature of the sooT
permitted the use of curved wrought iron rods in place of the
steel moldboard, and many "prairie sod breakers" of this type
are still used. They are slightly cheaper, and give equally
good results. As the country grew older, the "timber" soils
lost their high content of vegetable matter under the careless
methods of farming, and complaints were heard regarding the
scouring in the sticky ground. From the very first the prairie
sods presented the same problem to the plowmaker.

It is not known who discovered that a high grade of steel
would scour under Western conditions, but the first recorded
construction of a steel plow took place in Chicago in 1833.
John Lane, the builder, took three lengths of steel cut from an
old saw to fashion his moldboard, and another for the share.
All four were fastened to a frame, or anchor wing, which served
as the shin of the plow. For several years he continued to buy
up old saws from which to make plows, until he had exhausted
the supply. Fortunately, he was finally able to secure from
Pittsburg saw blanks of sufficient width so that two were
enough for a moldboard, and about 1839 or 1840 he obtained
a special width, rolled twelve inches wide, that, as one writer
says, "gave quite a boom to the infant industry."

John Deere, a blacksmith at Grand Detour, 111., built hi
1837 three steel plows, one of which is still in existence. More
fortunate than Lane, he obtained an old sawmill saw from
which to form his one-piece share and moldboard. Two

152

POWER AND THE PLOW

John Deere's first plow, 1837

years later he made ten plows, and their success led him to
make greater efforts to secure satisfactory material. After
buying abroad for some tune the steel which he could not

obtain in this country either
in the desired quality or
quantity, he finally secured
steel made especially for his
purpose. James M. Swank,
in his "History of Iron in
All Ages," says: "The
first slab of plow steel
ever rolled in the United States was rolled by William
Woods at the^steel works ofjones & Quigg, and shipped to
John Deere in Molme,"lH7^ Deere moved his factory to Mo-
line in 1847, and two years afterward was making ten thou-
sand plows annually. His factory still bears his name,
and, as does also the one established by William Parlin at
Canton, 111., in 1842, produces an enormous output of steel
plows.

t-~ .The credit due these men for the development of steel plows
must be extended also to John Lane, inventor of soft-centre steel
and son of the maker of the first steel plow. On September
16, 1869, he received his patent on a plate consisting of two lay-
ers of high carbon steel on either side of a soft centre, a material
which proved easy to temper without warping, and resistant
to strains in service. In its manufacture a billet of soft steel
two inches is placed in a mold six inches square and twelve
inches deep. The high carbon steel is then poured on either
side simultaneously by hand. Great care must be taken to
prevent the molten metal from touching the centre billet un-
til the filling of the mold brings the solid and liquid in contact.
Complete fusion takes place, and the block is then rolled to
the proper thickness, retaining an equal depth of the three
layers. A Mr. Morrison brought out about the same time a
steel with a soft backing, which was less easy to temper, and

THE PLOW IN AMERICA 153

later a cheaper but rather uncertain process of hard-tempering
the outer surface to an equal depth was discovered. Lane's
process, which has been generally adopted, has proved worth
untold millions to Western farmers in the saving of power, as
well as the certainty of being able to plow under what has been
regarded as unfavorable conditions.

What Lane's invention was to the tiller of the prairie, James
Oliver's was to the farmer of the "Eastern States. From the
time of Ransome and Stevens efforts had been made to harden
the wearing parts, but credit for the practical development
of the idea is due to Oliver. He began his experiments at
South Bend, Ind., in 1853, received a patent on the chilling
process in 1868, and so perfected it near the close of 1873 that
his name~Ts~~stIII inseparably linked with the chilled plow in
all parts of the world. In the making of the chilled castings,
iron OF lnw-ofl.rhnn at-fiftl is rnr) info a mqld^jthe front side of
wEich is a metal vessel filled with water. This chills the
molten nietaT quickly, causing the fibre to run perpendicular
to the surface, so that the wearing action on the moldboard is
like that across the end of a bundle of sticks. The back of
the casting runs on sand, hence coojs more slowly, is lessjiard,
and istougher. An annealing and tempering process renders
the share and moldboard more resistant to strains. The
chilled surface takes a much higher land polish than cast
iron, hence will scour in more difficult soils.

The sulky, or wheel, plow has been developed in the last
thirty or forty years, fully half of which was spent in work
upon the old style two-wheeled plow. In 1843 T. D Burral,
of Geneva, N. Y., first used an inclined wheel to reduce the
friction of the landside, placing it between the latter and the
moldboard. His plow was not a success, but the idea con-
tained the germ of the "staggered" wheel now in common
use.

H. Brown, in 1844, combined several plow bases in a gang
supported on wheels. E. Goldthwait, in 1851, patented a

154 POWER AND THE PLOW

,x

fore carriage — i.e., a two-wheeled frame supporting a plow
not unlike the usual walking plow — and two years later C. R.
Brinckerhoff patented a similar construction. Several patents
on gangs, including that of Aaron Smith, preceded the patent
issued to M. Furley in 1856 on a sulky plow with one base.
Numerous other patents followed rapidly, but the first suc-
cessful riding plow was a gang plow patented by F. S. Daven-
port February 9, 1864. JDuring the same year Robert Newton,
of Jersey ville, 111., converted one of these gangs into a three-
horse plow, changing the position of the tongue, adding a
three-horse evener and a rolling coulter. His plow had a
wide sale in the next few years.

A single-bottom sulky plow was patented in 1856 by

M. Furley. Gilpin Moore, in 1875, and W. L. Cassaday,
the following year, received patents on sulky plows and
continued for many years to make improvements. The
latter was the first to remove the landside entirely and use a
wheel in its place, the wheel running in the angle of the fur-
row at an inclination of nearly forty-five degrees from the per-
pendicular. In 1884 G. W. Hunt patented the _ first, pi the
three-wheeled riding plows that are now universal. One
inclined wheel ahead in the old furrow, and one following in
the new, "hug" the furrow wall and hold the plow steady with-
out the use of a fixed tongue, thus greatly relieving the strain
upon the horses.

Many other inventors since have contributed improvements
in detail, but aside from combining sulky plows into gang
plows of two or more bottoms no radical innovations have
come about since the work of the men already mentioned.
Moore, Oliver, and others adapted the shape of the moldboard
to countless soil conditions, until several hundred shapes are
now made by each of the largest factories. The unit horse-
drawn plow once perfected, the combination into gangs has
been a much simpler problem. Invention, largely through
Americans, has again reached that stage with regard to the

THE PLOW IN AMERICA

155

moldboard plow for animal power where it seems impossible
to secure greater perfection. American plow-builders are
shipping their product by the millions annually to the newly

Suction of the plow — landward

Suction of the plow — downward.

developing fields of Canada, Russia, the Argentine, to Mexico,
Spain, Australia, France, England, even to the cradle of the
modern plow — Scotland itself.

While the majority of inventors were devoting their atten-
tion to the moldboard plow, a few developed the disk plow,
largely with the idea of reducing the draft caused by the slid-
ing friction of the moldboard. In this they were only par-
tially successful, if at all, but they succeeded in producing a plow
which would work well under extreme conditions. Professor
Davidson, of Iowa State College, covers the essential consid-
erations thus: "In soils where the moldboard plow will do
good work there is nothing to be gained by the use of the disk
plow. The draft is often heavier for the amount of work done
and the plow itself is more clumsy than the other form. How-
ever, in sticky soils, where the moldboard will not scour, the
disk plow can often be made to do good work. Again, in very
hard ground, where it is impossible to plow with the mold-

156 POWER AND THE PLOW

board plow, the disk will work, and apparently with much
less draft. The manufacturers of both disk and moldboard
plows are now recommending generally the use of the latter
for soils where it does good work. " This opinion is supported
by that of other prominent agricultural engineers, and may be
accepted as presenting adequately the adaptation of the two
types.

One of the earliest patents in disk plows was granted to
M. A. and I. M. Cravath, of Bloomington, 111. Their plow
consisted of three disks, each cutting a narrow strip, and proved
that the principle could be applied in practice. It was defec-
tive in means for counteracting the side pressure. J. K. Under-
wood obtained several patents, including one for a three-wheeled
frame. D. H. Lane proposed to keep the plow in line with
the furrow by a wheel running in the rear of the disk. M. T.
Hancock finally succeeded in making the disk plow practical,
and it now has a wide popularity in sections where condi-
tions favor its use.

The development of engine gang plows, which was the
logical outgrowth of the extension of traction plowing, has
largely taken place since the beginning of the twentieth cen-
tury. The introduction of a new source of motive power
involved the plowmaker in new difficulties. The hitching of
modern horse plows behind engines resulted in outfits as crude
and unwieldy as oxen and the "Bull" plows of a century pre-
vious. Fortunately, Yankee invention, sharpened by com-
petition, aided by marvelous manufacturing equipment, and
directed by the far-seeing eyes of up-to-date sales and experi-
mental organizations, was quicker to respond to the new need,
and in less than a decade the plow has again caught up with
the motive power in its state of perfection.

No one man can be given credit for any important step in
the development of the engine gang: it was rather the work of
many minds, impressed all at once with a new, swift-arising
situation. The early types were of inflexible construction^

THE PLOW IN AMERICA 157

several plow bottoms held rigidly in a single frame. These
were more compact, each gang cutting three to six furrows,
but, besides being heavy to throw out of the ground, they
failed to adapt themselves to uneven surfaces. Combination
of these units into loads for the largest engines presented
difficulties in the way of suitable hitches. Steam-lift plows
solved the one difficulty, and were even more compact. They
were too expensive, however, and have quite largely given way
to hand-lift types embodying their compactness, but much
more simple in construction. To-day the latter stand represen-
tative of the highest type of agricultural implement.

From the war club of the first true agriculturist to the steel
plow of to-day is a step which embraces all the history of civ-
ilization. From development of the human muscle, which
gave power to the Egyptian sarcle, to the mighty engines which
draw our modern gang plow is a far wider step. No less is
the gap between the plow factory of to-day and the laborious
task of the savage who first shaped a pointed weapon by rub-
bing one stick upon another or a stone. The history of man in
all ages records the utilization of the highest opportunities
within his grasp. The plow has advanced only as the ac-
cumulation of knowledge has taught what should be its shape,
as instruments and materials for shaping it have developed,
and as blind superstition and ignorant prejudice have with-
drawn their opposition to progress. The sarcle, refined into
the form still in use, affords a subject for a painting like Millet's
"The Spaders," or "The Man with the Hoe." In a modern
commonwealth the ancient breast plow, driven by a weary
toiler of the soil, still bears occasional aid to the sustenance of
mankind. But these are only the exceptional, the enforced,
variations from the rule. The modern plow has wrested an
abundance from the soil. Animals harnessed to it have freed
the peasant from the heaviest of all tasks, and given him
leisure to advance in knowledge. The world now rests in
confident anticipation of the farm's certain surplus. Civili-

158 POWER AND THE PLOW

zation and the plow have gone together, and whatever advance-
ment of humankind we may look forward to will surely be
paralleled by perfection now unattained in that noblest of
instruments. Fitting it is that the United States Government
should place the plow prominently on the great seal of its
Department of Agriculture.

XVI

PLOWS FOR ANIMAL POWER

ONLY a small percentage of all the thousands of pat-
ented plow forms remain in use, yet the variations in
modern plows are so great as to render a complete
classification next to impossible. The essential
features, however, are well defined. Plows for use with
animal power may first be divided into walking and riding,
the latter including sulky and gang plows. The single mold-
board plow is the most common, though double moldboard,
reversible, and two-way plows are made for special purposes.
Cast iron or steel, Bessemer steel, soft centre steel, chilled iron,
wrought steel, malleable iron, and wood all enter into the con-
struction, and various attachments added to the essential
features multiply the possible combinations.

The features of the single moldboard are landside, frog, brace,
beam, clevis, handles, and coulter. The share forms the
horizontal cutting edge and joins the moldboard to form the
"shin," which cuts the land vertically. The point is the part
which first enters the ground, and the heel or wing is the outer
extremity of the cutting edge. The share is sometimes welded
to the landside bar and called a "bar" share. Otherwise it
is called a "slip" share. The "sock" share, a very old style
which is still used largely on English and Scotch models, fits
over a tongue on the lower end of the moldboard. One type
is known as a "slip nose" or "cutter" share, in which the share
and shin are cast in one piece. This protects the moldboard,
and when worn may be renewed at less cost than the latter.

159

160

POWER AND THE PLOW

A separate shin piece is provided on some types. The share
and landside are often made of cast iron or soft, natural temper
steel on the cheaper plows, but often of hardened soft-centre

Parts of a plow

or chilled steel. The cast share is more apt to break under a
strain, but wears longer. It is often used with a steel mold-
board in sandy soils, combining the cheapness and wearing

PLOWS FOR ANIMAL POWER 161

qualities of the former with the lightness and elasticity of the
latter. Some share points, as well as the shin of the moldboard
and the heel of the landside, are reinforced with extra material
on account of the heavy wear on those places. To avoid the
rapid narrowing of the furrow as the heel wears away some
shares are given a truncated (blunt) heel, the edge of which
is almost parallel to the landside.

The moldboard receives the furrow from the share and turns
it. Its shape has been and will be discussed elsewhere. The
landside counteracts the side pressure caused by the cutting
and turning of the furrow. Most plows are given "suction" —
i.e., the lower face of the landside is raised in the middle from
a straight line drawn from point to heel. This is to cause the
plow to enter the soil easily and run at the proper depth in spite
of the lift by the traces on the end of the beam. The suction
is usually about one eighth of an inch, being increased for hard
ground and often dispensed with entirely in light soils.

The cast shoe, or heel plate, often used under a steel landside
saves wear and affords the necessary bearing surface. It is
adjustable as to width, as required for different soils, and for
depth, so that as the plow point wears off the heel can be raised
to keep the plow in the ground. In addition to the downward
suction the landside is usually made concave by turning the
point of the share outward from one eighth to three eighths
of an inch. This is for the purpose of making the plow "take
land" — i. e., cut full width. The effect of these deviations from
a straight line between point and heel is to increase the draft,
as more power must be applied to overcome the tendency of
the plow to run toward the land and deeper. The plow runs
less steadily, the motion being a succession of jumps, the effect
of which may be seen on the bottom of the furrow, and the
presence of concavity on either face of the landside is really a
confession of wrong adjustment to the plow. Prof. J. W.
Sanborn, who, next to Gould, has probably made more draft
tests of plows than any other man, found the dipping of the

162 POWER AND THE PLOW

point on the base to cause about 9 per cent, increase in draft
and the angling of the point on the landside about 16
per cent, increase. Mr. Sanborn made trials of the same plow
before and after changing the shape, also of a new plow from
which the angles had been removed.

The lessening of draft by slanting the share and shin of
the plow has caused the opinion that inclining the landside
also reduces the draft by giving a drawing cut. The fallacy
of this is apparent when it is remembered that angles in but
two planes are possible to the line of direction. The plow meets
the earth squarely and the beveling of the landside does not
tend to reduce the draft. It does, however, tend to equalize
the motion of the plow, as shown in Mears's invention, and it
has the further effect of giving a diamond-shaped furrow which
will topple over of its own weight when the width and breadth
of a furrow are nearly equal. Ox plows of the present day are
also made with beveled landside, because the slow motion of
the oxen does not give enough velocity to the furrow to throw
it over without an extreme twist to the moldboard. Land-
sides are of different heights, the highest being used for stubble
plows, on account of the depth of furrow.

The frog is the foundation to which the landside, share,
and moldboard are fastened. It may be made of cast iron or
wrought steel. Connection may be by removable bolts and
rivets, or a solid weld. The brace separates the landside and
share and holds them rigidly. The beam connects the plow
bottom with the hitch. Wooden beams are rapidly giving
way to steel, owing to the scarcity of suitable timber. The
wooden beam is lighter, and while more easily broken than
steel is more elastic and will spring back into place after a
severe strain, so that the adjustment of the plow will not be
disturbed. They are more cumbersome, however, and at a
disadvantage in trashy ground. The more expensive steel
beams are composed of 60 to 80 point carbon steel as com-
pared to 30 or 40 point for the cheaper beams. The lower

PLOWS FOR ANIMAL POWER 163

grade is cheaper to manufacture, not only because the cost
of materials is less but because more labor and equipment are
required for handling the higher carbon steel. The softer
metal has a coarse grain which becomes fractured if a beam is
sprung. Even if straightened it will easily bend again at the
same point. The higher quality of steel is more elastic and
can be restored again to its original condition.

A low, rather straight beam, curved to join the plow bottom,
is used on prairie breakers. On stubble plows the beam is
usually higher and has greater curvature, so as to clear the
trash and weeds. For stubble plowing in very hard ground
a high beam with a goose neck is necessary to keep the plow
in the ground. On wooden beam plows and on some gang
plows where a perfectly straight beam is used a cast standard
sometimes connects the beam with the share, moldboard, and
landside, taking the place of the frog. The higher the beam
the greater the possible adjustment as to depth and the greater
the ease with which a rolling coulter can be used.

The clevis, or bridle, as it was formerly called, is provided
for connecting the plow beam with the eveners. It is made
so that the plow may be adjusted for depth and width simply
by changing the position of the pins in the clevis. The handles,
which are usually fastened to the beam and the moldboard
or the frog, are provided for the use of the plowman in lifting
and guiding the plow. The modern plow, however, should
run easily with very little guiding by the operator. Handles
are usually of wood, although steel is being used to an increas-
ing extent. The coulter, or cutter, is provided to aid in severing
the furrow slice from the land. It may be fastened to the
landside of the share, extending upward out of the ground, in
which case it is known as a fin coulter. This type is quite
efficient for breaking sod, but much less so for stubble plowing.
The coulter may extend downward from the plow beam, the
other end either fastened to the plowshare or left free. A
plow thus rigged with standing cutter requires special knowledge

164 POWER AND THE PLOW

and care in order to secure the best results. This is because
the set of the cutter alone may be made to rum the work of
the plow by guiding it to take too much or too little land in spite
of any change of hitch at the clevis. The rule is to set a stand-
ing coulter as if it had no thickness. Whenever the plowman
finds that it is leading the plow, which will be indicated by the
plow's swinging climbing, and running unsteadily, he will
find the remedy by adjusting it to or from the land, as
required, by means of wedges under the shank. The
rolling coulter is usually connected to the plow beam by a
swivel shank and socket, being kept in line by the resistance of
the soil.

A form of coulter known as the jointer consists of a minia-
ture plow which is adjusted to the beam forward of the point
of the share. This cuts a small ribbon-like furrow which is
thrown in the bottom of the larger one and thus does away with
the fringe of grass or weeds which might otherwise project
above the plowed field. Where the soil is apt to drift, as on
the Great Plains, this fringe is desirable, as it catches and holds
the soil and snow. In the Eastern and Central States, where
these conditions do not exist, the jointer is popular because of
the burying of all vegetation, and because it enables a rather
deep furrow to be completely inverted.

Among the useful attachments to plows is the harrow attach-
ment, which may be attached to the rear and usually to the
right of the plows on sulky and gang types. It may be com-
posed of solid disks, knives, or propeller-like sections. By pul-
verizing the soil immediately it requires little power as com-
pared with the harrowing done later. It also checks any loss
of moisture by at once covering the soil with a dust mulch.
Another is the fore carriage for walking plows adopted from
France. This consists of a furrow wheel, a ground wheel of
somewhat less diameter, a connecting crossbar, and means
whereby the depth can be adjusted. This takes the place of
the gang wheel and to some extent aids in regulating the width

PLOWS FOR ANIMAL POWER 165

of furrow. The plow is made easier to guide in hard ground,
with more even plowing as a result.

The plow bottom is composed of the moldboard, share, brace,
frog, and landside. Stubble and breaker bottoms are usually
made interchangeable, so that on sulky and gang plows the
same frame may be used for different purposes. Riding plows
have usually three wheels, the larger of which runs upon the
unplowed ground. There are two wheels with inclined axles,
one running in the old and one in the new furrow. These take
the place of the landside in guiding the plow. The plow beam
is attached to the frame by means of bails, and suitable levers
are provided to adjust the depth of plowing. The width is
adjusted by a lever which changes the direction of the furrow
wheels. Nearly all sulky and gang plows are provided with
frames and nearly all have tongues by means of which the
plow can be steered and backed.

Gang plows are simply combinations of sulky plows, al-
though the sulky plow usually has a wider bottom than the
gang. Sixteen inches for the sulky plow and fourteen inches for
the gang are the most common, although twelve-inch and
eighteen-inch bottoms are to be had. The variation in plow
shapes has already been touched upon. The moldboard is
of course the most important source of variation. The short,
steep, sharply curving moldboard is used in the stubble plow,
and the low, narrow, gently curving type for the prairie breaker.
The intermediate plows are adapted to different soils and
different conditions. One experienced plow designer says
that with the exception of the necessary graduation from one
extreme to the other the minor differences in shape are due
almost entirely to local whims. To a large extent these dif-
ferences are recognized by the larger manufacturers. In many
sections, however, farmers persistently cling to some shape
which by reason of its extreme localization is not profitable
for the large manufacturer to dally with. This accounts for
the existence in many out of way places of small plow

166 POWER AND THE PLOW

factories or even an occasional old-time plowwright. Plows
with wooden moldboards are still made in various parts of
the South.

The designer, before referred to, says that it is a curious
thing in plow adaptation that where one shape will work ad-
mirably one season it will not work at all the next year under
apparently the same conditions. There will be a vast difference
in scouring, with nothing to account for it except that the action
of the winter may produce physical and chemical changes in
the soil to affect the efficiency of the plow.

XVII
PLOWS FOR MECHANICAL POWER

THE ideal engine gang plow has not as yet been devel-
oped, but one or more of the essentials have been
realized in every principal type yet offered. It must
be compact, strong, durable, simple, easily manip-
ulated, cheap, light of draft, and, above all, efficient.
Analyzed as a plow for mechanical power, the horse plow is
desirable only on account of its cheapness and light draft.

In the early stages of steam plowing, however, devices for
hitching horse plows to the engine necessarily received a great
deal of attention. Besides the cumbersome webs of chain and
cable which were developed, some so-called plow hitches were
brought out. One of these which had a considerable sale was
a combination of tender and plow frame. A shallow, triangular
water tank was hitched with the base toward the engine, and
the horse plows were attached to the rear or oblique side of
the tank. The development of plowing engines with larger
tank capacity and the introduction of more suitable plows
rendered this makeshift unnecessary.

Practically all traction plowing is now done with specially
designed engine gang plows. Both disk and moldboard types
are made in large numbers. They present a great variation in
size and in the features that distinguish them from horse plows.
In the main they are very satisfactory, and to their develop-
ment, quite as much as to the improvement in tractors, may be
attributed the rapid advance during the decade in plowing by
mechanical power.

167

168 POWER AND THE PLOW

Moldboard engine gangs may be divided into hand-lift and
power-lift types. Those of the hand-lift type may again be
divided in two general classes :

(1) With bottoms combined into a rigid frame, which is
raised and lowered as unit by one lever.

(2) With bottoms attached either singly or in pairs to one
independent frame, each bottom or pair of bottoms being
controlled by a separate lever.

The former are known as "solid" gangs and the latter as
"flexible hitch" gangs. The term "flexible," however, is used
also to distinguish from a rigid frame of the latter type one
which is jointed to adapt it to work in uneven ground. Engine
gang plows, especially the flexible types, are usually more effi-
cient than horse plows. The point of hitch is lower, and the
distance from the point of hitch to the centre of resistance
greater. The line of draft is thus more nearly parallel with
the base line and there is less loss of power through the opposi-
tion of forces. From the point of hitch on the drawbar to
the centre of resistance of an engine gang plow is frequently
from twelve to eighteen feet, with a descent of only eighteen
to twenty inches. From the point of a horse's shoulder to
the ground is about fifty inches, and from that point to the
centre of resistance only eleven or twelve feet; hence there is
greater tendency to lift the point of the plow from its true posi-
tion. This tendency must be overcome by giving it, either
through suction or the curvature of the beam, a natural incli-
nation to run into the ground. The more nearly the centre of
resistance moves along the line of draft the more easily the
plow will "swim," and the fewer will be the undulations left
on the bottom of the furrow from jumping. Unfortu-
nately, the majority of engine gang, plowmakers seem to
have overlooked this point and simply transferred the horse-
plow bottom to the engine gang without correcting the
unnatural, but perhaps necessary, curvature of beam and
landside.

PLOWS FOR MECHANICAL POWER 169

Where a number of furrows are plowed at once, as with
the engine gang, they are more uniform. Only the outside
furrow will vary in width provided the plows are given and
hold their proper adjustment. The bottoms tend to hold each
other in line, especially if provided with buffers which allow
free play vertically and but a slight amount sidewise. Fre-
quently, however, the connection between beam and plow
frame is weak, and where no other means is provided for pre-
serving the alignment, the furrows cut by the same sized bot-
toms will vary several inches in width. The depth of furrow
should be, and usually is, quite constant, with the flexible
plows; hence a more uniform seed bed is secured than where
several rounds are made with horse plows in covering the
same ground. Especially is this true if several teamsters, each
with his own idea of plowing, are working in the same field.

Engine plows are made heavier and stronger in beam and
standard than those for horses, since an engine will not, of
itself, stop in time to avert damage to the plows in case of
a solid obstruction. The bulk of the extra weight lies in the
frame, however, which must span a wider interval, yet remain
absolutely rigid between points of support. A common walking
plow weighs about 125 Ibs., a sulky plow about 375 Ibs., and a
two-furrow horse gang about 325 Ibs., per bottom. A solid
engine gang weighs 350 to 450 Ibs. per bottom, and the large
flexible hitch gangs 600 to 800 Ibs. The additional weight
of frame is carried on rather small, though broad, wheels,
which largely overcome the advantage secured in engine gang
by changing the line of draft.

Something of the added cost of constructing engine plows
is shown by the following relative prices: A walking plow
costs from $10 to $16; and a sulky, $30 to $35. A two-furrow
gang costs from $25 to $30 per bottom; a disk-engine gang plow
about $30; a solid moldboard engine gang about $40; a large
flexible hitch gang about $75; and a steam-lift plow $100 to
$125 per bottom.

170 POWER AND THE PLOW

RIGID GANGS

The solid gang is ordinarily made with from three to six
bottoms, with provision for removing one bottom to adapt the
plow to harder service. The width of cut is from twelve to
sixteen inches for each share, fourteen niches being the most
common. The largest size of bottom is often chosen on ac-
count of greater clearance between bottoms, fewer beams, etc.,
and the less time required to change shares for a given total
width of furrow. Plows of this type usually consist of an open
framework, which is made up of the beams, braces, and tie
bars; three or four carrying wheels, the rear one of which is
sometimes replaced by a shoe; three or four levers for regulat-
ing the depth, steering and lifting the plow; the plow bottoms;
and either rolling or fine coulters. Sometimes a seat attachment
may be included, also a footboard for the operator. More
often, however, he is obliged to walk behind the plows to
manipulate the levers.

Right-hand plows are universal. The bottoms are set
obliquely from right to left to afford clearance between the
landside of one and the share of the next. The rear wheel or
shoe on a rigid gang usually runs in the last furrow next the
land and the right-hand forward wheel in the last furrow of
the previous round. The furrow wheels may be inclined,
or staggered, to offset side thrust, and all the wheels are some-
times flanged to prevent side slippage. Where four wheels
are used the weight is more evenly distributed than on three,
but in uneven ground four points of contact more frequently
disturb the evenness of depth. The depth may be regulated
by an axle bent in the form of a crank or by raising and lowering
the frame on an upright extension of the axle. The levers
extend to the rear, where no running board is provided. They
are usually of steel, made long, to facilitate lifting. Lifting
springs also aid in overcoming the weight. For transport,

PLOWS FOR MECHANICAL POWER 171

the plow points may be raised from five to twelve inches on
different makes. Castered wheels on one type make it easily
possible to trail several sections one behind the other for
passage through narrow openings.

Since in these rigid gangs the bottoms are held rigidly, irregu-
larities of the ground surface cause the furrows to be of
uneven depth, some plows running deep and others skimming
or skipping entirely. An obstruction before one plow lifts
several out at one time, and an accident to one may put the
entire set out of commission. For these reasons the smaller
sizes of three to five bottoms are more popular than the larger,
even though the latter are more compact. On one type each
bottom is held in place by a device which allows it to be thrown
upward without damage in case it strikes a stone or root.
While in service, however, the bottoms are prevented from
adapting themselves to uneven surfaces.

For small tractors solid gangs of lighter construction and
adapted to either horse or engine hitch are often used singly.
For larger engines it is necessary to combine several plow units.
Cables, rods, and chains are used to hitch them behind the
engines, the hitch usually being devised to fit the particular
case in hand. Where an engine is not equipped with a wide
plowing drawbar, it is necessary to attach the cables or chains
to a crossbar and thus hitch to the centre of the engine. Since
the wheels of each gang must clear those of the one preceding,
the combination of from one to four units renders the outfit
long and unwieldy. This is especially true if, for the sake
of flexibility, small gangs are used. The long cables are apt
to become fouled in turning to the right, and in plowing around
corners strips between the gangs are usually left unplowed.
Castered wheels and a special coupling device on one type are
claimed to render the outfit capable of turning in either direc-
tion and plowing perfectly around corners, the total width of
cut being reduced of course on the turn.

The practice of combining plow bottoms in a rigid gang has

172 POWER AND THE PLOW

now been practically discarded, especially for large power units.
On the Pacific Coast, however, the large ranchers still use
many Stockton gangs, these being cheap and fairly effective
modifications of the moldboard gangs. On a triangular wooden
frame are fixed from three to eight rigid iron standards, each
holding a reversible plow shape. Each plow cuts a furrow
eight to ten inches wide and of shallow depth, stirring, rather
than turning, the soil. This plow was originally designed as
a cultivator, but has been adopted as an engine gang plow by
large land owners who adhere to the exploitive type of farming.
With the large engines used in that section, a strip thirty to
forty feet wide is often plowed at one time and as high as
ninety to one hundred acres skimmed in one day. The result-
ing outfits are unwieldy, and will undoubtedly give way also
to those using larger and more compact plow units, with the
capacity for deeper and better plowing.

FLEXIBLE ENGINE GANGS

The flexible hitch moldboard gangs range in size from four
to sixteen bottoms. The smallest frames are made lighter for
use with small tractors, and some are arranged to use from four
to six bottoms according to the nature of the soil. The six-
teen-bottom size is made only for extremely light soils. Ordi-
narily the frames are made to accommodate from six to twelve
bottoms, with an extension providing for one or two more if
desired.

The hand-lift gangs consist of frame, carrying wheels, plat-
form, plow bottoms, levers, hitches, gauge wheels, and coulters.
The frame is triangular in general outline, built up of steel
parts, which are solidly trussed and riveted into a rigid whole.
The large gangs are sometimes made with flexible frames,
which adapt themselves to uneven ground. On several of
these the frame is made up of two sections, each of which may
be converted into a separate frame for use with a smaller engine.

PLOWS FOR MECHANICAL POWER 173

A solid wooden platform, usually laid on in sections, covers
the frame and affords ample room for the operator, a toolbox
and miscellaneous supplies. Usually it extends far enough
forward so one may step to it from the engine.

The carrying wheels are about 25 inches in diameter, with
tires from 6 to 8 inches wide. In some types three wheels are
used, one near each point of the triangle. On others four are
used, two on either side. In this case one wheel on the right
side follows the frame. The objection already mentioned as to
four points of contact is perhaps less forcible in a flexible hitch
plow, but in uneven ground the running of the plows is affected
nevertheless. One three-wheeled type has a wheel at the
rear corner, one on the right side behind the oblique tie bar,
and one in the centre in front, thus practically reversing the
usual triangle. The front wheels on nearly all types are
castered to facilitate turning, and in one case all four are
pivoted. One plow has two caster- wheels on the left-hand
side, connected with a steering lever. By this means the plow
can be turned in less radius than the engine and backed into
any desired position with the help of a stiff pushbar. For
breaking in rough ground long skids are sometimes used advan-
tageously in place of wheels as they cause the frame to run
more nearly level.

The shares and moldboards vary according to the spil in
which they are to be used, but depart little or none at all from
horse-plow shapes. This accounts largely for the adoption
of a low speed of travel j>n plowing tractors. The beams are
longer than on horse plows, in order to give the clearance neces-
sary in trashy ground. One type, especially constructed as a
general purpose plow, combines a long beam, a high standard,
and no landside, minimizing the danger of choking. For
breaking sod the beam might be set quite low without difficulty
from choking, but this interferes with the use of a rolling coulter.
For stubble plowing and "backsetting" (turning back a layer
of sod with an extra inch or so of dirt on top of it) the high

174 POWER AND THE PLOW

beam and rolling coulter are essential. Otherwise the loose
trash and sod will gather ahead of the shin and throw the
plow out of the ground.

The beam may be arched and connected directly to the frog,
or straight, in which case a heavy casting usually serves as a
standard. The casting is shaped so as to form, with the straight
beam, a curved throat that will clean easily. If broken it may
be replaced by any one, and the straight beam, if bent, may
have its alignment restored by any blacksmith. A sprung
beam will destroy the adjustment of the plow, and without the
factory equipment it is practically impossible to restore a
curved beam to its original shape. These conditions have
led to the adoption of the straight beam on most plows of this
type. One plow has provision for replacing one of the bolts
connecting the beam and standard with a wooden pin. Where
solid obstructions are met, the breaking of the pin prevents
damage to the plow bottom. In straight-beam plows a double
beam is customary, the two bars being spread apart in front
to give as wide a hitch as possible and thus brace the beam
against side strains.

The bottoms are now commonly hitched independently or
arranged in independent pairs, thus being free to follow the
irregularities of the ground. When the plows are hitched
singly they follow the ground more closely than those in pairs.
They require quicker work at the levers at the end of the field,
but with the same care will leave the headland more even.
One type has bottoms hitched independently and raised in pairs.
The single-hitch plows have each a trifle more weight than the
double hitch to keep them in the ground, but have a narrower
space between clevises at the point of hitch hence are more
apt to dodge or "wing" — i.e., tilt to one side. The plows
tend to balance each other in the double-hitch type. The single-
bottom plow is less seriously affected by an accident to one
unit. All units, single or double, of the same make, are inter-
changeable, save perhaps where one or more of the beams

PLOWS FOR MECHANICAL POWER 175

straddles a carrying wheel; hence the damaged part may easily
be replaced by an extra bottom or by moving the rear one into
its place. In the latter case, the gang is complete, lacking
only one furrow. For ground of varying hardness the single-
hitch plow offers the nicer adjustment of load to power, though
a single-bottom attachment is now provided by means of
which the double-hitch gang is made more adjustable. Either
is far more adaptable than the solid gang of three or four
bottoms, and much more compact in sizes for large tractors.

The long lifting levers project forward, and are controlled
from the platform. Springs aid the operator in lifting. One
plow has adjustments whereby all the levers may be focused
near the centre of the platform, saving steps hi handling.
The gang is nearly always hitched to the engine by chains,
either crossed or straight, considerable adjustment being pro-
vided. This adapts it to either a high or low drawbar, and
brings the plows, if necessary, to the right of the engine centre,
so that the tractor wheels need not travel on plowed ground.
The attachment of beam to frame needs to be adjustable as
to depth only, since the engine hitch controls the width of the
outside furrow and all others are uniform. A bolt and upright
clevises are common, also various spring hitches. One of the
latter releases a pair of bottoms in case of a solid obstruction.
Another allows the plow to be wrenched sidewise without
springing the beam, while in case of a solid obstruction the gauge
wheel is drawn forward and the plow is lifted until the strain
is released. For the double-bottom hitch a separate clevis is
provided for each beam.

The depth of plowing is regulated by the lifting levers,
ratchets, and gauge_wheels. as well as by the lieight of iEe
hitch to the plow frameT"" Adjustable stops attached to the
ratchets enable the plowinan to return the plows quickly to
the proper depth after lifting at the headland or elsewhere.
On straight-beam plows the adjustment for suction is usually
by means of a set screw, which changes the angle between beam

176 POWER AND THE PLOW

and standard. A set screw at the fore end of the beam also
secures this suction, but at the same time lifts the heel of the
share and causes it to cut at less depth than the point. Set
screws are commonly used on the fore end of the beams to
secure parallel alignment and to level up the bottoms. One
recent design has a device by which the sole of the plow is
claimed to be kept level at all depths.

The depth or gauge wheel is a vital point in the design
of the plow for efficiency. It acts as a fulcrum for the lifting
of the plow and carries the weight of one or two bottoms in
moving from place to place. It should be large, so that minor
irregularities of the surface will not be transmitted to the
furrow. This is particularly desirable in backsetting. At
the same time the wheel should be so attached as to allow deep
plowing in stubble. It should be located so as not to twist
the beam and cause one side of the furrow to be deeper than
the other. It should protect the point of the share. It should
not interfere with the rolling coulter, which by common con-
sent is placed just to the left of the shin of the plow, and just
high enough to clear the shin in swinging. It must not clog
up with trash and dirt.

The kind and position of gauge wheel best complying with
these essentials is an open question. The solid cast wheel
without flanges is successful in avoiding trash. The castered
wheel is used on a few types, being kept in line by earth resis-
tance. Its greatest advantage lies in the fact that in turning
or on striking uneven surfaces it is free to swing and follow
without skidding. This relieves the twisting strain on the
beam caused by the fixed wheel when bearing heavily on one
edge of its rim. On the other hand, with both coulter and
depth wheel castered, interference is more likely.

If the depth wheel is placed directly under a beam of ordi-
nary clearance, or between two closely connected bars of
a straight-beam plow, either it must be too small for general
work or it cannot be raised high enough for deep plowing. A
height of beam of from twenty to twenty-two and one half

PLOWS FOR MECHANICAL POWER 177

inches is provided on the present plows, and practice has shown
that gauge wheels should be at least twelve, preferably four-
teen or sixteen, inches in diameter. Some allowance must
be made for hummocks; hence this construction is apt to limit
the depth, except in breaking. If placed far to one side of
the beam to secure greater depth, or too far forward in order
to clear the coulter, it fails to protect the point of the plow.
In the forward position the shortening of the radius between
it and the hitch increases the difference in elevation between
point and heel of share and causes steps between one furrow
and the next. This is generally objected to by prairie farmers,
though, as previously noted, a truncated furrow is desired by
Scotch farmers as being sharper in outline. A more serious
objection is that in the advanced position the wheel exagger-
ates irregularities of the surface, and the sole of the furrow is
uneven. Moreover, with the added distance between the centre
of resistance and the gauge wheel, the pressure of the latter
on the ground is greatly increased, together with the draft.
On the double-hitch type a fixed gauge wheel is placed be-
tween the plows to the side of one point and considerably ahead
of the other. While this permits of high lift and deep plowing,
it does not offer equal protection to both plows. Not being
placed in line between the two centres of resistance, it acts as
a fulcrum for two lever arms of unequal length, and subjects
the beams to severe twisting strains. On the single-hitch
plows a wheel set too far to one side of the landside plane
has a similar effect. Granting that the rolling coulter's posi-
tion just above and to left of the plow point allows of little
variation, the most practical position for the gauge wheel
seems to be as little to the right of the centre of resistance as
is necessary for clearing the beam in deep plowing, and as nearly
opposite the point of the share as will allow trash to pass freely.
It has even been suggested that the coulter and depth wheel
might be combined to advantage, the former to consist of a
sharp flange attached to the side of the wheel, which in this

178 POWER AND THE PLOW

case would run directly in front of the plow point. The idea
would of course be impracticable for travelling on hard or
sticky ground, but it illustrates well the conflicting require-
ments.

STEAM-LIFT PLOWS

Steam-lift plows differ from the large hand-lift gangs in that,
in place of a platform and lifting levers, they are equipped with
steam cylinders for lifting the plows. Steam is fed from the
engine through flexible connections and the plow may be con-
trolled by the engineer without his leaving the cab. From
four to six plows are lifted by each cylinder, which operates a
boom attached by short chains to the plows. Some types can
be backed into position for turning a square corner by means
of a steering wheel connected by crossed cables with the front
axle of the engine. If one of the enginemen can be spared
occasionally to look after the plows in case of trouble, the
plowman may be dispensed with entirely. Owing to the
added cost of manufacture, the use of the steam-lift feature
has been confined to the larger sizes of from eight to twelve
bottoms. The steam-lift plow uses considerably more coal
and water, is more complicated than the hand-lift, takes longer
to attach and detach, and exposes operators to the danger of
being burned on hot steam pipes. With the coming of the
large hand-lift gang several manufacturers abandoned the
steam-lift feature, but various types of power-lift plows, includ-
ing steam-lift, are constantly being brought forth with a view
to reducing the labor of attendants. A simple and inexpensive
device which would eliminate the plow attendant is demanded
by the trade, especially in the sections where small tractors
prove the most useful.

DISK-ENGINE PLOWS

Disk-engine gangs are made in sizes of from three to twelve
disks. The smaller sizes lack compactness, and the larger

PLOWS FOR MECHANICAL POWER 179

are not well adapted to uneven ground. The disk gang in
itself is necessarily rigid, since any vibration of the frame
under load gives the plows a jumping motion which results in
uneven plowing. The larger gangs, in addition to lacking in
flexibility, fail also in the other extreme, it being impossible
to produce a wide frame of the necessary rigidity without undue
weight. Furthermore, the absence of the landside makes it
necessary for the carrying wheels of the disk plow to counter-
act all the side pressure of the soil. This is excessive where a
large number of disks is carried upon one frame, and the rear
wheel must be weighted heavily to keep the plow in the ground.
The medium sizes of from four to seven disks are now more
popular than either extreme, presenting a compromise between
compactness, flexibility, and ease of steering. They are
usually capable of variation in the number of disks and the
width of cut per disk. For difficult soils one or two more disks
can be added without changing the total width of cut. Each
disk then cuts a narrower furrow, and has better penetration.
The twenty-four-inch disk is most frequently used, though for
sandy soil a size two inches larger is popular on account of its
longer life.

In construction the disk gang is very much like the solid
moldboard gang. In fact, one fairly successful combination
has been offered, either disks or moldboards, or both, being
supplied with the frame. The solid frame is open to the same
objections as the solid moldboard type, and presents the same
problems as to hitching and the securing of uniform depth and
quality of plowing. The frame is necessarily heavier and
stronger than on horse plows and the wheels are usually cast
very heavy, a single wheel weighing as high as 225 pounds for
extremely hard ground. The greater number of makers use
inclined furrow wheels to take part of the pressure off the land
wheels. Castered wheels on most makes permit the gang to
follow the engine closely in either direction, provided the method
of hitch will permit.

180 POWER AND THE PLOW

The levers are like those of the solid moldboard gang in
appearance and function. On some gangs the angle of the
disk to the line of draft is open to adjustment. It is claimed
that if the disk be set so the beveled face on the rear of the
cutting edge is level at the bottom of the furrow and per-
pendicular at the surface of the ground the disks will run practi-
cally without side draft. In addition to setting the disks closer
together, a less abrupt angle can be used to secure better pene-
tration. For trashy ground the disk may be set to have a
coulter-like effect, thus cutting and burying the vegetation
more satisfactorily. A running-board and seat may be pro-
vided. The latter is usually located at the rear, as the weight
of the driver aids in holding the plows in line. Weight boxes
and extra weights are often provided at the rear of each gang.

Castings serve to hold the disks to the frame. The disk
may have a shaft through the centre, with a bearing at either
end, or an axle attached to the rear, or convex, surface only.
In either case the bearing is long, well lubricated, and often
chilled, as the disk must be kept permanently in perfect align-
ment. Ball bearings to receive the end thrust are a valuable
feature. Scrapers are necessary to clean the disks, and they
aid in turning the soil. They are often given a moldboard
curvature to accomplish the latter, and one maker states that
the successful turning of the soil depends more on the size
and adjustment of the scraper than on any other part of the
disk plow.

The hitch to the engine is by the same means as used on
the solid moldboard gangs. However, it must be put close to
the right side of the gang in order to overcome the latter's
tendency to crowd to the left and jump out of the furrow.

The centre of resistance, especially on outfits of one or two
small gangs, is therefore to the right of the centre of the
engine, one disk-plow manufacturer stating that three fourths
of the load is on the right drive- wheel. Greater difficulty
in steering and unequal strain on the engine are the results.

PLOWS FOR MECHANICAL POWER 181

Lengthening the chain between the engine and the rear of the
gant is one common method of changing the angle of the disks.

With twenty-four-inch disks, furrows from four to eight
inches deep and eight to twelve inches wide may be cut. One
prominent designer recommends plowing furrows not less than
five or six inches deep and not over eight inches, preferably
seven, wide. The deeper the furrow the less prominent the
"hogbacks" left on the surface, and at a depth of six inches
a disk cutting not over seven inches wide will break out the
triangular space between it and the next disk and leave the
bottom of the furrow practically level. As a rule, however,
the average user cuts nine or ten inches with each disk, and
many not over four inches deep in the centre of the furrow.
In consequence, while more ground is covered, a seed bed of
uneven depth is formed.

Different makes of disk plows vary considerably in strength
and durability. The frame must be very well braced, and the
castings heavy. Even with the best construction, simplicity
brings the cost low as compared with the best moldboard gangs.
If the disks are properly set and held in place, breakage is much
less frequent than where some play is allowed, and the disks
are to some extent self-sharpening. A twenty-four-inch
disk has nearly four times the cutting edge of a fourteen-inch
share, and being thinner stays sharp longer. The disk plow
rolls over obstructions instead of catching. These items
greatly reduce the cost of repairs, in which should be included
sharpening, as compared with moldboard plows.

The common practice with disk plows is to plow a continuous
furrow around the field without lifting the plows. As the disks
seldom choke up with trash and do not require frequent sharp-
ening, lost time on" account of the plows is less serious. On the
other hand, larger triangles at the corners of the field are
usually left to be plowed out with horses. In rounding the
corners unplowed patches are apt to be left between strips, neces-
sitating extra trips between corner and centre to finish the field.

182 POWER AND THE PLOW

The disk is essentially a pulverizer, hence is not recommended
for sod breaking except in short buffalo g

For breaking, a crusher is usually drawn behind disk plows to
compact the sod and hasten its decomposition. The natural
field for the disk-engine gang is in the South, the Southwest,
and the semi-arid plains. Successful farm management in
those sections often involves plowing at a season of the year
when the ground is too hard and dry for moldboard plows, and
the temperature too great for the use of animal power. As
before stated, however, where either type may be used, the
moldboard is preferable for any power, and for mechanical
power the efficiency of the latest flexible moldboard types is
so far superior as to make their selection practically universal.

XVIII
CONDITIONS AFFECTING THE CHOICE OF PLOWS

AOST of conditions affect the choice of a plow by the
farmers of any given section. Topography and the
kind and conditions of soil are among the most im-
portant. The climate, also, by determining the length
of the plowing season, is a large factor, as well as the area of the
fields to be plowed within that season. The type of farming
which exists determines to some extent the percentage of the
total area plowed each year, and the nature of the crops grown
affects the depth of plowing. The state of cultivation deter-
mines whether or not sod-breaking plows are needed, while
individual or local whims may specify a certain type. The
amount and price of human labor and the power available for
plowing are influential factors, while the financial circumstances
of the farmer may prevent his selection of the equipment
which would be most profitable.

In the New England and North Atlantic States there are
perhaps a greater variety of conditions than anywhere else
in the United States, except in California. The country is
generally rolling, if not rugged; the soil is varied in its com-
position and texture, even in the same field, and it is impossible
to secure plows which will meet all these conditions with equal
success. Stones and sand abound in the soil, which is largely
composed of rocks which have been broken down in place, or
moved at most only a short distance. There is abundant rain-
fall to keep the soil moist enough for easy plowing, and as the
areas plowed are small, the season usually suffices for the

183

184 POWER AND THE PLOW

entire work. Excessive heat is not a drawback at any
time.

The farms are seldom large and are cut up into small, irregular
fields set off by stone fences which were built at the edges of
the early clearings. There is a great deal of small truck farm-
ing, considerable dairying, and many farms on which prac-
tically all the products are used on the farm itself. In the
face of competition with the new and fertile lands of the West
the farmers long ago abandoned grain raising as a commercial
proposition, and much of the land has been allowed to revert
to grazing or meadow land. A small percentage, therefore,
of the cultivated land is plowed each year. There is no virgin
sod to be broken, and only occasionally is an old meadow
brought into rotation.

New England farming suffers from a lack of power, the
horse as a rule being small and of racing rather than draft
stock. The small native horses of 900 to 1000 pounds and the
large Western horses of 1400 to 1500 pounds are not so well
adapted to the greater part of New England as medium weight
horses of the old Morgan stock. To quote L. G. Dodge, of
the U. S. Department of Agriculture: "With the exception of
restricted localities, the lack of efficient horsepower is deplor-
able. Better farming was done, as a rule, twenty-five years
ago, when oxen were used, and plows set at the proper depth.
The average New England farmer is too conservative and
controlled by habit, and he dislikes to adopt new machinery
if the increased cost is at all evident. He lays the lack of
improvement to topography, size of fields, heaviness of draft
of new machinery, etc., when it is in many cases due to
his own inertia or lack of foresight. The lack of suit-
able machinery is one of the greatest hindrances to the
New England farmer's producing profitably. In the face
of high-priced labor he must learn to use machinery in place
of hand labor, and then have suitable horses to draw it,
for horses are cheaper than men in terms of product, and*

THE TRACTOR ACCOMPLISHES ALL AT ONCE

Breaking, crushing and disking with a 120 brake horsepower steam engine

A tractor with extension rims on the wheels double disking and harrowing

Caterpillar type of tractor and combined harvester cutting, threshing

and sacking grain

THE CHOICE OF PLOWS 185

while horses can be bought, it is often impossible to hire men
at any price.'*

The more vigorous native labor has been drawn from the
fields to the factories, and its place taken by immigrants, who
are not accustomed to handling large teams or machinery.
While the scarcity of labor is deplored on every hand, to a
Western farmer the waste involved in the use of one or even
two men with a one-horse plow or cultivator is appalling. In
most cases the returns from the soil are sufficient to justify
the purchase of better equipment, especially when a change
in the system of management would provide larger income.

The best New England farmer wants deep plowing and
effective pulverization, with the furrows completely inverted;
hence the jointer is popular. Under the conditions just enum-
erated, it is evident that the majority of plows are small and
cheap. They are made of cast iron, without riding attach-
ments. Where cast iron will not scour, the chilled steel plow
is used because of the extreme wear among the sandy soils
and loose rocks. On truck farms of the kitchen garden type
the small one-horse plow turning a furrow five or six inches in
width is used, this being the one general use of the single mold-
board plow. Furrows larger than twelve inches are uncommon.
Owing to the steep grades, which make it impossible to turn a
furrow up hill, practically all walking plows are of the hillside
or swivel type. This plow has a reversible bottom, the point
acting alternately as shin and share, and the moldboard being
so shaped as to turn the furrow in either direction. In the
hands of a man who knows how to run it, the hillside plow will
do good work, but even the manufacturers confess their in-
ability to make the plow do as efficient work as the single
moldboard.

To some extent, riding plows are taking the place of hill-
side plows. These are invariably equipped with both right
and left hand bottoms, which work alternately, so that the
furrows are all turned one way. In certain areas, such as

186 POWER AND THE PLOW,

Aroostook County in Maine, Grand Isle County in Vermont,
the Connecticut Valley, and elsewhere, larger fields, gently
sloping or level land, and types of farming producing a larger
income to the acre, encourage the use of larger horses and
implements. The two-way sulky plow, however, is used in
preference to the gang plow, as even on level lands farmers
prefer to have their furrows turned in the same direction.

Extending along the South Atlantic Gulf coasts and back-
ward for a varying distance from the tidewater lies the section
known as the Coastal Plain. This is an area only recently
uplifted from the ocean bed, hence is composed of loose sands
and gravel in an unconsolidated state. The natural drainage
is poor, and artificial drainage has not been effected. Rice,
sea island cotton, and the long-leaf pine are the principal crops.
Around centres of population, and where transportation
facilities are good, trucking is an important industry. The
nature of the soil demands a cast or chilled plow adapted to
shallow work. The trucking industry demands a one-horse
plow, which, however, may be up to twelve inches in width.
Riding plows, chiefly of the reversible disk type, are used by
the better class of farmers on the larger farms.

Here especially, and elsewhere in the South, the lack of
power and efficient labor is creating the demand for engine-
gang plows and suitable tractors. The Southern planter is
rapidly advancing from the "one-mule" subdivision of his farm
to the "thirty-horse tractor" stage. The Negro problem in
the South, like the "hobo" problem hi the West, strengthens
the demand for something that will take production out of the
hands of the inefficient mob and concentrate it in those of
the intelligent few.

Back of the Coastal Plain, and extending parallel with it,
lies the Piedmont Plateau. This is in reality an ancient moun-
tain range worn down to a series of slopes covered with a deep
and fertile soil. Conditions encourage the raising of upland
cotton, tobacco, and in certain altitudes and climates, wheat,

THE TRACTOR ACCOMPLISHES ALL AT ONCE

The individual threshing outfit

Four horses, one man and a plow

Two boys, a tractor and four plows

THE CHOICE OF PLOWS 187

and a diversity of crops. The soils are heavier than on the
Coastal Plain, but have been so long under a one-crop system
that they have lost to a large extent not only their fertility but
their supply of vegetable matter. They are therefore sticky
when wet and very hard when oUy, with a tendency to run to-
gether with a heavy rain, even after plowing.

One of the chief types of farm management in the Piedmont
section is that of the plantation, where large farms are par-
celed out to Negro tenants, who furnish their own equipment.
The Negro's acreage is usually small, and in the absence of
personal capital he must rely upon advances made by the owner
or the storekeeper, who naturally limit him to the bare neces-
sities. The one-crop system is followed, and the ravages of
the boll weevil are such that extensive credit based on the re-
turns of the crops is unwise. The Negro's equipment, there-
fore, is usually limited to a light steer or a decrepit mule, and
the cheapest possible implements, including an eight-inch turn-
ing plow costing about $1.50.

The lack of sufficient power has tended to reduce plowing
to a matter of small teams and plows, since an average of one
work animal per farm laborer is not maintained throughout
the Cotton Belt States. The lack of power results in the gen-
eral use of small moldboard plows adapted to shallow plowing,
although the General Educational Board and the United
States Department of Agriculture, through the cooperative
Demonstration Work founded by the late Dr. S. A. Knapp,
are teaching not only diversified farming, but deeper plowing.
Three and four mule riding plows, frequently reversible, are
thus coming into use. These are usually disk plows, since
they are better adapted to working in hard or sandy ground,
and in land that has once been cultivated but allowed during
a rest period to revert to an overgrowth of timber. Small
double moldboard plows, known as "middle-busters," are used
in cotton fields to break out the middles — i. e., the old roots
from the previous season's planting. Local prejudices and soil

188 POWER AND THE PLOW

conditions determine the exact style used, just as in the case
of the single moldboard plow. Plowing in this section, as in
the entire South, may be done at almost any season of the year.
The climate, however, is one of abundant rainfall during the
winter months and of extreme heat during the late summer
and fall. The bulk of the plowing for small grains and cover
crops is done between August and November, and for cotton
and corn between January and April.

Still further back from the Atlantic Coast, and parallel to
the Piedmont Plateau, lies the Appalachian region, which is
generally too rugged for agriculture. In the broad valleys,
however, farming of the most improved type is practicable
where the transportation facilities allow the marketing of
products. The hillsides are farmed only by a low class of
poor whites, and the plows and customs of this class are little
advanced over those in general use a century ago.

In some sections of the South, particularly hi the Delta
regions of the Mississippi and the so-called black waxy land of
Louisiana and Texas, a sticky, rubbery soil makes necessary
the exercise of the greatest ingenuity in providing plows which
will turn-the smfa.ce. One type of plow has a short steep mold-
board, four mules beingjsQujred to a single plow. No attempt
is made to make these plows scour, the pitch of the moldboard
being sufficient to turn the earth across the surface with the
expenditure of a great amount of power. On the other hand,
a long curving moldboard, not unlike the prairie breaker, is
successfully used when the soil is in a favorable condition of
dryness. In developing the moldboard for this particular
soil type every device which the imagination could suggest was
tried out. A moldboard made^gi^lass failed, as did one com-
posed of rollers. PersisTenlTattempts were made to dry the
earth as^it- pussed over the moldboard with a small furnace
underneath the latter, or even to oil the moldboard, oil being
forced through perforations. The nearest approach to success
under all conditions was a wooden moldboard covered with

THE CHOICE OF PLOWS 189

pigskin. A local farmer with this combination succeeded in
plowing while the various factory experts were experimenting
in vain.

In the North Central States, east of the Mississippi River,
and in Iowa and Missouri, the ground is fairly level or gently
rolling, with good natural drainage. The soils are glacial loams
containing sand, gravel, and loose boulders, some alluvial soils;
some loess, usually known as clay or silt loam, and some tough
sticky "gumbo." The rainfall is moderate, and the heat not
excessive, during the plowing season. The fields and farms
are of moderate size, and in the older states the fields are apt
to be small and irregular.' General farming is tire rulepwrttT
from one third to one half of the cultivated area plowed each
season. Corn and other intertilled crops require deep plowing
— i. e.y five to eight inches, and the small grains something
less. Following intertilled crops, the small grains, especially
oats, are often disked in without plowing. Very little virgin
sod remains to be broken, and the tame sod is usually broken
by general purpose models. The soils require a moldboard
which will take a high land polish, hence the soft-center steel
plow is generally used, with the chilled plow next in point of
popularity.

A large number of horses in proportion to laborers is pro-
vided, and owing to the fact that horse raising is a prominent
industry, the excess of power required at plow time can be
provided for on a great many farms. The work horses are of
large size, probably averaging 1300 pounds in weight. Labor
is scarce and high priced, but as a rule quite efficient in handling
teams and large implements. Sulky and gang plows are natur-
ally adapted to conditions, and the farmers are in position to
purchase the equipment which best serves their purpose.

Engine gang plows of from four to six bottoms are coming
rapidly into favor with the introduction of small tractors of
such horsepower, weight, and flexibility as to speed, as adapt
them to corn belt conditions.

190 POWER AND THE PLOW

In old ground plowing, most farmers desire to have the
furrows^welljpulyerized, hence the prevailing types of mold-
board are the stubBIe and genCTaJ^purppse. For very heavy
soils, even in stubDle~pI6wmg, a long moldboard with less pul-
verizing effect is. used on account of the draft. There are
many waBong plows, even where riding jflows are found on
the same farm. The majority of ^lnw.s aie^right hand, al-
though in parts of Indiana and Ohio "the left-hand moldboard
is insisted upon. There is no difference in the quality of the
orlTnor inTEe~ease of manipulation. A possible explanation
of this preference is that the jerkline largely used in the South
comes handiest on the left or "haw" side. The team is
guided by jerks on a single line, and the guide horse necessarily
walks in the furrow. A few disk plows and a few plows made
especially for ox power are sold in this section.

In the other North Central States west of the Mississippi
River the topography is even less rolling. The soilsjare glacial,
wittu wind-deposited or Pluvial loess" over most of the^ j>rea.
In many sections there are large deposits of "gumbo" soil of
alluvial origin. Soft-center steel is universal as a moldboard
material. Frequently, however, wrought-iron rods take the
place of the moldboard in sod or very^ tenacious soil. The
climate allows work in the fields during a large part of the year,
although, owjn^jtgjthe^fact_that ^pjin^^ajns Daust J>e put in
early, a considerable amount of the plowing must be done late
in the fall. The farms are large, with large fields and few fences.
Practically one half of the total cultivated area is plowed each
year on all farms and on many the entire acreage is plowed,
wild hay for horse feed being cut from the open prairie. Thou-
sands of acres of wild land remain to be broken, and the prairie
breaker is as common as the stubble plow. The Northwest
Provinces of Canada present practically the same conditions,
though large areas of brush land call for a heavy type of plow
known as the brush breaker.

Horse raising is not so successful as in the older sections,

THE CHOICE OF PLOWS 191

owing to the lack of employment during the dry season and the
long winters which require food and shelter for the horses.
The horses, however, are usually of fair size, though many small
horses bred upon the range are in common use. As a rule
farmers are prosperous and able to select the most approved
type of implements. Labor is scarce, high priced, and often
unreliable, and every effort is made to utilize animal or
mechanical power in place of human efforts.

The walking plow is ,not_a^ practical implement for regular
use on the average farnyinjthe Northwest, owing to its waste
of human labor. The large area cultivated makes the two-
furrow gang plows the most generally popular and useful for
use with horses. The large area of level land, free from ob-
structions, has created a remarkable field for the engine gang
plow, and the percentage of plowing done by mechanical power
is rapidly increasing each year. In this section the mold-
board plow is by far the most popular. The disk plow is used
only occasionally, and then almost always in land which has
first been subdued by the use of the moldboard. Where the
soil has much clay or gypsum and lime, the steel moldboard
scours better than the chilled. Cast shares can be used with
either moldboard in all but a few soils, and are cheaper than
the steel "lays." The use of larger animals has been accom-
panied by a gradual increase in the average size of plows, even
in the last decade.

On irrigated farms in the West the two-way sulky plow is
growing in favor, owing to the fact that no dead furrows are
left to interfere with the distribution of water. This is a
curious and unpremeditated adaptation of a plow designed
especially for hilly ground in New England.

Disk plows are used to subdue much of the sage brush prairie
found in the West and Southwest, and the^isk plow increases
in favor^ toward the southern latitudes. The topography and
size of grain farms in Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and New
Mexico favor the use of mechanical power and engine gang

192 POWER AND THE PLOW

plows. Probably four fifths of the traction outfits include
the disk engine gang.

Conditions in the Far Western states require a greater va-
riety of farm equipment than in any other section, and prac-
tically every type of plow found elsewhere in the United States
is used. The land varies from level to mountainous, the farms
from tiny patches of highly valuable fruit and truck crops to
immense grain ranches. All climates and all altitudes are to
be found. The great diversity of crops, the variation in kind
and depth of soil, make the depths of plowing widely different
hi different sections. Not only are the conditions varied in
the extreme, but much more severe than those prevailing east
of the Rocky Mountains, and the demand for any particular
type of plow is limited. Neither machinery nor agriculture is
standardized. It is therefore difficult to interest Eastern
manufacturers in providing plows fully adapted to local needs.
The same conditions discourage the establishment of factories
on the Coast, though many circumstances are favorable.
Buildings are cheaper than in the East and labor often as
cheap. Crude oil furnishes cheap fuel, and freight rates
on raw material from Eastern mines are less than on finished
products. Only local manufacture or closer study by Eastern
makers will result in plows satisfactory for every condition.

Plows must be made heavier, stronger, of better materials
and simpler, especially for California. The soils are heavier
and many contain cementing materials which bind them in
masses like concrete. There is no frost and little rain at the
proper time, hence these soils must be loosened by machinery.
Along the Coast the salt air soon eats up iron and steel and
lever handles of steel last only five to nine months before
breaking. Plow bottoms frequently outlast the frames. Wood
is demanded in the frames and wherever else possible. Back
from the Coast the hot sun takes the sap out of unseasoned wood,
and all stock must be dried for several years before using.
White teamsters are seldom available in California, the work

THE CHOICE OF PLOWS 193

on large ranches being done by Japanese, Mexicans, and
Indians, none skilled in handling teams and adjusting plows.
Eastern improvements are therefore apt to be detrimental.
The ideal plow, then, is one made to go through any soil,
plow deeply, and run with little attention from the driver. On
the other hand, the cost of such a plow is of no object to the
large rancher and he ordinarily rebuilds purchased equipment
to suit his own ideas. Plows suited to local conditions sell
readily at from 25 to 100 per cent, higher cost than correspond-
ing types in the Central States.

The sand and gravel in the soil call for chilled, rather than
soft center, steel in plow bottoms, and in dry land the disk plow
is popular. It allows plowing to be done before the fall rains,
after the start of which it is often impossible to plow the de-
sired acreage. The pumice in volcanic ash soils in the North-
west necessitates the use of a chilled plow. The soil is more
easily pulverized, hence a lower, straighter and less sharply
curved moldboard is used than in the heavy soils of California.
Prairie breakers are not extensively used. The shallowness
of the layer of fertile soil in many places limits plowing to a
depth of from four to six inches and favors the use of shallow-
turning plows such as the Stockton gang. Work in vineyards
requires a small plow, closely coupled, with an adjustment
allowing the handles and beam to be set to one side and the
plow to run close to the vines. For both orchards and vine-
yards the small one-horse plow is common and many so-called
"pony" gangs, each turning several narrow, shallow furrows,
are used. The reclaimed marsh, or tule, lands require plows
of great clearance. Engine gang plows are numerous on the
great ranches, but steep grades prohibit the economical use of
tractors over a large part of the grain-raising country. There
are few medium sized holdings, the majority being either small
patches of five to twenty acres, or ranches of from 400 acres
upward. In consequence few sulky plows are used as compared
with one-horse and gang plows.

194 POWER AND THE PLOW

Plows for unusually deep tillage have never become generally
popular, in any section, because of the power required to oper-
ate them. National and state agricultural authorities recom-
mend their use at least once in two or three seasons, but only
an occasional small farmer owns one. For the cultivation of
sugar beets in Kansas, Colorado, California and other states
in the West, and of sugar cane in the South, in Porto Rico, Cuba,
and the Hawaiian Islands, plowing at least twelve niches deep
is regarded as a necessity. In the culture of cane, in the South,
a large, heavy plow with double moldboard is used widely for
breaking out the old middles and for bedding up the rows.
The cable-drawn plows used on sugar-beet ranches in the West
have much higher moldboards in proportion to width of furrow
than ordinary old land plows, and have much greater flare,
or overhead. This is due largely to the higher speed at which
they are drawn. Numerous gangs have been put forth, in
both disk and moldboard types, in which one plow is set below
and to one side of the other. As a rule these are made to
bring up the lower stratum and deposit it upon what has been
the surface layer. While this is objectionable in case too much
fresh earth is brought to the surface at one time, these plows
eventually secure a thorough mixture of the soil and form an
ideal seed bed up to 18 inches in depth. Up to the present
time makers of these plows have failed to make them in gangs
suitable for mechanical traction power.

For loosening the subsoil without turning it to the surface, the
subsoil plow is used. This consists of a shoe or beak, attached
to the bottom of a powerful knife-like standard. Usually it is
run in the furrow following an ordinary turning plow. It is
used chiefly to prepare the subsoil for deeper root growth and
to increase the moisture reservoir. In regions of moderate
rainfall it is seldom used, and deeper plowing in dry-farming
sections is rendering the subsoil plow less popular.

XIX

MECHANICAL PRINCIPLES OF THE PLOW

TILLAGE is Manure," says Jethro Tull. Kropotkin,
the famous Russian author — exile, found that minute
pulverization paid so well in crop returns that he
could afford to lift and carry the earth from his
garden to a grinding machine and back again. The late Dr.
Seaman A. Knapp, in reviewing the gains secured by applying
modern methods and machinery to the primitive agriculture of
the South, stated that the best seedbed added 100 per cent., the
best cultivation 50 per cent., and the best seed only 50 per cent,
to the crop as compared with average practice. The profit was
increased tenfold where the yield became threefold. Tillage
all but takes the place of moisture in dry farming, and is
undoubtedly the cornerstone of good farming everywhere.

Pulverization,that is,the securing of proper physical condition
of the soil by stirring or otherwise, is claimed by most writers
to be the primary object of tillage. Checking the growth of,
and burying, undesirable vegetation is secondary, though a
new school of scientists is endeavoring to show that prevent-
ing weed growth is even more important than securing proper
physical condition. Plowing is the fundamental operation
of our present tillage system, and the plow the most effective
tillage implement.

Pulverization changes the hard soil into a deep mellow seed-
bed, offering little resistance to the travel of plant roots in
search of food and water. It enlarges the feeding area of
roots, by placing more plant food and moisture within easy

195

196 POWER AND THE PLOW

reaching distance. It checks the cooling of the soil by sur-
face evaporation, and thus favors the germination of seeds.
It retards the loss of moisture in the heat of summer. It
promotes bacterial action in the soil, the fixation of atmos-
pheric nitrogen by bacteria, and the change of plant food
from the insoluble to the available form. It enables the soil
to recover in the shape of dew a part of the moisture lost by
evaporation. By more than a thousandfold increase in the
area of the soil grains or kernels and the volume of the air
spaces between, it enables the soil to fix a larger amount of
nitrogen from the air without bacterial aid.

Plowing with properly designed moldboards accomplishes
by far the greatest amount of pulverization. In addition, it
checks the growth of weeds which steal food and moisture,
burying them beneath the surface, where they decompose to
improve the physical condition of the soil, and to yield up
supplies of humus and plant food for the benefit of plants of
economic importance. An analysis of the action of the mold-
board upon the furrow shows how the primary objects of
plowing are accomplished. Professor King has likened the
action of the share and the moldboard to what takes place
when all the pages of a book are grasped between the thumb
and fingers and bent abruptly. The furrow slice is divided
into thin layers which slide over each other like the leaves of
the book, dividing the soil into horizontal flakes. It will be
remembered that it was the old Berkshire plow's separation
of the furrow into layers that aroused and held Jethro Tull's
admiration.

The inner wall of the furrow slice, next the land, must
travel faster than the outer edge as it comes up and over. In
the low moldboard of the prairie breaker this additional travel
is not great enough, nor the turns abrupt enough, to break the
tension of the elastic sod, which is usually cut in very shallow
strips. With a deep furrow, the horizontal shearing of the
soil layers over each other takes place, even though the elas-

MECHANICAL PRINCIPLES OF THE PLOW 197

ticity of the sod may not be overcome in shallow plowing.
In stubble plows, the moldboard is made steeper, and the inner
edge of the furrow slice must travel a much greater distance.
The inner edge being required to turn a sharp angle while the
outer edge remains stationary, the slice is broken by perpen-
dicular fissures which cross it at right angles to the landside.

A third line of cleavage is secured by the effect of the curva-
ture of the moldboard. Since the soil layers do not slide over
each other with the freedom of the leaves of a book, the sur-
face layer, which is also more tenacious, often curves sharply
without crumbling. The layers nearer the moldboard must
therefore be extended sufficiently to form concentric arcs of
longer radius. The steeper and sharper the moldboard, the
more will the natural elasticity of the soil be overcome, and
deep fissures will extend parallel to the landside and perpen-
dicular to the bottom of the furrow. In practice, any one, or
all, of these three effects of the moldboards may be lost through
carelessness or avoided by design.

The plow may be likened also to a plane. If the bit of the
plane is sharp and properly set, it cuts easily. If a thin
shaving is cut, the lifting action of the bit placed at a low angle
is not sufficient to overcome the elasticity of the wood, and
the shaving comes forth in a smooth, continuous band. If the
bit be set at a greater angle, even the thin shaving is sharply
broken at frequent intervals, and it requires greater force to
drive the plane. If a deep shaving is taken, then the bit must
be set at a practically impossible angle if the shaving is not to
be broken. Ordinarily, the difference in the distance traveled
by the upper and lower surfaces of the shaving, about the
angle formed by the board and the bit, is sufficient to over-
come the natural yielding of the wood, and since the fibers are
not free to glide over each other, the lowest layer, which trav-
els farthest must be broken at frequent intervals. This
accounts for the great amount of power required to move a
plane under improper conditions of adjustment.

198 POWER AND THE PLOW

Soils as well as woods, vary greatly in their tenacity. In
a light, sandy soil less abrupt curvature of the moldboard will
be required to fracture the furrow slice than in a stiff clay. The
friction of the furrow slice against curves in the plow con-
sumes more and more power as the curves are made more abrupt.
In the same soil the breaker moldboard runs with about 20
per cent, less draft than the stubble moldboard, hence the
power required to pulverize the soils adds at least one fourth
to the power required to cut and turn the furrow, and to over-
come the friction of the soil upon the plow. While the stubble
moldboard requires additional power on account of pulverizing,
the tenacity of the prairie sod is so great that, even at a much
shallower depth of plowing, with practically no pulverization,
the average sod-breaker takes from 40 to 60 per cent, more
power than a stubble plow of the same size working deeper in
old ground.

XX

WHEN TO PLOW, AND HOW DEEP

PLOWING cannot always be done under the best condi-
tions. It must ordinarily extend over a considerable
period, during which conditions may pass from one
extreme to the other. It goes without saying that the
farmer should endeavor to do the bulk of his work at a time
when the desired objects can be most effectively accomplished.
Climate, latitude, altitude and crops all influence the time of
plowing. To assist the new farmer in planning his season's
work, the United States Department of Agriculture has collected
from all portions of the country the usual dates of various crop
operations. If one does not have this information, it is safe to
follow the practice of the best farmers in the neighborhood,
but better still is a knowledge of the effects of plowing, so
that if for any reason the farmer wishes to plow out of season,
he can judge for himself the fitness of the soil.

Most farmers know that soils are composed of particles of
rock of varying size and composition, with a certain amount of
organic matter derived from the decay of animal and vegetable
tissues. Varying amounts of water are held upon the sur-
faces of the soil kernels in films of greater or less thickness,
though occasionally the spaces between the soil grains may be
entirely filled. There is a certain amount of mineral matter
normally in solution, but often deposited upon the soil particles
by the evaporation of water. King adds that in most soils,
particularly the clayey types, there occurs some aluminium
silicate, combined with water, which gives these soils their

199

200 POWER AND THE PLOWi

sticky, plastic quality when wet. The soil particles may
occur in a finely divided state, as in silt or clay soils, or in the
coarse state found in sandy or gravelly soils. Usually, and
especially in case of cultivated soils composed of finer particles,
the soil grains occur in clusters, or kernels. The varying sizes
of these kernels largely determine the physical characteristics,
or texture, of the soil. The larger the grains and kernels, the
more open and permeable the soil to the action of water and
air through the air spaces within it, and the lower the moisture-
holding capacity becomes, owing to the reduction of the total
surface. The optimum condition for plowing depends largely
on local conditions, including the nature of the soil.

Where the soil particles are extremely minute, the soil
may contain a large percentage of water, yet yield a limited
amount for the use of plants, owing to the tenacity with which
the moisture clings to the soil grains. It is practically impos-
sible, except under extreme heat, to dry a soil entirely. In
fine-grained soils it is desirable that the soil kernels be of fair
size, both to increase the ease with which plants can secure
water and to render the soil more porous. If plowing is done
while the soil is too wet, these kernels are easily broken down,
and the soil grains will assume the closest possible arrangement,
making the movement of air, water and plant roots extremely
slow and difficult. A high content of lime in such a soil tends
to flocculate it — i. e., collect it into kernels — hence soils
naturally or artificially limed may be handled safely when
containing a fair amount of moisture. If such a soil is plowed
when too dry, the plow will shear it into thicker layers, and
coarser kernels will be formed. If very dry, the soil has prac-
tically no elasticity, and is merely broken into clods. In sandy
soils the tendency of soil grains to form clusters is very slight,
hence under any conditions there is little shearing action.
Sandy soils may be plowed at any convenient time, provided,
as sometimes occurs in the South, heavy rains do not follow
shortly afterward to cause the soil to run together and destroy

WHEN TO PLOW, AND HOW DEEP 201

the effect of plowing. It is the shearing action of the moldboard
upon the soil kernels, causing them to divide at the edges of
the layers, that makes plowing in tenacious clay or gumbo
soils so much harder than in sandy or loamy soils.

Plowing should be done when most effective. It should be
done with reference to the objects desired most, weeds or other
vegetation being buried at a time when their growth will be
most injured, if that is the principal object; or when the desired
texture of the soil may be reestablished, if that is the prime
consideration. Extremely dry soils may profitably be broken
into lumps of considerable size, for in most sections frost or
rain can be depended upon to reduce their size later. This
practice is especially good if high winds might cause drifting
of too finely divided soil. Fall plowing may well be left rough,
in order that snow may be caught to melt into the ground,
and frequently a fringe of vegetation left uncovered will assist
in catching drifting soil and snow.

DEPTH OF PLOWING

The depth of plowing depends largely upon the character
of the soil, the climate and the crops to be grown. Channels
between the soil kernels are easily formed in sandy soils without
plowing; consequently the principal object is often to bury vege-
tation. Plowing too deeply may render the soil too porous
and hasten the oxidation, or burning out, of organic matter.
It is seldom desirable to plow very sandy soils to a depth of more
than three or four inches. Very retentive soils devoid of
humus, and those containing cementing elements, should be
broken to a much greater depth at least every other season.
Done at the proper time, and by the proper plow, this soil will
be granulated and loosened, thus securing the porous condition
favoring plant development. Between these two extremes
lies a great range of soil types requiring greater or less depth of
plowing. Sod, either wild or tame, is usually broken shallower

202 POWER AND THE PLOW

than old ground, so that tearing and pulverizing implements
may have a thinner layer to work upon. It is quite necessary
that a shallow layer be well cut up, as a mat of dry vegetation
between the subsoil and seedbed checks the capillary rise of
water. Occasionally the depth of fertile soil limits that of plow-
ing. Beavers says, in Farmers' Bulletin 398: "It has been
demonstrated by farm practice in the South that where the
soil is plowed deep more fertilizer can be used profitably than
on soil plowed shallow. "

The cereal crops are naturally rather shallow feeders; hence
in humid climates plowing is at less depth for wheat, oats, etc.,
than for corn and root crops. They require a firmer seedbed,
which is of further advantage in saving power at cutting time.
Corn requires a larger feeding area for its roots than the smaller
cereal plants; hence plowing in corn ground is usually from one
to three inches deeper. The leading agronomists of the Corn
Belt unanimously recommend plowing for corn at a depth of
from six to nine inches. Recent experiments with a deep
tilling machine have been followed by a remarkable increase
in the yield of corn on fields plowed to a depth of from ten to
fourteen inches. Root crops, such as potatoes and sugar beets,
require deep plowing, twelve inches for the latter being con-
sidered the possible minimum in the heavy adobe soil of Col-
orado and California.

In the semi-arid regions deep plowing is prerequisite to highly
successful farming. However, Western farm horses are often
small, few in numbers, and not cared for in a way to obtain
their maximum efficiency; hence, shallow plowing is the rule
rather than the exception. The soils have become solidified
by the tramping of many generations of animals and by the
rains of centuries. Moisture penetrates only a short distance
except where the ground has been loosened by artificial agencies.
Professor Buffum, of Wyoming, states that some of these soils,
when in excellent tilth, will absorb over 40 per cent, of their
weight of water. As the. lack of moisture is the limiting

WHEN TO PLOW, AND HOW DEEP 203

factor in dry-land crop production, the shortage of power neces-
sary for deep and thorough cultivation at all times is a serious
obstacle to profitable farming.

Deep furrows, as before pointed out, are more apt to be
pulverized than shallow; hence to some extent the plow per-
forms for the subsoil what pulverizing implements do for the
surface layers. Three or four inches of the surface soil must
be kept stirred as a dust mulch to check the capillary rise of
water and consequent loss by evaporation. Underneath this
mulch a dry crust inevitably forms during the growing season;
hence the actual feeding area of the roots does not begin until
a depth of five or six inches is reached. As between plowing
eight inches and ten niches deep there is, therefore, a difference
of at least 100 per cent, in the zone available for the maintenance
of the plant.

The moisture reservoir is increased in the same ratio. The
deeper the moisture is stored, the greater is the assurance of
an abundance for the needs of the crop, as each successive inch
dries out more slowly. Professor Buffum says: "A soil weigh-
ing one ton per cubic yard weighs approximately 1613 tons
per acre, taken one foot deep. If such a soil will absorb and
hold 20 per cent, of moisture and is plowed six inches deep,
it will take up 161.3 tons of moisture per acre. A rainfall of
1.4 inches will supply this amount of moisture and fill up our
six-inch reservoir; if the ground is plowed only three inches deep
and the subsoil is hard, it would not be able to store a rainfall
of more than seven tenths of an inch, and should more water
fall at one time, it will be lost and may wash the soil away with
it. If plowed nine inches deep and put in good condition,
such a soil reservoir would absorb and hold over two inches of
rainfall at one time. A soil already containing considerable
water would be filled up with less rain, and deep plowing would
be still more important. . . . Where the soils are light
and winds drift them, shallow plowing may result in all the
top soil, down to the sole of the furrow, being blown away.

204 POWER AND THE PLOW

Deep plowing, on the contrary, throws up heavier and rougher
furrows, and tends to anchor the soil in place. Plowing deep,
therefore, prevents both washing and drifting."

In many dry-farming sections the rainfall is so light that
summer fallowing must be resorted to. This consists of
cultivating an empty field during one entire season to prevent
plant growth and conserve the rains of that year for the use
of the next year's crops. It is seldom necessary to provide as
great storage capacity as is given by the expensive method of
subsoiling, but plowing ten or twelve inches deep with ordinary
plows places the moisture reservoir at a safe depth and makes
summer fallowing a less expensive means of insuring a crop.

Deep plowing cannot be accomplished a^ljU^jmce_^n_ any
new soil. Where the soil is heavy and compact, the prame
is~apt to be covered with "short-grass" sod, indicating that
only an inch or two of the surface is hi condition to sustain
plant growth. The soil underneath is apt to be cold and
unproductive, hence must be mixed slowly with the upper
layers and put into proper physical condition by good tillage
and exposure to the sun and air. Fall plowing can be done
more deeply on this account than spring plowing, owing to the
weathering action of frost and snow. For a year or two after
the ground is first broken the plowing should not be at the same
depth as the first breaking, as this will expose undecomposed
vegetation, the lack of moisture in dry climates retarding decay.
The ultimate depth desired should be attained gradually, and
afterward the depth should be varied from year to year to
avoid forming the "share hardpan." This is a hard, glazed
condition of the sole of the furrow which renders it impervious
to water. The trowel-like effect of the share and the tramping
of the furrow horse's feet bring it about.

A firm seedbed is especially important in dry-land agricul-
ture to insure prompt germination. In deeply plowed land it
is therefore advisable to use a subsurface packer. This re-
packs the intermediate layers, but leaves the top and lower soil

WHEN TO PLOW, AND HOW DEEP 205

loose. Disking the ground before plowing, or, better still,
immediately after harvest, retains much moisture that would
otherwise be lost. It keeps the ground in condition for easier
plowing, and establishes a better capillary connection between
the furrow slice and the subsoil than when hard clods, or masses
of vegetation with dead air spaces between, are turned to the
bottom.

XXI
DRAFT OF PLOWS

THE first steps in the development of the plow were
those tending to make it an effective instrument.
The next were naturally those looking toward the
elimination of human labor, and finally the draft of
plows was studied, not so much, perhaps, from humanitarian
motives as from a sense of financial loss through wasted power.
Comparable draft tests are so hard to obtain, according to plow
experts, that no data should be accepted unless all conditions are
known, repeated tests are made, and differences in draft so great
as to preclude any possibility of experimental error. Nevertheless,
the question of draft of implements is so little regarded by the
average farmer that approximate truths are worth noting.

The total draft of a plow is the product of numerous factors,
each of which will vary under different circumstances. Among
these may be considered the weight of the plow, its shape, the
various adjustments, the condition of the plow with respect
to sharpness and scouring properties, the angle of draft, the
character of the soil, the skill of the plowman, the presence
and adjustment of various attachments, the speed of travel,
the size of the furrow, and others of less importance. The sum
of these variations may easily amount to 50 per cent., and
often to 100 per cent. When it is considered that an unavoid-
able loss in power of 10 per cent, is probably a low estimate
under present conditions, the tax on inefficiency is seen to be
enormous. The annual plowing bill of the United States may
be estimated at approximately four hundred and fifty millions

DRAFT ON PLOWS 207

of dollars. Experiments go to show that very common causes
effect increases of from 5 to 40 per cent, each in the draft.
If the United States Department of Agriculture, through a
Bureau of Agricultural Engineering, were to ascertain and
induce general recognition of the principles of draft, the farmers
of the country could well afford to support several Depart-
ments of Agriculture, each with its corps of 11,000 trained
workers.

The draft data given in the following paragraphs are derived
from numerous sources, the chief of which are the plow trials
conducted by the New York Agricultural Society at Utica
in 1867, and reported by Gould; tests in Missouri and Utah
two decades ago by Sanborn; and in Illinois by Ocock in 1904.
The earliest of these trials were the most comprehensive, but
since then great improvement has been made in both plows and
dynamometers, and tests of modern plows might not bear out
the conclusions drawn at that time. It is extremely unfor-
tunate that the draft tests have received so little attention from
agricultural engineers, and that no comprehensive data are
available as to variations in the draft of all modern implements.

The plow runs lightest when so adjusted as to allow the sole
of the landside to run level from point to heel ; to cause the line
of draft to pass at the same time straight from the centre of
resistance through the attachment at the end of the beam to
the point where the power is applied, and to render the angle
of draft — i.e., the angle of the line of draft with the base line
— as small as the application of power will allow. The loca-
tion of the centre of resistance varies with the character of the
soil, the shape of the plow, and the size of the furrow. If power
could be applied at the centre in a horizontal line, the plow would
move with the least possible draft and with perfect balance.
Obviously, however, it must be applied at a higher point, vary-
ing with the power used, and this lifting force must be over-
come either by adjustment of the plow or by pressure on the
plow handles. In the same way, if power is applied to the

208 POWER AND THE PLOW

right or left of the centre, an opposed force must be exerted
to make the plow run evenly.

The true line of draft is always from this centre to the
point where power is applied; hence any enforced angle, such
as caused by sagging of the traces, holding up the traces by
straps, extending or shortening the beam, and raising or lower-
ing the draft pin in the clevis, disturbs the adjustment. The
determination of the centre of resistance is, therefore, impor-
tant.

Since the greatest effort is expended by the shin and share in
severing the furrow slice from the land, the centre must lie
much nearer the landside than the furrow side of the plow.
Again, since the resistance of the cutting edge of the share
and the sole are greater than that of the moldboard, the centre
must lie nearer the sole than to the crest of the moldboard.
A third plane of resistance stand perpendicular, at right angles
to the landside. Cross sections of the plow in planes at differ-
ent distances from the point show triangular areas increasing
more rapidly in size than the cutting edges do in length. The
force required to drive the plow into the ground does not
increase in proportion to the area cut, and the centre of resis-
tance will lie in a smaller cross section than that of the whole
furrow. In other words, it will lie much nearer the point than
the heel of the share, being farther forward in stiff soils, in
shallow plowing, and on a rather blunt plow point, than under
reverse conditions. The centre lies at the intersection of the
three planes, and its approximate location must be known in
order to adjust the point of hitch so that it will fall naturally
within the line of draft. On stubble and general purpose plows
it will lie close to the shin and to the junction of share and
moldboard. On plows designed for breaking tough sod at a
shallow depth it will lie closer to the point and the sole. Pro-
fessor Gilmore, of Cornell University, states that it is located
behind the moldboard and two and one half to three inches from
the wall and sole of the furrow. No other condition within the

DRAFT OF PLOWS 209

control of the operator so vitally affects the resistance of the
plow as the one just reviewed, and success demands careful
observance of the principles governing the lines of draft and
resistance.

According to Sanborn, the plow shows the lightest draft
when set to cut the widest furrow of which it is normally capa-
ble. This is probably accounted for by the remarkable results
of an experiment at^ the Utica trials which showed that 55 per
cent, of the draft of the plow was causeoTby the cutting of the
furrow slice, 35 per cent, by the friction of the soTeTjinaomy
10 per~cent. by the work of lifting and turning the furrow.
The average draft of a number of plows running in the empty
furrow was 168 Ibs. The whole draft was 476 Ibs., and that
with the moldboard removed 434 Ibs. The difference between
168 Ibs. and 434 Ibs. was taken to be the draft required for
cutting the furrow slice. Sanborn states later that 42 per cent,
of the draft is used by the share and landside, and another
writer puts the moldboard friction at only 2 per cent. These
figures will not hold for all conditions, but even an approximate
idea of the division of draft explains many frequently observed
facts.

In relation to the size of furrow, the cutting edge should be
as small as possible. A furrow 4 x 12 niches has a line 16 inches
long which must be cut, and an area of cross section of 48 square
inches, a proportion of 1 to 3. One 6 x 14 inches has a cut
surface of 20 inches and an area of 84 square inches, a ratio of
1 to 4.2. The larger the furrow cut, therefore, the less the
influence of the cutting edges on each square inch of cross sec-
tion, which is the commonly accepted unit of comparison.
Sanborn found a constant decrease in draft per square inch as
the furrow was deepened or widened up to the normal capacity
of the plow. When made to cut wider, narrower, shallower, or
deeper than the adjustments of the plow ordinarily permitted
there was an increase in draft of 15 to 20 per cent., much harder
work for the plowman and a poorer quality of plowing.

210 POWER AND THE PLOW

The point of hitch is lower on a plow than on a wagon. Fre-
quently a strap is provided at the saddle or rump to hold up
the traces while the team stands. When the same team and
harness are used on the plow an angle is formed at the trace.
Sanborn found the downward pull at this point to equal 50
Ibs., or one third the pulling power of an average 1200 to 1500
Ib. horse. The angle was not as great as he had frequently
observed, but even then a third of the animal's power was being
used to gall and annoy it instead of being applied to the work
in hand.

The New York Agricultural Society's estimate of the divi-
sion of the draft explains the enormous difference in draft
between a sharp share and a dull one, also why it is possible
to add the weight of a heavy plow frame and a driver to the
load of the horses, yet not increase the draft. The friction of
the sole, estimated at 35 per cent., is transferred almost entirely
to wheels in the sulky plow. The landside is made much
shorter, and the heel of the latter is usually carried a fraction
of an inch from both the bottom and side of the furrow by
means of a staggered wheel. The lifting of the soil is borne
by the larger wheels and frame, while the relatively small
moldboard friction remains constant. Sanborn shows only
.19 Ib. per inch, or 3.3 per cent, difference hi draft in favor of
walking over sulky plows, averaging three tests of each, but
observes that the draft of sulky plows increased on the hills.
Considering amount and quality of work, the difference in
draft is negligible. In fact, an unskilled plowman will even
cause greater draft in a walking plow by constantly disturbing
its adjustment. The influence of the operator's efforts to help
the adjustment was seen in one trial in which different plowmen
in successive furrows varied the draft from 5.19 to 4.45 and
5.61 Ibs. per inch, respectively, while another on several trials
ranged from 5.25 Ibs. to 6.15 Ibs. A small truck or gauge
wheel under the beam of the plow should, theoretically, in-
crease the draft by adding friction and by frequently disturb-

DRAFT OF PLOWS 211

ing the line of draft as it encounters obstructions. Practically
it is shown to save from 9 to 14 per cent, by the steadier running
of the plow when it, and not the handles, is used to regulate the
depth.

The power absorbed in severing the furrow slice demands
that shares be not only sharp but properly sharpened. San-
born reports a difference of only 6.7 per cent, in favor of an old
point resharpened over a dull point on the same plow, but an
advantage of 36 per cent, in favor of a new point over the old
one resharpened. A straight edge drawn across the share at
a right angle to the landside should touch for an inch or so on
the under side of the cutting edge. The average blacksmith
will hardly restore to a share the nice adjustment given it at
the factory, and it is an open question whether a farmer can
long afford to waste power on resharpened shares. Sanborn
states that in the case quoted the defects were not easily dis-
cernible and the work compared favorably with that of the
average smith.

At all events, the farmer should not waste power on dull
shares.

At the Winnipeg motor competition hi 1909 two six-bottom
engine gangs of the same make, supposed to be cutting the
same depth and width, showed a difference in draft of 45 per
cent. Most of this can be attributed to the fact that one
was a new plow, just from the factory, especially ground for
the occasion, while the other had been used for several months
for plowing in stony ground, with only ordinary attention.

Speed of travel as a factor of draft is an unsettled question.
Theoretically, the resistance should increase in a definite ratio
with the velocity, as in case of bodies moving through air and
water. Practically, within the ordinary limits of speed, the
higher rate is considered by some to decrease draft by inducing
better scouring and turning of the soil by the moldboard, es-
pecially in heavy soils. Gould's experiments at Utica resulted
in the conclusion , that in plowing friction is entirely indepen-

212 POWER AND THE PLOW

dent of velocity, with this exception, that greatly increased
velocity slightly increases the force required to lift and turn
the furrow slice, owing to the distance the dirt is thrown.

The rolling coulter is said by Prof. F. H. King to reduce
the draft in sod ground from 20.86 to 25.34 per cent. Gould
declared in favor of the coulter because of its saving in draft,
but Sanborn claimed a loss of 10 to 15 per cent, due to the
tendency of the coulter attached to the beam to raise the plow
out of the ground. Practically, the coulter is regarded as
essential for the majority of conditions, and in the absence
of recent tests it may be assumed that the thin edge of the
coulter saves power in cutting the furrow wall as compared
with the rather blunt shin of the plow bottom.

From the variation in the shape of plows designed for dif-
ferent conditions we are led to expect great difference in draft
in the same soil. In the English experiments already quoted
there was a difference of 46 per cent, between the plows having
the lightest and the heaviest draft under the same conditions;
53 per cent, was the maximum difference in tests in 1850 by
the New York Agricultural Society. Sanborn found varia-
tions in sulky plows ranging from 5.9 to 7.5 Ibs. per square
inch of cross section, and in another experiment from 5.15
to 6.28 Ibs. in walking plows, all furrows being of the same size.
King reports a comparison of the draft of sod and stubble
plows in clover sod, two years old, as wet as could be worked.
The furrows were approximately 5.5 x 14.4 inches. The sod
plow had a draft of 4.45 Ibs. per inch and the stubble plow
5.38 Ibs. The difference, .93 lb., is mainly due to the work of
pulverization, which is added by the stubble plow to that of
cutting, lifting, and turning. At the Winnipeg motor contest
in July, 1909, one make of engine gang plows averaged about
2.5 Ibs. per inch lighter in draft than the other, all conditions
being equal. Not only the shape but the weight and adjust-
ment of different plows must be taken into consideration, how-
ever.

DRAFT OF PLOWS 213

The angle of the share with the landside is an important
factor, and must be adapted to different soils. For instance,
in Colorado, in dry alfalfa fields, a plow with an acute angle
will dodge the roots, while one having a share at nearly a right
angle to the landside will chip up the baked ground and break
or cut the roots cleanly. In mellow loam the slanting cut must
be used. In this case the soil is not firm enough to hold the
roots taut, hence they double over and clog a share which is
set at a wide angle.

Soils differ greatly in their cohesive properties. The average
draft of nine plows in an old English test, for a furrow 5x9
inches in each of five different soils, was as follows: Loamy
sand, 227 Ibs.; sandy loam, 250 Ibs.; moory soil, 280 Ibs.;
strong loam, 440 Ibs.; blue clay, 661 Ibs.; a difference between
extremes of 194 per cent. An average of fifty-seven of Pro-
fessor Sanborn's tests on varying soils in Missouri in 1888
gave a draft of 5.26 Ibs. per square inch in area of the cross
section of the furrow slice turned. In Utah, several years
later, the same number of similar tests averaged 5.94 Ibs. per
inch. Four hundred and fifty tests in an Illinois cornfield aver-
aged 4.76 Ibs. In Missouri 500 Ibs. turned a 7 x 16 inch furrow
on timothy. Over 600 Ibs. was needed for the same furrow in
red clover in Utah, and still more for alfalfa. Seven trials on
clover gave an average of 6.47 Ibs. per inch, and six on oat
stubble gave 4.68 Ibs. At the Winnipeg motor contests of
1909 and 1910 the average draft per 14-inch bottom, going three
one half to four inches deep in virgin gumbo sod, was 770 Ibs.
and 795 Ibs., respectively, or 13.75 to 16.3 Ibs. per inch. These
and other figures might be cited to illustrate the difference
in draft due to soil conditions, but even relative figures are
very few.

It may be said that for ordinary depths and widths of plowing
the draft per square inch of cross-section ranges from about
three pounds in sandy soil to seven or eight in clay, six or
seven in tame clover sod, and ten to fifteen pounds in virgin

214

POWER AND THE PLOW

prairie sod. The draft of a 6 x 14 inch furrow would present
an extreme range of from 250 to 900 Ibs., with 400 to 500 Ibs.
as an average for old land in the Middle West.

The amount of moisture in the soil affects the draft, as the
soil kernels are more easily sheared when wet. In two sets
of tests on clover sod, dry soil caused from 142 to 144 per cent,
increase in draft over moist soil. In corn stubble in Illinois,
the same soil when so dry as to be loosened in chunks averaged
4.93 Ibs. per square inch, as compared with 4.67 Ibs. when
too wet for good plowing, and the same when in ideal condition.
In this series 150 tests were made by Professor Ocock on each
soil condition; heace the average is remarkably accurate.
The deeper soil layers contain more moisture, which is probably
as important an item as the proportionate decrease in cutting
edge for deep furrows. Ocock's thesis experiments showed
a gradual decrease in draft with an increase in depth except
in one case, for which no explanation can be given. In dry
corn stubble thirty tests at a depth of five inches averaged 4
per cent, lighter than the same number at one inch deeper.
The accompanying table from this source shows the draft per
square inch in five tests of each of six different plow bottoms,
used on a single frame, in each of three different soil condi-
tions at five different depths. All tests were on the same field
in uniform soil, but at different dates.

DRAFT OF PLOWS IN ILLINOIS CORN STUBBLE

DEPTH

DRY

WET

IDEAL

AVERAGE
ALL, SOILS

RELATIVE
DRAFT

4"

5.32

T5.14

5.07

5.17

117.3

5"

4.84

4.84

4.90

4.86

110.2

6"'

5.07

4.57

4.68

4.77

108.2

7"

4.78

4.49

4.46

4.57

103.8

8"

4.66

4.31

4.27

4.41

100.0

Average "1
all depths /

4.93

4.67

4.67

4.76

108.0

DRAFT OF PLOWS 215

Several other points might be noted, including a saving of
7.5 per cent, by lengthening the hitch with a 13-foot chain;
the increase in draft noted in a previous chapter, due to the
downward and landward suction of the plow point; and the
slight increase in draft of wheeled plows on grades, but the
factors already discussed are the most important.

A better understanding of the draft of plows would un-
doubtedly lead to greater profit and more humane treatment
of animals. In old land the average draft per square inch of
cross section probably ranges from five to seven pounds.
For a furrow 6 x 12 inches, the total draft would be from
350 to 450 pounds, while the average durable working draft
of a horse is found to be from one tenth to one eighth his
weight. Three 1200-pound horses on such a furrow would
probably strike the average farmer as a waste of horseflesh,
but the result of too little power is to be seen in the wornout
condition of the work stock at the end of the plowing season.
A wagon of 3000 pounds gross load on a sharp incline gave only
half the draft that a furrow 15 inches wide did on the level.
An all-day pull of twice that, or three tons, uphill would be
regarded as out of the question, yet two horses are frequently
called upon to do as much in plowing. In consequence, one
of several things must happen: Either the team must lose
in condition; much more food must be supplied than is ordi-
narily required to generate a unit of force, since above a certain
limit a lower percentage is assimilated ; or the quality of plowing
is lowered, which is the greatest loss of all.

XXII
DRAFT OF OTHER IMPLEMENTS

MEAGRE as are the comparative draft data on
plows, they are ample as compared with those on
implements of other kinds. Practically no draft
tests have been made of modern tillage imple-
ments; hence, the draft can be approximated only by com-
paring the number of horses used on implements of different
sizes. Outside of the plow the ordinary drag harrow, the
disk harrow, and the clod crusher or pulverizer are the
principal tillage implements used in the North. The
following table gives a sort of comparison of these three on the
basis of the horses used to pull them, allowing 150 pounds as
the effective pull of each horse:

DISK HARROW DRAG HARROW CRUSHER

Width, feet 8 20 10

Weight, total 580 320 1100

per foot 70 16 138

Horses required 444

Approx. draft 600 600 600

Draft per foot 75 30 60

The above comparison cannot be regarded as more than
a rough approximation. Four horses are often needed to pull
a seven-foot disk harrow with 16-inch disks, while the
eight-foot harrow, with 16-inch disks, is also equipped
with four-horse hitch. The more mellow the soil the greater
the penetration; hence, the greater the amount of dirt moved.
Sharpness of the disks is a factor in penetration, and a decrease
in angle to the line of draft also increases the work done. Con-

216

DRAFT OF OTHER IMPLEMENTS 217

sequently, an eight-foot harrow with disks at right angle to
the tongue can be easily pulled over a hard road by one
horse, while at the Iowa State College they have a photograph
showing eight of their horses — eight tons of horseflesh —
having plenty of exercise in moving two-disk harrows in a
mellow cornfield. The condition and texture of the soil play
as great a part in the draft as in the case of plows.

In stiff clay land a two-horse team, weighing 2200 pounds,
can be used on a steel spike-tooth lever harrow, cutting fifteen
feet. However, the teeth must slant well backward, the
driver must walk, and it will take a good many trips over the
field to get it into condition. To accomplish much in the way
of pulverization the teeth should be set nearly straight and at
least one horse provided for each five-foot section.

Crushers and pulverizers vary considerably in weight per
foot of width. One authority says that rollers should not
weigh more than 100 Ibs. to the foot and should be at
least 24 inches in diameter. Of course the greater the
diameter the lighter the draft, unless the weight is increased
to correspond, but at the same time the pressure per square
inch on the ground is decreased. Ordinarily these implements
average about 18 inches in diameter and weigh from 130 to
150 Ibs. per foot. An internal-combustion tractor, which
had been pulling six 14-inch breaker bottoms in North Dakota,
was able to handle three 12-foot disk drills and three 12-foot sod
crushers, weighing 1800 Ibs. each. Allowing 60 Ibs. to a foot
in width for each, the total draft would be 4320 Ibs. At the
Winnipeg motor contest the same year the breaking plows
averaged over 700 Ibs. to the plow; hence the draft for six
bottoms would check up very well with the amount just as-
sumed for the drills and crushers.

The disk drill, and particularly the single-disk drill, is now
practically standard. As a rule the furrow openers are spaced
8 inches apart. Three horses will usually handle a 12-foot
disk drill, seeding a strip 8 feet wide. Allowing 150-lb. pull

218 POWER AND THE PLOW

to each horse, the draft per foot of width would be 57.5 Ibs.
Professor Davidson, of Iowa, obtained a higher draft than this, a
single- disk drill with ten furrow openers, 8 inches apart, hav-
ing a draft of 68.6 Ibs. per foot of width. Drills usually place
the seed about 2 inches below the surface; consequently the
work of drilling and covering seed takes approximately the
same power per acre-inch as the disk or drag harrows doing
work as shown in the table.

Mowing machines are usually operated with two horses for
a 5 or 6 foot cut, indicating a draft of about 300 Ibs. A leading
manufacturer places the draft from 190 to 325 Ibs. for a
5-foot mower. Two other authorities place the draft at from
285 to 340 Ibs. for the same width. The draft may easily be
doubled by dull knives, tight boxes, or too low speed. The
knives are not serrated as in the case of the binder; hence about
three times the speed of cutter bar must be maintained in
order to cut cleanly through the tough stems of forage grasses.
The 6-foot mower will of course require more power than the
5-foot, but not in proportion to the extra cut. In one test,
five mowers run in gear but not cutting showed an average
draft of 154 Ibs. While cutting the average was 268 Ibs., show-
ing that 57^ per cent, of the draft was due to the running of the
machine. The actual work of cutting apparently consumed
about 23 Ibs. per foot. In an actual test of a 4i-foot and a
6-foot mower of the same make the drafts were 203 Ibs. and
263 Ibs., respectively. This shows about 34 Ibs. of draft for
each added foot cut. However, the extra weight of frame and
the added size of bearings increased the draft somewhat. It
is evident that the wide cut mowers are economical in the same
way that the engine is economical when running at high per-
centage of its rating, less being wasted in internal friction.

The kind of grass cut and the thickness of stand have an
important bearing on draft, but, owing to different speeds of
cutter bar, different mowers show lighter draft in different
grasses. In an experiment by Sanborn, in which five mowers

DRAFT OF OTHER IMPLEMENTS 219

made twelve trial runs, all showed the heaviest draft on a
3j-ton crop of timothy. Two showed a lighter draft on a 2|-ton
crop of alfalfa than on a field of wild hay, which was very
thick at the bottom. The other three, running at higher speed,
handled the dense stand of fine grass better than alfalfa.

Six-foot binders range in draft from 300 to 500 Ibs., requir-
ing three or more horses to pull them at a speed high enough to
do good work. Professor Davidson quotes tests showing 314 Ibs.
as the average of two 6-foot machines, or 5j Ibs. to the foot.
To some extent the same statement as to economy in cutting
a wide swath might be made as with mowers. However, the
binder must elevate and bind the extra grain at some additional
expenditure of power; 12-foot headers require from 600 to 800
Ibs., or from 50 to 70 Ibs. per foot cut. A header binder of the
same size will require from 100 to 200 Ibs. extra to operate the
binding attachment. More horses are more commonly used
on binders than on mowers in proportion to draft. Since there
are more opportunities for sluggish movement of the straw to
clog the working parts, a high speed must be maintained. The
average farm horse is able to maintain a pull of 150 Ibs. only
by reducing the net speed to two miles per hour or less. To
maintain two and one half miles per hour, at which speed the
machines work to best advantage, more power is required.

There are probably more data available as to the draft of
wagons than any other piece of farm equipment. The height
and width of wheels, the position of the load, the angle of
traces, speed of travel, lubrication, character of road surface,
grade, and many other factors enter into the question of draft
of vehicles. The higher the wheel, the less the draft, in pro-
portion to the draft of the total weight of load and vehicle.
Road surfaces are never entirely level and wheels are con-
tinually encountering obstacles. The higher the wheel, the
less the percentage of grade which each obstacle opposes. Con-
sequently, less momentary force is required to lift the load over
the obstacle. This process is constantly repeated; hence,

220 POWER AND THE PLOW

high wheels and smooth roads contribute to light draft. The
harder the road surface, the less do the wheels depress the
surface soil. Since the force pulling the load is constantly
endeavoring to lift it to the surface, the effect on the wheel is
that of constantly rolling up an inclined plane, the gradient
of which is determined by the percent, of the radius of the wheel
which is below the surface of the ground. This fact largely
accounts for the low figure of from 8 to 10 Ibs. of draft per gross
ton on railways as compared to 150 Ibs. on ordinary dirt road.

The width of wheels affects the draft differently under
different circumstances. In general the wide tire gives from
20 to 120 per cent, less draft than the narrow tire on the same
size of wheel. However, when the dust is deep, or when there
is a thin coating of mud with a hard surface below it, the
narrow tire pulls easier. This is probably because the wheel
must sooner or later sink to the hard surface and a narrow
tire encounters less resistance. Again, where there is only one
wide tired wagon in a community, and this wagon must
continually travel in ruts made by narrow tires, the work of
filling up these ruts plus that of carrying the load makes the
wide-tired wagon pull harder.

Each rise of one foot in 100 adds 20 Ibs. to the draft of each
ton, including the weight of vehicle. On a good macadam road
the draft per ton is only about 60 Ibs.; hence, a rise of only
52.8 feet to the mile adds a third to the draft. The better the
road, the worse is the effect of grade, since a greater load can
be hauled on the level, whereas on the hill the action of gravity
is independent of the ground friction. It is for this reason that
railways spend immense sums in cutting down grades.

Road surfaces greatly affect the draft. Taking the draft
on a plank road as 100, the draft on other surfaces in a certain
test was as follows: Macadam road, 152 to 220; gravel road,
300 to 318; common dirt road, 300 to 509. The lowest draft
on a plank road was 25 Ibs. per ton, and the highest on a dirt
road was 224 Ibs. per ton. Other tests have shown up as high

DRAFT OF OTHER IMPLEMENTS 221

as 700 Ibs. per ton on soft ground; hence, it is hard to make a
comparison of the draft of wagons with other imple-
ments. However, two horses can usually be depended upon to
draw continuously about 3500 Ibs. of gross load on ordinary
country roads.

Lubrication is another important factor in the draft of all
wheeled implements. Sanborn reports that a wagon weighing
3300 Ibs. with load, took a pull of 294 Ibs. with no grease and
243 Ibs. where lard was used. Between these two, taking
lard as 100, the comparative draft with other lubricants was
as follows: Axle grease, 100.7; cylinder oil, 104.3; castor oil,
106.7; lubricating oil, 112.1; coal oil, 117.6. However, con-
sidering the small effect of axle friction as compared to earth
resistance, the above results seem exaggerated.

The draft of wagons increases with the speed of travel.
In an experiment in England the same load was drawn at
varying speeds over the same road, which included a variety
of grades. Taking the draft at four miles per hour as 100,
the relative draft was 104 six miles, 109 at eight miles, and
115.8 at ten miles per hour.

Owing to the countless factors that affect the draft of
implements, machines, and wagons, it is apparent that draft
tests, under different conditions, are of little comparative value.
Taken absolutely, however, they give a good line on what either
a horse or a tractor should be expected to accomplish. A
wider use of the dynamometer, in connection with the exercise
of abundant common-sense, would undoubtedly result in more
humane treatment for animals and greater service from
traction engines.

xxm

THE GENESIS OF POWER PLOWING

FOR nearly a century after James Watt had solved the
secret of burning fuel to produce power, steam did
nothing notable to relieve man's heaviest task, that of
turning over the soil each year to produce a crop . Willing
inventors were numerous enough, and sheaves of patent claims
bore testimony of the efforts made to substitute iron and
chemical energy for the plow animal's muscle. Judging from
the bulk of the early ideas expressed in this manner, few men
had even a faint conception of the enormous forces and resist-
ances with which they would have to deal in the solution
of the problem.

The earliest successful application of mechanical power to
the plow seems to have been made hi England, about 1850.
A portable steam engine and a windlass were then used to wind
up a cable attached to what was known as a balance plow, i. e.,
a wheeled frame carrying two gangs of plows, one right hand and
the other left hand, set facing each other. One gang was
dropped into the ground and the other tilted out by the same
motion, the plow being ready to start immediately on the return
journey without being turned around. In order to pull the
plow back and forth across the field, the cable was first passed
around either a triangle or a quadrangle on pulleys. Two of
the pulleys with automatic anchors were moved in parallel
paths along opposite sides of the field at right angles to the
furrow, the engine remaining stationary. The anchors moved
alternately forward the width of the strip plowed, to guide the

222

PIONEERS IN STEAM PLOWING

With walking plows in Ohio

With horse gangs in Minnesota

With disk plows in the Northwest. (Note the size of the crew)

THE GENESIS OF POWER PLOWING 223

plow as it passed across the field. This was known as the
"round-about" system. Somewhat later a single traction
engine with a winding drum was substituted for one of the mov-
able anchors and the windlass. The great length of cable re-
quired and the clumsiness of the tackle hampered the work,
and in due time a second traction engine similarly equipped
was substituted for the remaining anchor. This form of cable
plowing has been developed very successfully by English firms
and is still used from one end of the world to the other.

Power plowing in the United States has reached its highest
development upon the extensive areas of the Western plains.
Owing to the size of the fields and the excessive cost of the cable
equipment, the latter was never successfully introduced there
in the common system of small grain culture. As early as
1870, natives of Kansas were startled by the appearance of an
upright steam traction engine to which were attached a number
of horse plows. Ten or fifteen years later steam plowing began
to be common in California. About the same time, general
substitution of the traction engine for horses in driving
threshers stimulated the desire for mechanical power for
plowing in the Central states.

Failure was the result of nearly every venture during these
early years. The only engines available were of small size,
designed more for belt power than for pulling. When enough
common horse plows were hitched together to take up the
power such an engine could develop, the outfit proved to be
unwieldy, especially in turning. In addition to one man
at each plow as before, it was necessary to have another to
drive the engine and another with a team to haul fuel and water.
There was no saving in labor; in fact, quite the reverse. The
light, narrow cast-iron gearing had been designed only for
moving the tractor from place to place with a light separator.
Expensive breakage followed the attempt to transmit power
enough through it to pull plows. The plows were neither suitable
nor strong enough; the outfits had small capacity; the operators

224 POWER AND THE PLOW

were inexperienced; and the cost of maintaining a horse was so
much less than at present that animal power suffered no real
competition.

With the growth of grain farming in the West the demand
for larger and faster threshing outfits resulted in a consider-
able increase in size of steam engines. These, however, were
designed with reference to the work they could deliver through
a belt, rather than at the drawbar; hence the growing use of
these engines for plowing resulted in the same conditions as
before. Steam plowing was generally regarded as a large
farmer's fad, even by manufacturers, but the demand for a
better plowing power became so insistent about the beginning
of the new century that engine makers began one by one to
comply with it. The first step was merely to increase the size
of gearing, axles, shafts, etc., but at length the pressure and the
outlook for profitable business led manufacturers to design
plowing engines of better material and proportions from the
ground up. The steam-plowing boom, which had waited only
for serviceable equipment, was then on.

The steam-plowing engine, in less than five years, reached
a high state of efficiency as compared with the former types.
In large units it proved to be most economical, especially after
suitable plows were developed. The power required for
plowing a given area was so much greater than for threshing it
that plowing engines too large in size for economical use at
other work were soon in demand. Skilled operators were
developed, equipment improved, and more uses found for
engines. The practice of steam plowing was rapidly extended.
Vast tracts of level territory were opened where the acreage
was so great as to discourage the idea of turning it with single
teams and horse plows. Prairies were tamed in a twinkling.
Large areas which would otherwise have remained unculti-
vated were brought quickly into productiveness. They have
since been cropped with a minimum of horse and man labor,
which has constantly become more expensive.

THE GENESIS OF POWER PLOWING 225

The path was then clear for the gas tractor. The farmer
had been educated to traction farming. The desire for economi-
cal motors of smaller size, the scarcity and high price of labor,
the difficulty of obtaining cheap coal; and the limited supply
of good water in some sections created the demand. Designers
of all but the first few gas tractors started with the certain
knowledge that their engines would have to meet the severest
possible test — i. e., plowing. In consequence not all the
costly experiments of steam plowing engines were repeated.

The future of the gas tractor has been bright from the mo-
ment that the first practical machine was placed on the market.
After they were once successfully introduced their manufac-
ture increased by phenomenal steps. Standardization has
proceeded with marvelous rapidity, and the gas tractor to-day
stands ready for hard and lasting service, in less than half the
years it took to make the steam plow even practical. It is
now so far perfected as to be remarkably efficient, and is rapidly
freeing itself from the charge of unreliability. Moreover, it
presents a wide field for improvement, while both the horse and
the steam tractor seem to have approached the probable
limit of immediate perfection, and will progress much more
slowly in the coming generation.

XXIV
SUBSTITUTES FOR THE TRACTOR

WITH the coming of the internal-combustion motor
interest in application of mechanical power to farm
work has broken out afresh in all directions. The
system of direct traction, wherein a self-propelling
prime mover draws behind it the plows, binders, or other working
devices, has, for the present at least, been accepted as standard
by the American trade and public. The direct traction motor,
which is built to resist the tremendous tug of a number of plows
at the drawbar, is also best adapted for pulling the other field
implements and machines, all of which have been developed for
transforming an animal's straight pull into linear, reciprocating,
or rotary working motion.

By linear working motion we mean a straightforward move-
ment, such as we find in the plow or the harrow. The imple-
ment's peculiar shape is relied upon to produce the desired effect
upon the soil. Reciprocating motion is seen in the cutting
knife of the binder or mowing machine. The linear pull of
the horse is transformed first into rotary motion by the drive-
wheel, gears, etc., thence into reciprocating motion by a crank
disk and pitman. Rotary working motion of the simplest kind
is seen in the disk harrow, the cornstalk cutter, the alfalfa
renovator, and the stubble digger. Here the work is done by
wheels, which not only carry the weight of the frame, but are
of the shape required for the work in hand. More complex
rotary working parts are found in the cylinder type of hay
loader and hay rake, in the hay tedder and the manure

SUBSTITUTES FOR THE TRACTOR 227

spreader. Stationary machines, as a rule, use rotary motion,
though, as in the threshing machine, some reciprocating parts
are often added.

In Europe, and to a less extent in this country, great efforts
are being made to develop substitutes for the direct traction
method. Several schools of inventors have grown into
prominence, each with a different idea as to how best to
apply mechanical power to the soil. The majority advocate
direct traction. Another large and well-established school
would have the power stationary, or at least portable, the
working implements being drawn back and forth by cables.
A third group insists that motive and working power be com-

Cable plowing scene

bined in one self-propelling frame or unit, while a fourth ad-
vocates the use of animals for propelling the outfit and mechani-
cal power for driving the working parts. Nor can we overlook
entirely the efforts of men to replace the power of heat engines
by electricity from some cheap and abundant supply.

CABLE PLOWING TACKLE

As we have seen, the use of a cable and winding drum for
pulling plows is one of the earliest ideas in mechanical culti-
vation. A short cable, along which the motor propels itself
by winding the cable around a drum mounted on the frame, has
also been in quite common use for pulling engines out of diffi-

228 POWER AND THE PLOW

culties. Within the last few years several plowing motors based
on the latter principle have been brought to the working stage,
using a pulley around which the cable passes only once or twice;
the cable otherwise remains stationary, fastened at both ends,
or at least at the end of the field toward which the machine
is proceeding. As the pulley is made to revolve by the motor,
the friction between its surface and the loops in the cable be-
comes great enough to propel the outfit. The loss in slippage
of the cable on the pulley is claimed to be slight. This system
appeals forcibly to those who have seen how ineffectual at
times are the efforts of any type of traction wheel and grouters
to grip soft ground. One successful motor of this type was
ordinarily propelled by traction wheels, but brought the cable
into play automatically when the slippage of the wheels ex-
ceeded a certain per cent. This rendered the tractor available
for use where it was impracticable to use the cable, as on roads.
The most successful application of power through cables
is, of course, the double-engine and cable method of steam plow-
ing. In this system steel cables, 80 to 100 rods long, are
attached to the implement, which may be a balance plow, a
cultivator, a beet-lifter, or a frame under which harrows, rollers,
etc., may be attached. One engine remains idle, paying out
the cable, while the other winds it up on a drum mounted on
a vertical axis underneath the boiler. The traction wheels
of both engines remain stationary while the cable is being
wound. In this way the entire brake horsepower becomes avail-
able for pulling the plows, there being no loss through slippage
or the movement of the tractor's weight across the fields.
Slippery surfaces do not affect the tractive efficiency, and in
many cases permanent roads along the sides of the fields insure
firm footing for the traction wheels at all times. Another
advantage lies in the absence of any packing of the soil. The
shape of the field has less influence on economy than with the
direct traction system, but owing to the length and weight of

SUBSTITUTES FOR THE TRACTOR 229

cables required the use of the cable system is necessarily re-
stricted to small fields.

The cable outfits are used to a great extent in beet and cane-
sugar cultivation, being well adapted to extremely deep plow-
ing. Bulletin 170, United States Bureau of Plant Industry,
makes the following statement regarding their economy in
California :

Plowing is done at a depth of 12 to 14 inches for sugar beets, and in heavy
adobe soil from ten to twenty acres are covered per day. Light cultivation
is done at a depth of 7 to 9 inches and deep tillage at from 14 to 16 inches, the
cultivators being 16 feet and 10 feet in width respectively. Cultivating is
done at a rate of twenty-five to thirty-five acres and harrowing at the rate of
fifty acres per day. A special implement, lifting six rows of beets at a depth
of 12 to 16 inches, is used in harvesting, and from fifteen to twenty-five acres
are covered in a day when necessary. No time is lost in taking supplies, as
the engines are stationary, and little time is wasted at the ends of the furrows,
one engine being ready to start pulling as soon as the other finishes.

From five to eight men are used in plowing, including a foreman, two en-
gineers, one or two teamsters, two plowmen, and a cook. From six to eight
barrels of crude oil daily supply both engines. The expenses, not including
interest and depreciation, are about $30 a day, or from $2 to $3 an acre. In
comparing this with the cost of operating direct traction outfits, the great
difference in depth of plowing must be kept in mind. Interest and de-
preciation charges are heavy, though, the outfits are in use the greater
part of the year. The investment for each outfit, including freight and duty,
is from $25,000 to $30,000. The cables, which cost from $600 to $900 each,
last from six to eighteen months in continuous use, and bad water destroys flues
in from six to twelve months; otherwise the outfits are capable of long service.

In view of the heavy initial and operating cost, the use of this equipment
is restricted to large enterprises. One ranch in California uses five sets of tackle
in handling 10,000 acres of sugar beets, using horses only in seeding and hauling.
Each outfit is said to displace 120 horses and the necessary drivers. Another
outfit, operating eleven months in the year, handles 1300 acres of beets. Others
are to be found in large vineyards, while a large number are used in sugar-cane
culture in Hawaii. While these outfits are not suitable for use on a small
scale, it would seem that a modification, embodying the numerous advantages,
and adapted to more general use, might be produced in the United States and
sold at a price within the reach of small operators.

The double cost of these outfits, the excessive wear on the
expensive wire cables, the slow rate of work, and the lack of
adaptability to large fields have greatly restricted their
use. Internal-combustion outfits in imitation have never
been developed to a wide extent, though there have been some
recent developments along that line in Continental Europe.

230 POWER AND THE PLOW

AUTO-PLOWS

The "automobile plow" — i. e., a self-propelling, compact
unit, capable of turning in small quarters — has a large body
of advocates. Many experimental tractors, combined with
plows hung directly under or on the frame, have been developed
in different forms. The plows can usually be lifted clear of
the ground and the tractor backed around to cut a square
corner. On one of these machines a gang of plows is mounted
between the drivers and the front wheels. Back of the drivers
follow a harrow of special design and a clod crusher, while
seeders also may be attached. The plows are shoved, rather
than pulled, and one drive wheel must always run on the
plowed ground. Auto-disk plows have been attempted by
at least two or three inventors in this country, and several in
Europe, but without marked success. The effort is made in
some of the latter to have the plows transport the weight of the
outfit as well as turn the soil.

Few auto-plows have reached the marketing stage. A motor
adapted primarily to plowing, with plows combined in the
frame, is at a disadvantage in performing other operations.
A harvester, for example, cannot be hung under the tractor
frame. If it be attached to the rear the strain is different,
with a consequent upsetting of balance and probable loss of
tractive efficiency. Doubtless we shall some day see for the
small farmer a transferable power plant, with a base for it
on each tilling and harvesting machine, which will be made
self-propelling without duplicating the most costly part of the
equipment — i. e., the motor itself.

Another type of motor which propels itself by traction wheels
is equipped at the rear with a chain-driven cylinder studded
with steel hooks. The cylinder may be run at different speeds
and depths, this, as well as the forward speed, regulating
the amount and quality of work done. The tearing action of
the cylinder leaves the soil in finely divided state, creating a

SUBSTITUTES FOR THE TRACTOR 231

good seed bed without further travel over the ground. In
this way, as with a traction engine pulling plows, disks, and
harrows at one time, the traction wheels are always on solid
footing, and there is less waste of power in propulsion. Several
machines of this general character are now claiming attention,
abroad. One great objection to this principle, especially in
the New World, is that the burying of vegetation is often the
prime object of plowing. The cylinder would undoubtedly
mix this trash with the soil more thoroughly than the plow,
yet the lighter material may usually be found on the surface
in considerable quantities.

A South Dakota college professor has attached to the rear
of a wide-wheeled tractor a spiral tillage device which is actuated
by a chain and sprocket. A Kansas farmer repeats an idea
recently brought out in France — i. e.y a series of small
plows connected by radial rods to a rotating shaft, each one
imitating the action of a spade upon the soil. In another
outfit, made in Italy, the ordinary plowshare is replaced by
a pair of auger-like screws which precede the machine and are
rotated in directions opposite to each other as the machine
moves forward.

The use of electricity in plowing has been limited. The
self-contained electric motor has never been perfected, at
least in an economical way. To generate, by means of primary
cells, the amount of power required even for very light work is
out of the question, owing to the cost, bulk, and general unsuita-
bility of the necessary batteries. The storage battery, which
has been successfully used on small automobiles and trucks,
is too bulky, costly, and expensive in operation to be practicable
on a heavy plowing machine.

One development in this line is the self-contained "gasoline-
electric*' motor. In this the power of a gas engine is trans-
formed by a generator into electricity, and this used to drive
the machine. In some present motor trucks all four wheels
are driven, with a small motor on each wheel. A storage

POWER "AND THE PLOW

battery is needed to care for the peak loads on starting and
elsewhere, thus reducing the size of engine required. The
resulting combination is convenient and flexible for certain
purposes, but very high in cost in proportion to power. Steer-
ing, reversing, etc., are accomplished without gears, and the
great possible variation in speed could not be obtained as simply
in any other way. There is, of course, considerable loss in trans-
forming rotary motion into electrical energy and back again
into rotary motion. However, a great deal of attention is
being given to the development of this type of motor truck,
and it is quite possible that some of its advantages may in due
time be embodied in a plowing tractor.

Electricity from a central plant, wherever available at all,
can usually be had quite cheaply, especially where there is
abundant water power. Long-distance transmission lines
bring the current from generators located at mountain water
sites, thus using the "white coal" man has been wasting for
centuries and now, in this country, proposes to mortgage to a
few far-sighted monopolists. The use of this power for plowing
at once implies the necessity for a much less mobile form of
motor. It is obviously impracticable to stretch trolley wires
and lay tracks at intervals across a farm field. Something
on the order of the cable system must be employed with its
added expense and other disadvantages. The simplest form
necessitates two motors proceeding in parallel paths at right
angles to the furrows as in the double-engine cable system.
Such an outfit has already been put into operation on a small
scale by an European inventor.

XXV

ANIMAL -MECHANICAL TILLAGE

A FOURTH school insists that the prime idea in
mechanical cultivation should by no means be to
take implements, which have hitherto been drawn
by horses or oxen, and make them self-propelling.
Neither would it hold to the present idea of the plow to the
extent of blindly retaining those of its characteristics which
hinder the use of mechanical power to the best advantage.
So efficient are the modern plow and linear motion in turning
the earth that any suggestion of improvement takes root
slowly. Yet many obstacles have arisen to prevent the wheels
of the tractor from being as efficient as the four feet of the
animal. No economical engine has the overload capacity of
the horse. No horse has the economy of the stationary engine.
It is by no means settled that soil may not be better pulverized
by other means than the plow. Why not, then, some combina-
tion of the tractive advantage of the animal, the superiority
of the mechanical motor for stationary work, and some pulveriz-
ing device best adapted to the power available for driving it?

The inanimate or mechanical motor should be used in every
case where a simple, uniform, rotary working force is required,
such as that produced by the horse in a tread or sweep power.
Horses and oxen, dogs and sheep, even men and women are
required in Europe to run stationary farm machines by muscle
power. The mechanical motor in these countries will enable
this work to be done ten times cheaper, and humanely displace
the living muscle. In regions where animals are too few in

233

234 POWER AND THE PLOW

numbers, and in warm countries where the animal motor is
very inefficient, only one course is possible — the utilization
of the mechanical motor for propulsion as well as for the opera-
tion of machines. In temperate regions, however, especially
where fields are small, and where moderate work the year round
is actually essential to the health of animals, the advisability
of mechanical traction in small units is more open to question.

The soil is the workshop of the plow or the cultivator. The
arable earth forms the raw material to be worked, but, contrary
to what happens in the factory, the machine must go to the
material and work it up in its original place. If the latter work
can be so regulated as to require a constant amount of power,
a mechanical motor must, by its nature, be wonderfully efficient.

Distinction must be made between the effective work of the
farm machine and its propulsion over the ground. As the
movement of the machine is only an accessory operation and
not productive, it is one on which the least possible effort
should be expanded. The productive force is that which cuts
and turns the earth. With the animal motor this distinction
is unnecessary, since the only movement of which the horse
is capable — i. e.9 forward or linear motion — has had to suffice
for both the propelling and operation of the machine. Advo-
cates of the fourth system insist that non-recognition of this
distinction, and the consequent efforts merely to substitute
a mechanical tractor for an animate motor, have delayed the
solution of the problem of "moto-culture" ten or fifteen years.

To fit the foregoing analysis, a cultivator is being equipped
with rotary working parts operated by a mechanical motor,
animals being used to draw it. The force required to move
it over the ground should not be great, as Yankee ingenuity
has demonstrated in adapting mechanical power to harvesting
in small units. The harvester, or binder, for instance, weighs
only 1500 to 1800 Ibs., which is not an excessive load for one
large horse, and a very light load for two. A gasoline motor,
either mounted on the frame or carried on a separate truck and

ANIMAL - MECHANICAL TILLAGE 235

connected by a universal joint, operates the binder under the
most severe conditions. Two horses easily pull the entire
outfit, yet three to five horses are ordinarily used when the
cutting and binding mechanisms are driven by the bull-wheel.

A combination tillage machine might be built light enough so
that on a smooth piece of laud two horses would pull it for ten
to twelve hours per day without being abnormally fatigued.
A 2-h.p. gasoline motor for traction could not replace these
two horses, even on s uooth ground. Taking into account emer-
gencies, the losses by internal friction and slippage of tractor
wheels, probably 6 h.p. would be necessary, and much more
on grades. Animals may be allowed to rest from time to time
for a fresh start on tiling land, and thus will negotiate steep
grades without assistance. The gasoline motor gains nothing
by resting, except a certain amount of momentum in the fly-
wheel. The steam tractor, by using a surplus of steam and
waiting now and then to replenish it, may mount surprising
grades, but it is not so well adapted to use in small units.
It is this difference which makes the animate motor really valu-
able for traction, because it has at its command, at a given
moment, a motor power two to five times greater than the
effort normally necessary. If the propulsion of the machine
requires ordinarily 2 h.p. and at times 6 or even 15 h.p., then a
mechanical tractor must be chosen with reference to the maxi-
mum requirements. A motor cultivator requiring at all times
10 h.p. for its effective work and 6 h.p. at the outside for
traction, would work advantageously with a 16-h.p. motor,
but one requiring a 25-h.p. motor where most of the time only
12 to 16 h.p. is necessary is not an economical proposition.

The inventors claim that a combined machine will as surely
replace the four-horse plow as the band saw has replaced the
back-and-forth motion of the band saw — as the grindstone
has, in factories, displaced the whetstone and the file. They
overlook the vital fact that, in the plow, the harrow and the
ordinary hay rake, there is no lost stroke as with the saw, and

236 POWER AND THE PLOW

no energy is wasted in preparing for the next working movement.
Furthermore, soils vary in their resistance to the plow, even in
the same field, and to a much greater extent than grain before
the harvester. To cut a furrow of uniform depth and width
requires, therefore, an easy means of varying either the effec-
tive power, or else the speed of travel. It would not be easy
to adjust the gait of a team to the amount of effective work
being done upon the soil by an independent motor, nor will a
small cheap gasoline engine work efficiently under a wide
range of load.

On the whole, the argument is strongly suggestive of possible
lines of development for small farms. Incidentally, this school,
through its organ, La Genie Rural, proposes "moto-culture"
as a term to designate the new methods of tillage that are being
introduced. Owing to the confusing and poorly descriptive
terms we now use — including "power plowing," "mechanical
plowing," "steam plowing," "gasoline plowing," and "traction
plowing," "mechanical tillage," "power cultivation," etc. —
some short, comprehensive phrase such as "moto-culture"
deserves wide employment in designating the whole field of
mechanical power in relation to the soil.

XXVI

THE GENERAL PURPOSE MOTOR

UNIVERSAL moto-culture involves the solution
of the small farmer's problem. Dreamers argue
that the ideal farm is the little farm well tilled,
because of the independent home life which it
brings. The gas engine will come nearer solving the problem
of mechanical power on this ideal farm than steam. The former
is much more economical in small units, and in addition its
convenience and the possibility of lightness which it brings
will make its place secure on the small farm.

Unless horses continue indefinitely to increase in value, it
is doubtful if the durable, all-purpose small tractor will ever
be as cheap in first cost as the number of horses it will replace.
Moreover, it can never be as economical in various kinds of
work. In a team of four horses we have four units, which may
be used either singly, in pairs, or all together. Each unit has
an overload capacity, as we have seen, of practically 400 per
cent. Therefore, we might have a variation anywhere from
the f h.p., which one horse will develop continually and
economically to the 10 or 12 h.p. which four acting together,
might exert at one instant. The gas tractor will operate most
economically between 70 to 95 per cent, of its maximum load.
All its cylinders must act when one does, and there can be no
such wide range of adaptability as will be found in the four-
horse team.

It is doubtful if the really efficient farm tractor can be an
all-round machine. The requirements of the farm as to

237

238 POWER AND THE PLOW

traction power are far too widely separated. No one has ever
asked a single horse to be an efficient draft animal and a swift-
going roadster at the same time. Even on the farm the pro-
prietor recognizes the difference in type, and usually keeps
one or more horses almost solely for driving, though avail-
able for auxiliary power in tne field if needed. Why not
then look forward to the time when the power require-
ments of the farm shall have been divided into two classes, the
heavy and the light; when farm operations and farm imple-
ments shall have been standardized as to power requirements,
so that two tractors — one heavy and powerful, the other,
light and nimble — shall be able to find practically uniform
loads in all kinds of work?

The admitted limitations to the small tractor's range of
efficiency may lead to the development of combination machines,
where animals provide the tractive force and motors the work-
ing power, especially for small operators. For ordinary enter-
prises the saving in time and human labor, with the gain in
simplicity, make the direct traction system much to be pre-
ferred. Perhaps an improvement in direct tractors might be
effected by developing auxiliary motors to be used only in
ascending grades. This is already done in California with steam
tractors, the auxiliary motors on heavy logging wagons being
supplied with steam from the tractor. Similarly, road trains
have been equipped in Europe with a flexible-jointed shaft,
transmitting power from a single engine to the wheels of each
wagon. In many cases it is a question of traction — i. e.f
foothold, rather than of engine power, and these methods
greatly increase the grip on the ground.

Some of the ideas and inventions of the various schools of
power enthusiasts are not without merit, and under future
conditions may have real commercial value. The rotary prin-
ciple exercises a peculiar grip on the minds of the inventors,
owing, perhaps, to the rapidity and completeness of the results
which it may bring about. The plow, however, has best con-

THE GENERAL PURPOSE MOTOR 239

served the animal's power, and the rotary and reciprocating
motions of the harvester, with their loss in delivered power,
have been suffered because there seemed no simpler way to
produce the necessary results. Inventors still continue, never-
theless, to bring out werfd varieties of rotary digging and pul-
verizing machines, earth saws, and the like, all designed to
overcome the admitted defects of the plow. Most of these
have run upon the rock of excessive power consumption.
Animals, already scarce, could not be spared to draw them,
since they attempted to do the work, not only of the plow, but
of the harrow and the other pulverizing implements which
follow. The cheaper and highly concentrated power of
mechanical tractors has enabled the farmer to combine opera-
tions without a heavy cost for maintaining the power
plant during idle seasons, and now more and more of
these inventions are being brought to light. Few of them
are practicable, but they show the trend of thought and the
direction in which improvement of moto-culture will undoubt-
edly come.

The constant introduction of freak machines built around
a single meritorious idea, now, as in the past, gives the public
an unfavorable opinion of mechanical power for tillage. The
tractor industry was a long time regaining the public confidence
lost during the earlier years of development, when unreliable
engines, mounted on unmechanical frames and traction wheels,
brought many an early purchaser grief that he published far
and wide. So long as inventors exist, and capitalists are
willing for the sake of profit to promote the sale of experimen-
tal machines, the industry as a whole reaps the notoriety brought
about by their failures. Mechanical power, however, is now so
firmly established on the farm that its final popularity and
general use will not be endangered by these failures, and in-
vention along these lines is to be welcomed. The prejudice
in favor of the horse is passing. Men have accepted the new
order of things, and the problem now is to adapt mechanical

240 POWER AND THE PLOW

power and farm methods to one another in the way that will
give the most useful results.

To do this it may be necessary to revise some of our methods
of crop production. We are apt to look upon our present
methods as the only ones, yet we must remember that the shape
of the plow was not finally established until late in the first
half of the nineteenth century; that our disk harrow, our sub-
surface packer, and in fact practically all of our tillage im-
plements and harvesting machines have been devised within
fifty years. We must remember they were devised to make
use of the only power that has been available for operating
them, and that power was exerted in a linear direction. As a
result of copying that power, we now have reciprocating en-
gines producing rotary power at the crankshaft; transforming
this into a forward or linear motion, in a tractor; that again
into the rotary motion of the binder wheel, and even finally
into reciprocating motion again as in the binder knife, before
the power is finally applied to work. Going around Robin Hood's
barn is walking the straight and narrow path in comparison.

Is the plow, for example, capable of further improvement?
Or will it be superseded by a rotary mechanism which will per-
form the functions of the plow and harrow combined? Pos-
sibly something of this sort may supplant the direct tractor.
The farm power plant must however do more to replace present
methods than simply to prepare the soil. It may not be a wild
dream that some day we may see a tractor with plows hitched
under the frame, harrows or a pulverizing roller behind, pos-
sibly a rotary cylinder with pulverizing teeth taking the place
of all three. On the side of the machine we may find a cutter
bar, and on top a combined harvester for threshing and sacking
the grain all at one operation. To be a complete success, the
machine should also bale the straw and, if possible, seed the
next year's crop at the same time.

The elements of all these ideas are now to be found on present
gas tractors. We have auto hay presses, and auto threshers;

THE GENERAL PURPOSE MOTOR 241

we have scores of auto plows; we have in England an auto
mower; we have in Georgia an auto cultivator; we have auto
transplanters and seeders, auto cotton pickers, auto road-
rollers, and automatic machines for accomplishing practically
every operation.

The beneficial results of combining operations are: First,
to save time; second, by hastening the sequence of crop opera-
tions to confine them to the period when the most favorable
conditions of soil and climate prevail, and avoid negative
action on the soil between successive steps; third, to save trips
on the plowed ground; and fourth, to make up a full and
economical load for the motor, such as is found in the combina-
tions of plows, harrows, disks, seeders, packers, and binders
now to be found on our Western prairies. With horses the
inability to concentrate power made it necessary to separate
operations. With mechanical power there is no reason why we
may not look for a recombination of all the various tasks which
can take place at or nearly the same time.

He is a poor prophet who does not ask if in the end the
tractor, which is now merely a substitute for what Thomas A.
Edison calls the poorest motor ever built, will not be even
more. It may combine in one frame a power-producing plant
which is more efficient than the horse, and compact working
mechanisms which are utterly impossible where the animal
is used for power. If plowing were the only task on the farm,
or threshing, or yet haying, some of these substitutes for direct
traction might even now threaten the continuance of the
latter system. No feasible method, however, approaches the
use of the independent tractor in economy, simplicity, ver-
satility and general efficiency. At present the problem of
getting satisfactory machines to attach to the rear of the
tractor seems to furnish complications enough, and the next
generation will probably come into power before the trac'or's
supremacy over an indirect or a combined machine is seriously
questioned.

242 POWER AND THE PLOTV

The future will see a wider variety of equipment for the ap-
plication of power to the work of the farm than would ever
have been possible with animal power alone. Man has made
no fundamental change in the horse in thousands of years of
breeding and selection. In a single generation he has produced
mechanical motors with much greater variation in speed than
exists between the Belgian and the thoroughbred; with vastly
greater difference in size than between the Shire and the Shet-
land; and with thousands of differences in design, materials,
and construction that breeders have never been able to create
in flesh and blood.

XXVII
BUSINESS MANAGEMENT IN TRACTION PLOWING

THE success of a plowing outfit depends not only on
the efficiency of the equipment, but upon the
energy and business ability of the operator. It
goes without saying that good equipment is the
prime essential, but it is a common observation that all makes
of engines and plows fail in incompetent hands.

The most successful use of the traction engine involves
farming on a basis of quality rather than quantity. The
biggest handicap to the popularization of engine power has been
slovenly work. There was a time when steam plowing was
synonymous with poor plowing and weed-infested farms.
Prof. Thomas Shaw, of Minnesota, now in charge of over
forty experimental farms for a great railway system in the
Northwest, even now goes so far as to ask if manufacturers
cannot bind their customers to a higher quality of work than
the majority are doing. In the past this complaint might
have been due somewhat to crude and clumsy equipment. Now,
however, the traction engine makes quality in farming possible,
owing to the fact that no work need be slighted for lack of
power. The engine and plow equipment is excellent, and one
by one other implements are being especially adapted for use
with engines. Operators must now remember that there is
more money in one acre of well-tilled land than in two where
the owner's desire is simply to farm on a large scale.

A Saskatchewan official draws a parallel between the evolu-
tion of a large railway system and that of custom plowing

243

244 POWER AND THE PLOW

with tractors. On the start the demand was for mileage
on the one hand and great capacity on the other. With
growing competition grew the necessity for quality in order
to secure business, and economy to insure profits. To the
railway there have come better roadbed, better rolling stock,
and better service. Close observation of details cheapened
costs, and made these improvements possible. Better engines
and plows are now making for quality in plowing, and close
attention to. oft-repeated expenses and profits is enabling
men to maintain the more expensive equipment with satis-
factory returns. Early progress in either case was more
spectacular, but the later development is steadier and more
effective. The manager of a plowing outfit must have an eye
to the easiest profits. "Money saved is money earned."
To reduce operating expenses is much more sensible and popu-
lar than to increase prices. It is much more scientific than to
increase output, especially if, as is frequently the case, com-
petition has forced the income down to the level of former
operating expenses.

The operator who maintains an individual plowing outfit
must use his ingenuity in adapting the expensive engine to
as many other kinds of work as possible in the course of a year,
thus dividing the fixed charges for interest and depreciation
by as many working days as possible. The same thing is true
of the custom operator, who, however, has the further difficul-
ties of securing work in the face of competition, and collecting
a fair price for his services from his customers.

A tractor contains the capacity for tilling so many acres,
and the greatest economy lies in working these in the shortest
space of time. In this connection we might call attention to
a statement by a prominent official of the Illinois Steel Com-
pany: "There are so many tons of metal in the lining of a
blast furnace. It is my business to see that they are gotten
out as quickly as possible." Dr. Charles W. Elliot, former
president of Harvard, said: "The replacement of machinery

MANAGEMENT IN TRACTION PLOWING 245

goes on in this country at a prodigious rate. We Americans
use the scrap heap oftener than any other nation, but we never
yet used it quickly enough."

If an engine costing $2750 has a life of 1000 working days,
which are spent during the course of five years, the charges
for interest, depreciation and repairs may be figured at $3.52
per day. This is figuring the annual repairs at 2 per cent, of
the first cost and interest at 6 per cent, on the average invest-
ment. If the same amount of work is spread out over eight
years, the cost per working day would be $3.77; if over fifteen
years, $4.35. These costs assume that the repairs will be the
same in the life of the outfit, whether it lasts five or fifteen years.
As a matter of fact, the longer the life, the greater the depre-
ciation during idleness, and the greater the repair bill necessary
to accomplish the same volume of work. Interest is based
on the average inventory value, since depreciation is written
off each year. This reduces the interest to a little over one
half what it would be if based on the first cost, and the method
is only fair, since depreciation and repairs are also charged.
The longer the life in years for the same volume of work, the
heavier the interest charge each day. It is therefore false
economy to refrain from using an engine for any good purpose,
simply to prolong its life, although every care should be taken
to prevent unnecessary depreciation, especially during idleness.
Nor can this paragraph be construed as an argument in favor
of buying a short-lived engine to save interest, since depre-
ciation is a much larger item.

In the case of the farm owner, the labor during rush seasons
may be greatly reduced and much time saved, if fuel and other
materials which are known to be necessary are purchased in
quantity and hauled to the farm for storage, during seasons
when no other work is possible. Operators will save much
expense and loss of time, if the equipment is thoroughly over-
hauled prior to the beginning of the season, and worn parts
replaced. A supply of the extras which are most frequently

246 POWER AND THE PLOW

renewed should be procured and kept on hand for emergencies.
Better prices and more prompt delivery can of course be had
during the slack seasons.

During the season, if repairs are needed, they should be
ordered by wire and shipped by express, as every day's delay
means a loss of much more than the cost of telegrams and ex-
pressage. In all cases when ordering repairs, operators should
be careful to give a full description. They should ascertain
also, if possible, the number of the part, the number of the en-
gine, and the date when it was purchased. This in itself will
save many agonizing delays which occur when insufficient data
are given to enable the repair man at the branch office or factory
to locate the desired part.

Every possible precaution should be taken to prevent
accidents and delay. It takes approximately twenty-seven
minutes every day of the year merely to do chores for one
work horse; hence an hour a day is not an excessive amount
of time to be spent by one man in looking after a machine
capable of doing the work of twenty-five to thirty horses.

The plowing season is short, also the threshing season. The
time of doing the work is the constant factor; the number and
capacity of outfits, the variable factors. The more each opera-
tor accomplishes in a given time, the less competition he will
have and the more service he can obtain from his engine.
Counting only the items which are comparable to the over-
head charges on the engine, that is, the interest, depreciation,
shoeing, etc., we find that overhead charges amount to about
$30 per year on each horse. This is divided among about
1000 working hours, hence two horses have an overhead cost
of 6 cents per hour and another cent can be added for the plow.
A driver's labor costs 12 to 15 cents per hour. If the driver
stops his team for fifteen minutes to adjust a plow, the loss
is a trifle over 5 cents. Counting the daily overhead cost of a
gas tractor as $4.00, the plow cost as $1.25, and the labor of
two men as $5.00, we have a total of about 1.7 cents per minute.

MANAGEMENT IN TRACTION PLOWING 247

Fifteen minutes' delay to adjust a plow, or to find and tighten
a loose bolt, means over 25 cents lost in labor and overhead
charges, besides a greater loss from the acreage not plowed
in season. With a steam outfit the loss in even greater.

Men buy plowing engines to cheapen costs and insure the
handling of large areas. Capacity is at a premium. With a
gas tractor capable of plowing 15 to 25 acres per day the most
costly item may lie in saving the wages of one man. One man
alone can frequently run an outfit, but the overhead expense
on the outfit is often equal to the wages of two. Every moment
of the engine's time that can be saved by having an extra man
to handle the plows, change shares, run errands, or help about
the engine, represents money saved in overhead charges, and
in addition to the returns at harvest time. Not only that,
but the presence of a second man makes work easier and more
attractive to both, if not through the occasional exchange of
places, then through the mere fact of companionship. In the
past the isolation of the solitary, trudging plowman added
immeasurably to the drudgery of it all.

In hiring labor, it is desirable to hire by the month, as in this
case the owner has the services of the crew during the seasons
of enforced idleness, without extra charge, while the very
fact that laborers are paid by the month insures greater per-
manence. Board is usually furnished by the month, and there
is no reason why wages should not be paid on a similar basis.
By good management, the entire crew could be kept busy on
rainy days, and considerable time may be well spent in over-
hauling the equipment. When wages are paid by the day,
this work is too often neglected.

It is even better to pay a flat rate as a basis, and a bonus for
extra performance. One large farm pays a flat rate per acre
for the engineer and plowman, then allows the crew a bonus
above the ordinary rate for the whole number of acres plowed,
if the daily acreage exceeds a given amount. Thus the laborer
not only gets full wages for extra output but a bonus which

248 POWER AND THE PLOW

is applied to his whole day's work. For instance, suppose an
outfit averages twenty acres per day, the engineer getting 20
cents, guider and plowman 10 cents, and teamsters 7J cents
per acre. For fifteen acres the wages would be $3.00, $1.50,
and $1.13, respectively, and for twenty acres, $4.00, $2.00, and
$1.50. If the acreage goes above twenty, even slightly, a
slight amount, proportioned to the minimum rate for each
man, is added to the rate for the day. If the engineer got two
cents extra the others would get 1 cent and f cent, which,
on twenty-one acres would mean 42, 21, and 16 cents, respec-
tively, added. This does not invite abuse of the equipment.

A good plan is to make the bonus effective only in case
the man remains with the outfit until the close of a given
season. As the season advances, the extra wages which might
be secured from some other operator are not sufficient to meet
the loss of bonus. One ranch of 25,000 acres in central Kansas
hires about 120 laborers, paying $20 a month as wages and at
the rate of $100 a year bonus, if the laborer remains on the farm
until the close of the fiscal year, on September 30th.

Still another plan is to pay a very low rate of wages, amount-
ing to approximately half the normal earning capacity of each
man, supplementing this with a payment by the acre, which,
for an average day's run, would pay an average total wage.
Thus, a man worth $2.00 per day would be paid $1.00 per day
and 5 cents per acre. His wages would seldom fall below $1.75
and could be increased to from $2.75 to $3.00 with everything
favorable.

The tractioneer should remember that the plows of to-day
are designed to run at the speed a horse will maintain, namely,
two miles an hour or less. At a higher speed a given plow may
scour better, and will undoubtedly pulverize better, but there
is also the danger of throwing the dirt too far, scattering
trash, and unnecessarily increasing the power required to turn
the furrow. Special plows, such as are used with oxen on the
one hand and some foreign cable systems on the other, produce

MANAGEMENT IN TRACTION PLOWING 249

the desired result with greater or less curvature of the mold-
board. The same acreage may be secured by running at a
speed of two and one half miles per hour with six plows, or at
one and one half miles per hour with ten. In the former case
the outfit must run ten miles farther to accomplish the same
work. The engine speed may remain the same in either case,
but at the faster speed the ten miles of extra travel must be
endured by the tractor wheels with the additional strain upon
rim and grouters. Both the engine and the operator must
withstand two thirds more jolting, and the plowman, especially,
must endure the discomfort occasioned by rapid progress, since
the frame wheels of the plow are relatively small in diameter.
These wheels and the gauge wheel, coulter and share on each
bottom, must travel much farther in plowing an acre. The
shares must be changed oftener, while the entire outfit remains
idle. More trips across the field will be required for a given
acreage, and there is the temptation at every turn to waste
a little time. These speeds represent extremes, neither of
which is adapted to present plow design. Until experience has
proved that a higher speed is advantageous, and plowmakers
have met the need with new plow shapes, the majority of trac-
tors will be adapted to a plowing speed about equal to that of
horses. Good management demands that the existing condi-
tions be analyzed and no attempt made to force results which
cannot reasonably be expected.

Every possible means should be taken to secure as large a
volume of work as is possible with a safe rate of wear and tear
on equipment. It is difficult to persuade hired crews to secure
this volume by keeping the outfit in motion, the majority pre-
ferring to take long periods of rest and crowd the engine dur-
ing the time it works. There is only one best speed for plowing
with a given engine, and a good engineer can prolong the life
of an engine by finding it. One well-paid man should be
given full authority over the others, and made responsible not
only for the amount of work done, but for the condition of

250 POWER AND THE PLOW

the equipment. Cheap labor is by no means economical,
especially in the person of foreman or engineer. Not every
engineer who can run a threshing engine can run the same
engine successfully in breaking, while stationary and locomo-
tive engineers fail more often than not at this "rough-and-
tumble engineering." The duty of the foreman should be to
cut down the time spent at standstill by every means within
his power. Anticipating accidents is one profitable way of
earning wages, and only the experienced engineer will be
able to do this.

Cutting down the time required to take on supplies is another
important item. Steam engines were formerly standing still
about 25 per cent, of the time, for oiling and taking coal and
water. Water may now be taken while the outfit is on the
move, requiring from five to eight minutes for each hour.
When it is necessary to stop for coal, as is the case perhaps
four times a day, the work of taking it on, oiling, tightening
bolts, etc., should be divided among the entire stop. With
internal-combustion engines, the tune thus lost is much less,
although in a few makes of engine the use of cooling water is
so excessive as to require a stop every two hours for this alone.
A portable supply tank, with compartments for both fuel and
water, is a time-saving piece of equipment in this case.

The custom operator must first of all be sure of getting a
living price for his work. In some sections competition is so
keen as to make this difficult, but thorough organization of
the traction plowing operators should remove this difficulty.
The cost of doing work must be accurately known before a fair
basis of custom price may be had. This in turn requires the
keeping of daily records of cost and performance, and this
should be regarded as quite as necessary as intelligent manage-
ment of the equipment itself. Daily records should show the
number of miles traveled, or acres plowed; the total amount of
fuel, lubricating oil and other materials used; the cost of labor
and board; horse charges and incidental expenses. Cash

MANAGEMENT IN TRACTION PLOWING 251

accounts should be kept in order that the repairs and other
overhead charges for the season may be accurately divided
among the total units of work. Accounts with each customer
should show the date of the work; the total acreage; the cus-
tom rate and the dates of payment. Fields should be accurately
measured and full value received for all work done. Blank
forms for keeping these records are sometimes supplied free
by the manufacturer. The custom operator should regard
himself as a public benefactor, but not necessarily a philan-
thropist, and should be prudent in making concessions in the
face of real or fancied competition. Prompt, and if necessary
vigorous collections should be the rule.

The efficiency of the tractor must not be cut down by in-
adequate accessory equipment. This applies with particular
force to the big steam outfit. For satisfactory attendance
there must usually be at least one coal wagon, at $75 to $80
complete; a trap wagon for carrying the repair parts, tools,
and odds and ends; and a tank wagon, costing anywhere from
$75 to $200 complete. Chains, clevises, tools, and black-
smith outfits will usually cost from $50 to $125. Complete
equipment of this sort will save many delays occasioned by
the failure of some trifling part, and will save enormously on
the time required for sharpening plows. Time and money
have often been saved by sinking wells at intervals over a
large ranch and using a small portable gasoline engine to pump
water for the tractor. For plowing at some distance from
headquarters it is advisable to have either a tent or shack
for cooking, and possibly another for sleeping. The cook
shack and sleeping van are frequently on wheels, and form
part of the regular outfit which is taken from place to place.
Thus no time need be lost in going to meals, and proper care
of the men is made much easier. Either shack complete
and mounted on substantial trucks will cost from $200 to $500,
according to finish and equipment.

While the greatest need for mechanical power lies in plow-

252 POWER AND THE PLOW

ing, the use of a tractor on the farm is seldom profitable unless
every effort is made to keep it busy during the remainder of
the year. Conditions have changed remarkably in the last
decade, and tractors are now in demand for a greater variety
of work than was once thought within its range of usefulness.
More satisfactory machines and implements for utilizing the
engine's power have constituted one great factor in adding to
the possible volume of work, and the most successful operator
will embrace every opportunity thus offered.

XXVIII
THE TRACTION ENGINE IN DRY -FARMING

DRY- FARMING" is a relative term. It implies
agriculture in sections where there is a normal
scarcity of moisture during the growing season.
Roughly, the dry-farming area in the United States
lies west of the Missouri River in the North and the 99th me-
ridian in Nebraska and Kansas, while in the South it includes
the great plains area of Oklahoma, Texas, and the states to
the West. It stretches westward to the Rocky Mountains,
and northward far beyond the 49th parallel into the Northwest
Provinces of Canada. Within this great body of land are the
hundreds of thousands of dry-farms that lie outside the scope
of practical irrigation, and on which unusual methods must
be adopted to conserve moisture if these semi-arid tracts are
to compete in any way with the green gardens under the ditches.
Through necessity, it has been demonstrated that the "Great
American Desert" of the eighties is capable of producing the
food of many millions of people. Rapid immigration and a
demand for farm products far outrunning any possible increase
through more intensive cultivation in the East, have made
necessary the invasion of the semi-arid West, the adoption of
new methods and more efficient equipment. The cattleman,
using twenty-five acres to support a steer, has reluctantly given
way to the settler. Yet dry-farming has until recently pro-
gressed slowly and failures have multiplied. High winds and
lack of rainfall make work extremely difficult for animals to
withstand during the hottest of the growing season. It has

253

254 POWER AND THE PLOW

always been found difficult to provide the variety of feed
necessary for keeping animals in good working condition,
and farmers have always been obliged to keep a surplus of
horseflesh in order to make sure of a full quota during rush
seasons. With the coming of mechanical power, dry-farming
has taken on a new importance. Nowhere has the tractor
found a greater range of usefulness than on the grain farms of
the semi-arid West. It is particularly the dry-farmers' own
and he is rapidly grasping its possibilities.

From time to time land was wrested from the range and
broken up, only to present new and unsuspected difficulties.
The very conditions essential to the conservation of moisture
on the great plains, that is, a dust mulch and frequent tillage,
make it almost impossible to prevent the hillsides from washing
and blowing. Summer winds of sixty miles per hour carry
the loose earth to bury vegetation and stifle man and beast.
According to Prof. E. C. Montgomery, agronomist of the Ne-
braska Experiment Station, not over 10 to 20 per cent,
of the land between the 99th and 104th meridians should be
under cultivation. The remainder is good grazing land, and,
used in conjunction with the cultivated' area, will support a
large amount of live stock. Modern knowledge holds, there-
fore, that the land really adapted to dry-farming is the level
land best adapted to traction farming.

In all dry-farm tillage operations, there are three great prob-
lems: the conservation of soil water; the eradication of weeds,
and the securing of proper physical conditions in the soil.
Of these, the first is by far the most important. By the means
employed to secure an adequate supply of soil water, the other
ends are largely accomplished. So vital is this need that an
enormous premium is placed upon prompt and rapid action at
all times when the stock of moisture is endangered. The
traction engine works swiftly. It is tireless. It relieves the
farmer from rush and anxiety, and he has turned to it eagerly
as the lever by which he can control the moisture situation

TRACTION ENGINE IN DRY -FARMING 255

This one advantage, capacity, has made him master of his
environment. Were there no other consideration in its favor,
the tractor would still hold an important place in dry-land
agriculture. Methods vary with conditions and with people.
Each section gains its ends independently. Yet into every
part of the great semi-arid plains the traction engine has found
its way, and proved its usefulness. A review of farm practice
in dry-farming districts reveals no condition where it is not a
most useful servant.

Dry-land agriculture has its degrees in dryness. There are
regions having from five to ten inches of rainfall annually,
where, with the best methods of soil tillage and moisture con-
servation, a crop may be raised no oftener than every other
year. There are regions with from ten to fifteen inches of
rainfall, where two crops may be grown in succession on the
moisture stored up during a fallow year, plus that which is
precipitated during the two growing seasons. Then there is
the dry-land agriculture in which, with eighteen to twenty-two
inches of rainfall, as in western Nebraska and Kansas, a crop
may be grown every year. Rainfall is not the only factor,
however. In the northern sections the evaporation is much
less than in the southern, and an area with a rainfall of thirty
inches in Texas or Oklahoma may entail drier dry-farming than
one in Saskatchewan with half the annual precipitation.

In western Canada, the winter temperatures are low,
and the summer season short. Evaporation is not so rapid
as farther south, and crops may be grown successfully with
much less rainfall. In breaking the virgin prairie, it is cus-
tomary to allow the grass to obtain a good start, then to break
it rapidly, as shallow as possible. By plowing only two to two
and one half inches deep, the crown and the roots of the grass
are separated. The long, gently curving moldboards of the
breaker plows turn the sod upside down, leaving the surface
in smooth, ribbon-like furrows. The best farmers roll the land
immediately, so that no large air spaces may be left between

256 POWER AND THE PLOW

the subsoil and the furrow slice, and the sod is then in condition
to rot with the greatest despatch. In from four to six weeks,
the land is plowed again, this time at a depth of four inches
or more. Disking and harrowing follow to prepare the seedbed
and form a dust mulch on the surface, thus conserving the
moisture for the following year's crop. The work of breaking
and "backsetting," as the second plowing is called, must be
done in the heat of the short northern summer. Daylight
lasts over all but a few hours of the twenty-four. Work presses,
but the severe toil of the horse must cease after eight hours,
ten at the outside. He must have food and rest when needed
most in the field. In this emergency, the traction engine
stands ready to do the work of two or three shifts of horses.
Not only does it do the work more cheaply, but, and this is
more important, it does it exactly at the right time.

In the wornout lands of the nearer humid West, farmers
have found that summer fallowing, or resting and cultivating
the land a year between crops, gives new life to the soil. Scien-
tists tell us that the bacteria of the soil make available some
of the locked-up nitrogen, converting it into nitrates which
plants can assimilate. Wasteful methods have made this
necessary on some of the greatest wheat lands the world has
ever seen. Summer fallowing under humid conditions is a
confession of extravagance. In dry-land agriculture, it is
a periodical necessity. Referring to average prairie conditions,
the Minister of Agriculture for Saskatchewan stated, several
years ago, that "bare summer fallowing is becoming, and in-
deed in many parts had already become, the very foundation
upon which successful wheat culture is based and profitably
carried on. The practice of summer fallowing is usually
associated in the popular mind with the restoration of fertil-
ity; but not so in the West. Conservation of soil moisture
is the primary object of bare fallowing."

In summer fallowing, two systems may be followed: either
to plow the land early after the weeds have once germinated,

TRACTION ENGINE IN DRY -FARMING 257

and then keep it constantly cultivated, or, where the land is
clean, to plow it late and give it no further cultivation. The
former is of course the more desirable method, as the weeds
are destroyed as fast as they appear, the surface mulch is main-
tained, and no moisture is lost. However, with the ordinary
number of horses kept on such farms, weeds often grow faster
than they can be kept down.

Lovers of dumb beasts who pity the overloaded cart horse
of the city streets, may well pity the patient, willing farm horse,
in summer fallowing time, doomed to long, weary hours under
the dry glare of the Western prairie sky, dragging a relentless
load through the choking dust and heat. The hotter and drier
the season, the more intense the energy which must be applied
to retain the precious fluid. Again and again, by day and by
night, cultivation must go on under extreme pressure. In
the hour of need extra horseflesh cannot be had at any cost,
and mere brute flesh and blood has neither the power nor
endurance to meet the tremendous emergency. With the
traction engine, the land can be gone over swiftly, and where
necessary, the acreage can be doubled at night. Weeds then
have small chance to rob the soil of the moisture and the soluble
plant food made ready for the following crop.

It is a curious fact that hi fallow ground rain may cause a
loss of moisture where abundant power is not available for
cultivating. A slight rain may penetrate only to the depth
of the dust mulch, causing it to run together and establish
capillary channels connecting with those in the subsoil. The
evaporation during the middle of the summer, when these
showers may be expected, may not only be great enough to
remove the rain which has just fallen, but a large part of that
which has been so carefully hoarded below the surface. It is
practically out of the question for the farmer to maintain
horses enough for such an emergency but by crowding his
engine to its full capacity, he is able to reestablish the mulch
before the mischief is done.

258 POWER AND THE PLOW

In the Columbia Basin of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho,
the annual rainfall is as low as eight or nine inches. Here the
usual practice is to summer fallow, and follow this with winter
wheat. After the fall harvest, if the ground is quite free from
weeds, it is possible to plow and leave it rough and cloddy
without further treatment until the following spring. It is
then in excellent shape to hold the soil and snow from blowing,
and to allow rain and melting snow to penetrate. Trash thus
has a better chance to decompose and the rains tend to settle
the ground. However, if the land is weedy, the better practice
is to use the tractor to disk and harrow the ground frequently
after harvest. Plowing is then done in the spring for the sum-
mer fallowing, or for the spring crop if one is sown. In some
sections of this Basin, near the mountains, the rainfall is suffi-
cient to allow two crops between summer fallows, a whiter
crop followed by a spring crop, or two spring crops in succession.

There are sections in the State of Washington, where the soil
is a volcanic ash, or pumice, of such loose, gritty, character
that a traction engine, regardless of make or construction, is
speedily worn out. Into this district many have been intro-
duced, all meeting with the same difficulty. One would expect
land owners to become discouraged, but on closer investi-
gation, it is found that the violent storms of lava dust which
play havoc with even the heaviest parts of traction engines
make the use of horses during such times almost out of the
question.

In the Dakotas and Montana new land is sometimes broken
to a depth of five or six inches to avoid the drying out of the
furrow slice which accompanies the method of shallow breaking
and backsetting. Authorities like Professor Shaw affirm that
the latter method makes it next to impossible ever to obtain a
seedbed deeper than the original year's plowing, while with deep
breaking and proper tillage there need never be a crop failure
in either state. With deep breaking — i. e., at least six inches
— a fair seedbed may be obtained at once, though at an enor-

TRACTION ENGINE IN DRY -FARMING 259

mous cost for power, and its depth increased at will in successive
seasons. Those who follow this method usually pack, disk
and harrow the new breaking thoroughly and put in a crop of
flax the same season. The following year the stubble is well
disked and harrowed, and a spring crop put in without plow-
ing. The original surface soil is eventually brought again to
the top and mixed with the other layers, but not until the old
vegetation has been decomposed under the influence of the
moisture which this system retains.

New and more fertile farms underlie the old, and farmers
are adding to their acres by doubling the depth of plowing.
Not only do they double the feeding ground for the roots of
wheat, but they more than double the moisture holding capac-
ity of the soil. The dust mulch, and the crust which forms
just underneath it, may render four or five inches of the top
soil unavailable for the support of plants. Eight-inch plowing
gives, then, from 100 to 200 per cent, greater volume of cul-
tivated soil and moisture reservoir than six-inch plowing, and
ten-inch plowing places the soil water permanently below the
evaporating influence of the sun and air. Animals, already
limited in number by the crop-cycle which enforces a long,
expensive period of maintenance each year with no return,
cannot profitably be kept to do this increasingly difficult work.
Only the insensate mechanical motor combines the strength,
endurance and economy of maintenance necessary to coax
satisfactory yields from this region of fertile soil and uncertain
rainfall, and convert them into large net profits.

Further south, in western Nebraska and Kansas, with a rain-
fall of eighteen to twenty-two inches, there is reasonable
assurance of a yield only every two or three years. Although
the moisture may be sufficient, insects or high winds may
spoil the crop; consequently, the usual practice is to put as
little expense on the land as possible. The loss in case of a bad
season is then less, and the yield in a good season compares
favorably with areas under more intensive cultivation. Land

260 POWER AND THE PLOW

values and rents are low, hence from a business standpoint,
the practice seems justifiable. However, the better class of
farmers are realizing that with better equipment and cheaper
methods they gain in the long run by applying more intensive
cultivation. The traction engine has greatly cheapened the
cost of the necessary tillage operations, and added to the cer-
tainty of their execution. It is, therefore, being adopted by
farmers who prefer to make some effort of their own rather
than trust entirely to providence.

In the great Southwest, the hottest and driest of the dry-
farming regions, the only plowing that can be done economically
during the greater part of the year is with the traction engine.
It is at its best in the hottest weather. Heat is its very life.
The steam engine produces its steam more economically, the
internal-combustion engine its gas more perfectly, in the highest
temperatures. The mechanical cooling apparatus of the latter
removes the enormous handicaps placed on that other internal-
combustion motor, the horse. Two thirds of the muscular
energy consumed by the animal during work is given off as
waste heat. Nature's cooling apparatus is unequal to the
task in the heated zones. The temperature of the animal
rises quickly to the danger point, and work must stop. But
not so with the tractor. Let the sun shine mercilessly, let the
ground dry and bake; disk plows will penetrate it; its very
solidity aids the traction wheels to transmit more power to the
plows; heavy rollers or crushers drawn behind the plows crush
and pulverize the soil, the harrow smooths and stirs the sur-
face, and the bare field has become a seedbed. Even after
the crop is up and growing, light cultivation adds enormously
to the yield by breaking up the dry crust which grips the young
plants. With the tractor the farmer may thus cover two or
three sections twice in the growing season, a task impossible
with teams.

In the humid sections the weight of enormous steam tractors
is occasionally a detriment on account of the packing of the

TRACTION ENGINE IN DRY-FARMING 261

moist soil. To the good dry-farmer this appeals as an ad-
vantage, for packing the soil closes up the air spaces in the
lower half of the furrow and thus prevents a loss of moisture,
besides leaving the ground smooth and firm to facilitate har-
vesting. The firm earth conducts heat more rapidly, and packed
subsurface soils warm up more quickly in the spring. Too
often this work of packing is neglected on account of the extra
drain on the energy of the work animals. The heavy tractor's
own weight and its ample power remove the difficulty.

It is thoroughly established that the disk should precede,
as well as follow, the plow in dry-land agriculture. The mixture
of chopped stubble and loose soil thus thrown to the bottom
of the furrow forms a perfect union with the subsoil, in contrast
with the big, dry clods usually plowed under. Capillary
connection with the subsoil is more quickly reestablished, the
deep moisture rises, and decomposition of the buried vegetation
is hastened. Lack of time and power usually prevent the
practice of this valuable method. With teams, this operation
must be done separately, but to owners of traction engines the
addition of disks behind the plows is a mere detail.

No manageable team can perform more than one operation
at one time. With horses seeding must wait on the work of
the plow, packer and disk — plowing on the completion of the
harvest. Sun and weeds draw moisture from the unprotected
soil in the meantime. But the harvester may precede the
tractor, the disk or plow may follow, and in an instant the ground
passes from the shadow of the standing grain to the shelter
of the earth mulch. Instead of separate trips for the plow,
the roller, the disk and the harrow, the engine accomplishes
all at once. Or the plow, the packer, the disk and seeder may
work as one, to give the sown seed every advantage of moisture
and time for growth. Instead of countless footsteps, each
sinking deeper as the soil is made more mellow, the path of the
tractor is made but once. Instead of a loss of power in trav-
ersing the soft ground, there is a fast grip of traction wheel on

262 POWER AND THE PLOW

firm earth. Instead of acres baking in the sun and air as they
await the moisture-saving harrow, there is a swift and easy
crumbling of the soil, a quick pressing of the earth back to its
place and a protective mantle of dust to guard the treasured
moisture. Measured in moisture or in money, the cost is less
than by the former methods.

From the moment spring work begins, moments are precious.
The grain which is sown to-day may yield a fourth more than
what we sow to-morrow after a day's rapid loss of moisture.
Two weeks' difference in time of seeding often spells the dif-
ference between glowing success and complete failure. At
harvest time the early-cut grain contains a greater percentage
of gluten and brings a higher grade and price on the market.
Early threshing saves deterioration of the crops through ex-
posure, and the early bird at the railway station catches the
cars before the annual shortage. The tractor can plow fifty
acres in twenty-four hours, disk or seed a hundred, harvest
two hundred. It will thresh 10 acres — 200 bushels — in an
hour, and at one trip haul two carloads to the railway. The
searchlight of the engine gleams through the dark hours of the
night while the tired horse rests in his stall for the work of the
morrow. Even threshing, which has been confined to the time
between dawn and twilight, may now continue through the
darkness under the glare of electric lights. Current from a
small motor and a portable lighting plant thus doubles the
service of the farmer's equipment and lessens the overhead
cost of farming.

The handling of the drill is work for the four-horse team —
play for the tractor. Another team must follow the drill to
draw the packer, another to harrow — three teams and three
men. Three times three teams and three men must cross the
field to equal the work of a small tractor and two men, with
drills, packers, and harrows in tow. Where seeding follows
quickly after plowing, a disk ahead of the drill wipes out the
wheel tracks of the engine and mellows the soil; the drill drops

TRACTION ENGINE IN DRY-FARMING 263

the seed at a given depth; the packer firms the earth around it
to bring moisture for quick germination: and the smoothing
harrow levels all and leaves the surface mulch. To-morrow
the seeding is done. The extra teamsters must be dismissed
to await the harvest, the horses fed and cared for against the
day they will again be needed. The tractor needs only shelter,
and not always is given that.

Inaction softens the muscles of the animal, but at harvest
time the engine comes forth from its shed ready for the hardest
work. For each horse on the binder there is a foot or so of
cutterbar; for each five horses, a driver. For the engine there
are forty feet of sickles, one driver, and two or more men to
watch the binders. The engine in twenty hours may travel thirty
to thirty-five working miles, and cut nearly five acres to each
mile traveled. The grain may be cut neither too early nor too
late, the ground disked to check needless exhaustion of the soil
moisture, and the entire task completed before the toiling horses
have bound the grain out of the way of the sun and storm.

Dry-farming conditions require, most of all, a means for
rapid work when work is needed. The traction engine as a
factor in dry-farming has thoroughly demonstrated its use-
fulness. It does its work rapidly, enabling the farmer to keep
the upper hand of unfavorable conditions. It makes possible
the effective conservation of moisture, the thorough eradi-
cation of weeds and the maintenance of superb physical con-
dition in the semi-arid soils. It reduces the cost of operation
to such an extent as to create a new and important source of
profits, as compared with earlier systems of farming. A sav-
ing of from two to five dollars an acre by the use of a tractor
in crop production represents an enormous percentage where
the total yield may not be more than twelve to twenty bushels
per acre. What is true of dry-farming is true also of other
types, for hi the last analysis dry-farming is merely good farm-
ing enforced by stern necessity.

The auxiliary equipment for use with tractors in dry-farm-

264 POWER AND THE PLOW

ing operations depends, of course, upon a host of local conditions.
After the ground is once broken, a gas tractor of 30 actual
tractive horsepower will be able to handle on the average
eight to ten 14-inch stubble bottoms in plowing. This, at a
net rate of If miles of furrow travel, would give from two to
two and one half acres per hour. This is fair capacity since
it has been found that the average plowing outfit actually makes
about sixteen to eighteen miles of furrow travel in a day of
ten hours, after deducting for turns and all delays. Probably
the eight bottom plow, equipped with both stubble and breaker
bottoms, is the most convenient for this size of engine, as on
lighter soils, the extra power of the engine may be taken up by
a load of harrows, etc. Probably two thirds the operators, at
least one half, disk or pack the ground while plowing.

In case the plows are not followed immediately by harrows,
a combination of soil-preparing implements consists of four
8-foot disk harrows, at $30 to $40 each; six 5-foot sections of
spike-tooth harrow, at $6 each; three 11-foot rollers or crushers,
at $35 each; and three 11-foot grain drills, at about $90 each.
It will be noted that in every case except the plows, the total
width of each set of implements is about two rods, so that any
combination can be used readily. At the same rate of travel
as before the capacity of the outfit would be practically seventy
acres for a ten-hour day. Each disk harrow or crusher will take
about 4 h.p.; each drill 4 to 5 h.p.; and each five-foot section of
drag harrow about 1 h.p. These figures are for fairly heavy
soil and it will be found in many cases that a combination of
implements can be handled, which on the above basis, would
require considerably more than the rated horsepower of the
engine.

From three to five 8-foot binders, which will cost about
$140 each, can be used for harvesting on level ground, with a
capacity of seven to eight acres per hour. It is necessary to
provide a special binder hitch, which will not only allow easy
turning but will secure perfect alignment of the binders so that

TRACTION ENGINE IN DRY -FARMING 265

each will cut a full swath. The number provided will, of course,
always be one less than the number of binders. On rolling ground
the number of binders is limited by topography rather than
the power of the engine, the larger number of binders having a
tendency not to cut full width on side slopes. One type of
patent binder hitch, costing about $35, has added from ten to
fifteen days to the annual service of many a traction engine in
the West.

The header, a wide machine that cuts the wheat stalk close
to the head and elevates it without binding, has much greater
capacity than the binder. It can be used profitably only where
the absence of storms allows the grain to remain on the stalk
until fully ripe. One of these can be quite successfully pushed
ahead of a small tractor, being pushed ahead. In some cases
a larger engine will use a header in front, and plows or disks
behind.

The combined harvester cuts, threshes, and sacks the grain
at one operation. This machine, drawn by a large steam
engine, may place from 75 to 125 acres of wheat in sacks ready
for shipment, in a day of twelve hours. The disadvantage is
that the crop has little protection from unfavorable weather.
Rain may beat it down and shell out part of the grain, or wind
may place it beyond the reach of cutting. Weed seeds are
scattered back upon the ground by the "combine" and dis-
tributed from field to field, hence the essentials of good farming
are harder to observe.

For threshing by the ordinary methods, separators are made
in sizes adapted to practically all sizes of plowing engines,
except the very largest. A large separator of common size,
fully equipped, costs in the neighborhood of $1300, and has a
capacity of 1500 to 2500 bushels of wheat per day. Eight or ten
wagons will be needed in threshing and hauling. These will cost
$100 to $125 each when equipped with a straw rack and a 100-
bushel grain box. The whole train may be hauled at one trip by
the tractor, delivering two carloads of grain to the car or elevator.

266 POWER AND THE PLOW

At the present time, no general recommendation can be
made as to the type of traction engine best adapted to dry-
farming. In business of any sort, the dominant idea in the
beginning is the matter of capacity. Where a great amount of
work must be done, and rapidly, the net profits will sometimes
be greater by using a more expensive method of operation.
As dry-farming develops, the matter of economy of operation
will become more important and equipment that is now prof-
itable may have to be cast aside.

XXIX
TRACTION FARMING IN THE CORN BELT

IN THE great Northwest it is now conceded that
the large grower of cereals must rely on the tractor
to keep abreast of his fellows and the world's demand
for bread. But down in the corn belt, where
grandfather's methods are modified but slowly, the economy
of the tractor and its wonderful message to humanity are being
appreciated less fully. It is the corn belt farmer with from a
quarter to a half section of land who is backward in adopting
mechanical traction.

Even now, on some corn belt farms, stationary and traction
motors of myriad kinds are performing nearly every sort of
farm labor — plowing, seeding, harrowing, rolling, reaping,
binding, threshing grain, grinding corn, filling the silo. They
are hauling manure, shredding fodder, loading hay, unloading
grain, milking cows, shearing sheep, drilling wells, grading roads,
running spray-pumps to protect the fruit trees — even doing
chores by carrying water and sawing wood. The gasoline
engine adds electric light to the conveniences of the farm, and
an automatic water-system instantly brings fresh water
sparkling from the well with a pressure equal to that of the
city main.

The farmer's wife on such a farm needs but to turn a wheel,
throw a switch, twist a stop-cock, and be saved her hardest
work. Butter is again made on the farm and not in the factory.
The motor runs the cream separator and churn, dispensing
with the labor of the milk cellar and its endless array of pans

267

268 POWER AND THE PLOW

and crocks to be washed. It gives new speed to her sewing
machine. On sweeping day it saves her health and strength
with a vacuum cleaner. It runs her washing-machine and
mangle. Through a dynamo in the electric fan and the flat-
iron it brings her blessed relief from the fiery heat of the range
on ironing day. It is her ready helper in the kitchen. And
all this takes no account of the promise of new inventions.
The tractor dispenses with the raft of hired hands required
to care for and drive teams. With the elimination of this
constantly changing gang and the equally unreliable hired
girl necessary to cook and wash for it, the atmosphere of the
household grows purer, its tone higher. The farmer's wife
and daughter have time to indulge in those feminine touches
which make the home — to enjoy pleasures which, added to
the naturally healthy environment, make life worth the living.

The live farm boy realizes instinctively that this is a mechan-
ical age — an age of power. He sees it in the autos whisking
by on the country roads, in the gasoline engine which dis-
places a neighbor's windmill, in the sputtering motorcycles
on which the city youth dashes madly about the streets.
The tractor appeals to his inborn sense of mechanics and fills
an aching void in his life. He yearns for the opportunity to
grasp it, to guide it, to see its cold metal parts transformed
under his direction into a living, throbbing mechanism — to
see the familiar dirty lamp oil blossom into power for lifting
the weary burden of his hours of toil. This yearning gratified,
his bosom swells with the engineer's new pride of mastery over
the forces of nature. Only the farmer himself, often broken
and bent from his victory in the unequal struggle with the
soil, fails to enthuse over the new order of things.

The tractor has its place on the corn belt farm, as surely
as in the great wheat belt. With the corn crop, the crisis
lies in the work of preparation. The harvest is not rushed.
The crop does not spoil easily. If it is not gathered in one
way it will be in another. Cultivating, which is still the almost

TRACTION FARMING IN THE CORN BELT 269

undisputed province of the farm horse, is spread out over many
weeks of leisurely nibbling along the corn rows. We have
seen the wonderful opportunity for multiplying the corn yield
by deeper plowing, though plowing is already the greatest
problem of the farmer. With horses, plowing must be begun
early and finished late. But the work of preparation requires
haste. Uniform plowing, uniform preparation, and uniform
date of planting result in an even crop all over the field, and
add quality to the product. In a humid climate the ground
should be left until in the proper condition and then made
ready with all possible haste. In a dry climate the thorough-
ness of preparation is even more important. A Kansas farmer,
formerly at the head of a Government experiment station in
the Panhandle of Texas, says that only the corn crop that has
a good start can mature nicely after the idle period which is
inevitable during the summer drought. A crop that goes into
the resting period in a backward state will not survive and
bring forth a respectable yield. Deep plowing and a perfect
seedbed are fundamental aids to a good start.

The following authentic record of a field of corn in Ohio
up to the point of harvest shows the distribution of labor in,
terms of one horse's time:

HORSE HOURS PER CENT.

Plowing 13.20 31.20

Disking 3.86 9.10

Harrowing 4.14 9.77

Rolling 1.15 2.70

Dragging 5.38 12.70

Planting 1.84 4.35

Cultivating 12.79 30.18

42.36 100.00

Except for cultivating, plowing takes by far the greatest num-
ber of hours and is the most severe work. Had this field been
plowed eight inches deep instead of six, the percentage of
time and power required would have been much increased.

270 POWER AND THE PLOW

The tractor adds capacity to the farmer's weapons and the
work goes on at top speed. All the work of soil preparation
up to planting, or nearly 66 per cent, of the hours required up
to the harvest, may easily and quickly be done by the tractor.

For some operations the operator cannot depend on his
animals, and for those jobs the live farmer wants power when
he wants it, not when the other fellow is through. Even on
the farms where there are plenty of horses, how often are the
shredding and shelling delayed until the nasty fall rains and
snow set in, while an individual outfit could have finished in
nice weather. Corn is put into the silo either too green or
too dry for lack of an engine at the proper time; top prices
missed for want of means to rush stuff to market; and roads
allowed to go to pieces for want of power to work them in the
spring, when they need attention most. There are dozens
of things that a tractor can do when regarded as something
more than an ornament. It can pull mowers, haul hay to the
stack, bale the stack and haul the bales to town. It can econom-
ically do everything to raise corn except the easy work of
planting and cultivating, and in addition it will run any one
of the half dozen machines for putting the corn into more
convenient shape for feeding or market. It can handle every
operation connected with small grain crops. With the individual
threshing outfit more than one small farmer throws off the
belt and, using a big rack, goes after a big load of bundles with
the tractor. Thus, three or four men and a team to haul grain
do the threshing instead of the usual big, hungry, dirty crew.

The tractor costs much less than the horses that will equal
it in power. If both are worked constantly at full capacity,
the tractor will last the longer. It is not subject to disease
and death, and if seriously damaged can be replaced piecemeal,
while the horse is permanently out of commission. Repairs
on a well-built tractor are less than shoeing and veterinary
attendance on the horses that will accomplish the same volume
of work. Overhead charges therefore are less on the machine

TRACTION FARMING IN THE CORN BELT 271

Kerosene for fuel costs less than feed. It can be had at all
seasons with little variation in price, since the oil companies
are untiringly refining great quantities of it as a by-product
of gasoline. Since the average corn belt farmer is close to some
town, he can make a quick trip and return with enough fuel
to last two weeks. Hay and grain are produced but once a
year and must be stored. This gradually adds to the cost
and price of feed which is always highest when horses require
the most — i. e.t in the spring and early summer. Economy
requires a farmer to store a year's food supply for his horses
out of every crop.

In southeastern Minnesota, according to Government figures,
the horses on a number of diversified farms each consumed
5213 pounds of grain and 7073 Ibs. of hay annually during the
years from 1905 to 1907. Supposing corn and oats to have
been fed in equal quantity by weight, and assuming prices of
50 cents for corn, 30 cents for oats, and $8 a ton for hay,
one horse's feed for a year would cost $73.89. These horses
averaged 948 hours of work of all kinds per year, hence each
ate 5.5 Ibs. of grain and 7.46 Ibs. of hay, costing 7.8 cents for
every hour spent in harness. For 1000 hours of hard work a
tractor equivalent to fifteen horses would consume about 3000
gallons of fuel. Kerosene may be had at 3 to 3j cents at the
refineries, and at the country towns in barrels for 5 J to 7 cents.
At the latter figure, 3000 gallons would cost $210 and the
tractor's fuel would cost less than three times as much as one
horse's feed. Even if we add $75 a year for lubricants and
minor items, the difference is enormous.

In these days of high lumber prices, the storage of horses
and feed is a severe problem. From figures collected by the
writer on about thirty medium-sized Ohio farms, it appears
that 750 cubic feet of barn room are required per work horse,
not counting storage space, alleys, etc. Figuring on equal
weights of oats and shelled corn, the 5213 pounds of grain

272

POWER AND THE PLOW

for each horse would require 45 cubic feet of solid granary
space. His 7073 pounds of hay, which would require 600
cubic feet to the ton when first put in, would occupy 2122 cubic
feet. Adding 10 per cent, to each storage space to allow for
waste, plus the space required for the animal itself, would give
a total of 3244 feet for each animal and its feed. A barn for
15 horses would then contain 48,660 cubic feet, and at 3 cents
per cubic foot enclosed would cost practically $1460.

A 15-h.p. tractor is about 8 ft. wide, 10| ft. high, and 16
ft. long. In order to make a building large enough to work in
and store extra parts, one should figure on a garage of 14 x 20
feet on the ground and 11 feet to the square. It need not be
,so carefully planned as to ventilation and warmth as a barn.
Being smaller, however, the building would cost more in pro-

Housing of horses and tractor

portion, but even at 4 cents per cubic foot would cost less than
$150. Since fuel may be had at any time, the average man
would not want to store a year's supply at once, but a 100-bbl.
tank could be constructed under ground at far less cost than
the difference between $150 and $1460. A fair-sized tank,
which can be filled in idle seasons, is a great saver of time in
the rush of mid-summer, and, since kerosene and distillate do
not evaporate, the scheme is perfectly safe.

\

TRACTION FARMING IN THE CORN BELT 273

The labor-saving feature of the tractor is last, but by no
means least. Two men will handle the tractor where five
would be required for fifteen horses. One man can easily drive
four, or even five horses, but Government statistics show that
it requires about twenty-seven minutes every day throughout
the year in chores for each work horse, hence one extra chore
man's time would be well occupied, even with the horses idle.
The saving of $4.50 to $6 per day on labor, to say nothing
of the elimination of monotonous chores before daylight and
after dark, makes powerful appeal to the farmer who must
often buy machines that will not save money but will replace
men who are not to be had.

We have said nothing about the many times in a year when
only two horses are required rather than fifteen; of the vexing
delays over the breakage of some trifling part; of the intelli-
gence required to learn and operate successfully a new type of
power as compared to one which the farmer knows almost by
instinct; of the times when a tractor becomes stalled in the
mud and cannot flounder out; and of other disadvantages. It
is not logical to suppose that every tractor is perfect, and
that the ownership and operation of one constitute a key to
everlasting bliss. However, the advantages enumerated are
real, and from the scattered cases of power plowing in the
corn belt, are developing numerous communities devoted for
the most part to traction farming.

XXX

POWER AND THE FOOD SUPPLY

POWER controls our modern world, and since the
dawn of history it has been the dominating influence
in the transition from savagery to civilization.
The human race has always required power for
three great essential purposes: tilling the soil to grow food and
raw materials; changing the shape of materials to adapt them
for use; and carrying men and products from place to place.
In other words, power is required for agriculture, manufactur-
ing and transportation.

The tiller of the soil in all ages has surpassed his contempora-
ries in the arts and commerce, in adapting animal power to
human needs. He is thus the last to feel the need of a change
to mechanical power, and so has escaped the final stage in
the industrial revolution. But he is now about to complete
the cycle. He has come to the point where the methods of
the past will no longer suffice if he is to keep pace with the other
factors in the world of industry.

Agriculture — the production of foodstuffs — cannot be
concentrated physically. The farmer's workshop is broad,
and his power needs as great at one corner as at another.
The power plant for his work must be portable; if possible, self-
propelling. Until the present generation nothing so met his
requirements as the animal muscle. Man made his first step
toward civilization when he took a crooked stick and began to
till the soil, using the force of his own muscles. Later he
conquered and enslaved to his purpose the power of the ox.

274

POWER AND THE FOOD SUPPLY 275

Upon cultivating the soil, he became master of the plants and
shaped them to serve his purposes. With the plow the savage
life of the hunter and the nomad life of the herder gave way
to that settled agriculture that now yields our food supply
and upon which rests our modern civilization.

Nature in her most extravagant moods has never brought
civilization. In Columbus's time the entire continent sup-
ported fewer inhabitants than are now grouped in any one of
a dozen American cities. With an abundance of wild game and
fishes, the Indian suffered periodical famines, the severity of
which was often modified only by the scanty supplies of maize
raised by the squaws. The application of power to the soil
and the civilizing influence of systematic work are the cardinal
elements underlying continued national prosperity.

So long as a whole race must be occupied chiefly in providing
itself with food and raiment, it has neither time nor desire for
pursuits of a higher nature. To the substitution of brute power
for man power the world owes the growth of cities, commerce,
arts, and sciences. To steam it owes the gigantic development
of industry and trade, but without the marvelous improve-
ment which steam has wrought in farm machines, man, that
most important link, could not have been spared from the
soil. Even now three fourths of the population of the world
is engaged in agriculture. The United States, leading the
world in the use of power and machinery in rural industry,
keeps one third her laborers and two fifths her capital employed
in agricultural production.

Nowhere else has the influence of power upon the production
of our food supply been felt as in America. In 1820, 97 per
cent, of the entire population lived on farms, using hand labor
for nearly every conceivable need. As late as 1810 the surplus
products raised by four families were scarcely sufficient to sup-
port one in town. Improvements in the crude farm tools and
the growing use of animal power added materially to the pro-
ductivity of the average farm family during the first half of

276 POWER AND THE PLOW

the century. By 1850 the percentage of rural population had
decreased to 90, and the labor of three farm families sufficed
to provide themselves and two others with food and raw
materials for clothes.

^According to tCe Twelfth Census Report, 1850 marked the
close of that period in American agriculture when the only
farm implements and machinery, other than the wagon, cart,
and cotton gin, were those which might be called the imple-
ments of hand [production. Then came the era ^ffarm
machinery, and producjjc/a during the first half century was over-
shadowed.ByTjJtH) two farm families were not only able to
support three others by their excess products, butjtheir_£XDorts
to jpjgignjx>untries enabled the nation to maintain an imhpfl.r<j-
of balance of trade. Systematic and vigorous use of animal
power and machines for opening up new lands, for better tillage
of the old, and for more effective preparation of products for
market, put the United States in a half century in the front
rank of nations. America has taught the world to save human
labor by the use of machinery and power on the farm.

The American farmer, consciously or unconsciously, has
recognized the value of power. Despite the lessening percent-
age of men working on the farm, every census except that of
1870 has shown a larger percentage of increase in the number
of farm horses and mules than in the total population of city
and country combined. By the middle of the century the
ox had been practically discarded in favor of the more rapid
horse. By the end of another half century each farm laborer
had doubled the weight of his products. Two and a half times
as many men were producing five times as much gross return.
Strangely enough, but logically, this increase parallels the
increase hi animal power. Over four times as many work
animals were used in 1900 as in 1850, and no less authority
than Dr. Thomas F. Hunt attributes to the modern work
animal, as a result of intelligent breeding, 25 per cent, greater
efficiency than to the average of sixty years ago.

POWER AND THE FOOD SUPPLY 277

Even before 1900, every possible human task had been shifted
to a machine drawn by animals. McCormick and his reaper
had made three horses do the work of forty men with sickles.
More horses were necessary, larger horses and machines of
greater capacity the natural evolution. While two 1000-
pound horses were the average team in the Central states in
1870, three 1400 to 1500 pound horses are now employed, with
an increase of over 100 per cent, in power under the direction of
one man. Under the never-ceasing cry for power the manipu-
lation of animals by a single driver quickly approached
the feasible limit of four horses in the Central states, or six
in the great wheat belt, and with the new century the farm
stood awaiting the coming of mechanical power.

The last decade has been most remarkable in the coming of
greater power to the farm. The number of farm horses and
mules of all ages was 25,163,000 on January 1, 1900 — accord-
ing to the United States Department of Agriculture — an
increase of 61 per cent, over the estimate for January 1, 1900.
The value of both horses and mules per head had more than
doubled, notwithstanding the millions of potential horsepower
sold upon the farm in mechanical motors. A few thousand
automobiles were the entire output in 1900; now a single
manufacturer estimates his annual sales to farmers at 800,000
horsepower. Probably 12,000 farm tractors with 700,000
horsepower will go this year to swell the total of mechanical
power on the farm. The stationary internal-combustion en-
gine, lifting the minor burdens from which the animal could
not release the farm worker, is practically a thing of this
decade. In the last four years the size of such engines has in-
creased from an average of 4 to an average of 6 horsepower.
Seventy-five thousand new engines this year will further
relieve the drudgery of farm work. Stationary, steam, elec-
tric, wind, and water motors will easily swell the total of mechan-
ical power on American farms to two million horsepower.

278

POWER AND THE PLOW

Mechanical power, even on the farm, is now enjoying a
swifter increase, both actual and relative, than animal power.
Animal power and machinery added 85 per cent, to the
producing efficiency of the average farm worker between 1870
and 1900. For every pound of products raised by the workman
who worked unaided in 1830, six were raised in 1895 with the
help of machines and animals. One man could produce as
much barley in 1895 as twenty-three in 1830. Between 1880
and 1900, in seven states leading in cereal production, each
laborer came to handle more than three acres for every two
he had handled before. Here and in the entire North Central
division, farms of over 10 acres increased over 50 per cent,
in size during the two decades. In the South Atlantic states,
where human labor has been less largely displaced by machinery,
farms became 10 per cent, smaller.

=B»435

Effect of power on production

Fewer men, with more animals, not only handle greater
areas, but receive greater rewards. Iowa, with nearly four
horses to each farm hand in 1899, gave each man sixty acres
of crops and an income of $611, after paying interest on her
investment. North Carolina and Alabama, with approxi-
mately two work animals to each three laborers, restricted
each man to thirteen acres, and paid him less than one fourth
as much for his work. Quaintance believes the average farmer
to have been 42 per cent, better off financially in 1899 than in

POWER AND THE FOOD SUPPLY 279

1849, even considering the variation in the purchasing power
of money. In the North Atlantic, North Central, and Western
sections he was a trifle more than twice as well off, and in the
two latter sections, where the greatest increase occurred in
the introduction of farm machinery and farm power, he was
three times as prosperous. Mulhall, in his "Dictionary of
Statistics," issued in 1899, states that "In the United States
nine million hands raised nearly half as much grain as sixty-
six million in Europe." Germany owns one fifth as many
horses as the United States for practically the same farm popu-
lation. With the assistance of such a preponderance in power,
the American farmer has been able to produce, albeit waste-
fully, from three to three and one half times as much as his
competitor along the Rhine.

Changing the shape of materials, which we now call manu-
facturing, began with the grinding of grains and nuts into
foodstuffs; the spinning and weaving of fibres into articles of
dress; the shaping of stone, wood, and metals into implements
and dwellings. It began with the human muscle. Even to-
day the Russian peasants grind the grain by rubbing it between
two stones. In other countries the circular millstone was
developed and the animal harnessed. The work of spinning
and weaving was done at first entirely by hand and foot. The
later form of the loom was operated by animals from a tread-
mill. James Watt invented the steam engine in 1765 and
since his time the industry of the world has centred in the
steam-driven factory. More and more, mechanical power
has been substituted for the human muscle, until to-day
in manufacturing the master workman is but the intelligent
onlooker, furnishing the machine with material and guiding
its work.

The manufacturing industries of the United States even
now probably have less than three fourths the power installa-
tion that is found on our farms, and not far from the same ratio
of laborers. On the other hand, where the farm horse works

280 POWER AND THE PLOW

less than 1000 hours per year, the engine in the power plant
works double that or more. Beween 1890 and 1905 animal
power on the farm increased a third, while mechanical power
in factories increased 146 per cent. Laborers, too, flocked
to the factories, and in the same time the excess in number of
farm over factory workers fell from 75 to 35 per cent.

From transporting men and materials from place to place
arises the third great need for power. Originally, this work was
done by the human muscle; man walked, carrying a load on
his back. Later, he learned to harness the animal, and down
through the Middle Ages to the beginning of our century,
animals drew the freight of the world over country roads in
wagons. With the invention of Stephenson, who applied the
power of steam in the field of transportation, came our modern
railway net that to-day encircles the earth, and bears a steam-
driven commerce that has linked the nations together. Just
a century ago Fulton applied the power of steam to water
transportation.

Artificial power has been applied to commercial transporta-
tion as to no other industry. Leaving out of consideration
the electric railways, automobiles and all other forms of motor
traction, and considering only the railways, we must try hard
if we grasp the magnitude of the force that has pushed civili-
zation from coast to coast and filled up every foot of promising
area between. Five years ago the farm employed eight
laborers to the railway's one, but the railway put into that
one man's hand sixty horsepower, to two for the average farm
hand. The railway forged ahead of the farm in power installed
little more than a decade ago. Now it is adding power and
men much faster than the farm, and enormously increasing
its wealth and influence. Ten years ago, five horsepower worked
to transport each passenger across the sea in ships. Now, on
the Lusitania, already overtopped by a more powerful rival,
thirty horsepower are throbbing in the engine room to bear
him on with greater speed and comfort. Four times the poten-

POWER AND THE FOOD SUPPLY 281

tial power of our farm equipment is represented by our machin-
ery of distribution, and double the annual use is made of it.

If George Washington were to come to earth now, and
should visit the steel mills at Gary, or some busy machine-shop
where huge plowing tractors are being made, he would be
hopelessly bewildered. It is all beyond the philosophy of a
man who lived one hundred years ago. There is hardly a
process which he would understand. But if a contemporary
of Moses, who was a good farmer, should come to earth and
visit an ordinary American farm he would recognize practi-
cally every process. The industrial revolution, the steam en-
gine, electricity, everything that goes to make up the steel
age, have in fifty years created a greater difference in the
production of the world, except in agriculture, than has been
made since the days of Pharaoh. The corresponding revolu-
tion in agriculture has only just begun.

When Colonial America was in the age of homespun, the
manufacture of the necessities of life kept workers on the farm.
Mighty cities were impossible, since four families in the country
could support but one in town by their surplus products.
But when the steam engine entered the factory, capital and
the most ambitious blood of the country were drawn to the
cities. The farm worker, hard pressed by the demand for
foodstuffs, sought larger areas, more power animals and better
implements to meet the new necessity. Ox teams carried the
pioneer far into the land of promise. He was one who must
endure isolation, great hardships, and small returns. His
inherited wisdom went for naught. He became an inventor,
an experimentalist. Communication was slow, but that
meant little, for principles of scientific agriculture were not yet
formulated. Hard work prevailed where study was impossible
and money for equipment wanting. The independent settler,
working out his own salvation, disdained cooperative effort
when real opportunity came. His development was one-sided,
his farm organization small and unbusiness-like. Even to-day

282 POWER AND THE PLOW

the tiller of 25,000 profitable acres is hailed as captain of
industry.

Yet the farmer has prospered. Our farms produce a million
dollars an hour, and one rural family feeds two in the city.
The farmer of to-day has wonderful agencies to make his work
easy. Farm machinery has been marvelously perfected.
Railroads simplify the exchange of products. Agricultural
scientists are solving his problems, and the telephone, telegraph,
and rural free delivery bring him daily news of the latest dis-
covery. The automobile, with its tremendous influence for
good roads, banishes isolation and puts him into quick touch
with markets. Modern conveniences in the home remove a
thousand hardships. Nearby towns, with banks, elevators,
and stores, handle his products and supply him with necessities
which formerly depended on his own ingenuity and skill.

With all this assistance, the American farmer is falling
behind in his work. Four prosperous decades have brought
to our shores hordes of European peasants, have increased our
population one and a third times and each mouth takes a fourth
more wheat than before. In the past America has been called
upon to feed not only her own natural increase in population
and the outpouring of the nations of Europe, but millions of
those who remained behind. Faster, surer methods than had
ever before prevailed were necessary. Intensive cultivation
deferred to extensive production, and the task was accomplished.
The United States now faces a different problem — that of
feeding a swiftly increasing population with a slowly increasing
acreage. Intensive methods and more power must be applied.
Teachings of agricultural scientists must be universally heeded.
Better seed, deeper plowing, more thorough tillage, must lay
the foundation for greater yields from each acre. Waste places
must be reclaimed, our whole productive area developed and
occupied. But our present needs are enormous, increasing
more swiftly than these ideals can be realized. Greater areas
must be brought immediately into productiveness, must main-

POWER AND THE FOOD SUPPLY 283

tain maximum yields indefinitely, if production is to keep pace
with demand.

The lack of power for plowing is the greatest obstacle to
the extension of our wheat raising area into virgin fields and
the realization of greater returns from our older lands. This
work of plowing with which man began his systematic labor
remains to-day his severest toil. For man, as well as animals
on the farm, the dusty monotonous work of plowing is the
hardest drudgery. Think of the power required to pull a
plow only the distance across the room, and then of the eight
and one fourth miles of furrow travel in every acre of land.
To plow a square mile with a twelve-inch plow, one man and
two or three horses must each walk 5280 miles, the team con-
stantly exerting power enough to move ten tons over a city
street. It is easier, and the distance less, to walk around the
earth at the equator than to follow such a plow turning a tract
of five square miles. To plow three townships the plowman
must walk as far as from the earth to the moon and back again,
and sixty thousand miles farther. To equal our annual tale
of plowing, seventeen to twenty plowmen must make a round
trip to the sun. Pulling a plow three and one half inches
deep through prairie sod is equivalent to lifting a constant
load of seven ' hundredweight. The plowmen in the United
States turn over eac^h year two billion tons of earth. They
exert power enough to lift the visible portion of Manhattan to
one and a half times the height of the Eiffel Tower, and the
cost of their work places an annual tax of $25 on every family
in this broad land of ours.

Plowing is the greatest single item of power consumption
on the farm. To plow an acre of old land, the farm horse
works from eight to fifteen hours under a greater strain than
in any other task. One fifth his total hours of work and one
third his yearly expenditure of power in the Corn Belt are at
the plow. In small grain sections one fourth his hours and
one half his power are expended in turning^the soil. Plowing

284 POWER AND THE PLOW

consumes 43 per cent, of the power spent on the corn crop
up to the moment of harvest, and 60 per cent, of the power
required to place wheat on the ground in bundles ready for
shocking. Even this expenditure of power is not great enough.
A summary of opinions from eight experiment stations places
the average depth of plowing for corn by the best farmers at
from four and three quarters to five and one quarter niches.
Almost without exception it is recommended that from one to five
inches be added to the depth to secure maximum yields!

Over twenty-five millions of horses and mules are now kept
on farms to four millions in cities. Probably fifteen millions
are ordinarily used for farm work. The remainder comprise
the colts and breeding stock required to keep up the supply
for town and country, the driving horses and the idlers. In
the plowing season the young and old, the able and the infirm,
must bend to the collar for four weeks of muscle-straining
drudgery — drudgery that so reduces the animals in weight and
vitality that even the long period of light work and idleness
preceding the harvest scarce enables them to recover their
condition. And yet, with all this toil there comes from the
West the plea for deeper plowing to establish a moisture re-
servoir; from the corn belt and the South for a deeper and more
mellow feeding area for plant roots. To supply these condi-
tions requires power — power that cannot be economically
supplied by animals because of the high cost of maintenance
and the lack of work during all but a few weeks each year.
To double the depth of plowing means keeping nearly seven
horses for the twenty to thirty days of plowing to each one
required at any other time save the brief harvest.

In the easiest plowing, five or six horsepower-hours are
consumed in plowing an acre. Ten, twenty, even forty, horse-
power-hours must be applied to more difficult soils for the same
result. In addition, the mere effort of a man and two horses in
walking over the ground consumes seven million foot-pounds
of energy to the acre on the best of footing. Ten horsepower-

POWER AND THE FOOD SUPPLY 285

hours consumed in forward progression and useful work is a
minimum figure for the acre, three billion for the nation. Only
40 per cent, of the area of continental United States will be
improved in 1940, according to Mark A. Carleton, cerealist
of the United States Department of Agriculture. Deeper
plowing must be universal — twenty horsepower-hours to the
acre must be the rule instead of the exception — fifteen billion
horsepower-hours the amount of power spent annually in
turning the soil if the nation is to be fed. Twenty-three mil-
lion work horses must be used for one thousand hours per
year, ninety to one hundred and fifteen millions for the
hours now available for plowing, if the work is to be done by
animal power.

For each work horse and the surplus needed to keep up the
supply, five or more acres of harvested crops are required for
support. Greater animal power applied to each acre will
increase the yield, but not so fast as it will multiply the number
of animals required to produce that power within the brief
plowing season. We can even conceive that with the highest
possible yield secured by the application of animal power to
the plow, the area required to maintain the animals will leave
little or nothing for the production of human food. The
percentage of the total area devoted to power production
must decrease, rather than increase. More acres must be added
to our farm area, more bushels garnered from every acre, and
less fed to unprofitable animals if we are to maintain our place
among the prosperous nations of the world.

The animal muscle has reached its present perfection
only after ages of natural selection, extending back to the
very dawn of life. Centuries of breeding and selection by man
have advanced the animal in size, but otherwise only to a
slight degree in efficiency. Further perfection must be slow,
individual rather than racial. Many mechanical motors already
surpass the horse in commercial efficiency — some in the
ability to convert latent chemical energy into useful work.

286 POWER AND THE PLOW

The animal must have frequent rest while at work. Under
average farm conditions it is idle eight hours in nine, yet it
must be kept warm and sheltered, must be fed and watered
three times a day whether in use or not. It deteriorates rapidly
in use or idleness, and is subject to premature death. Two
per cent, of all horses die of disease each year, and their working
life is less than ten thousand hours of actual service.

The new farm power, the mechanical tractor, does not age
nor deteriorate when idle, and requires neither fuel nor attend-
ance when not at work. It solves the peak loads in agricul-
ture — seed time and harvest time. The time spent annually
in caring for one horse will keep it in perfect working condition,
A mass of tireless but obedient steel, it will endure heavy work
twenty four hours instead of six, and outlive the average work
animal in hours of service. It can be sheltered with a year's
fuel supply in a tenth the space required by horses of equal
power and their feed. It concentrates hi one man's hands the
power of twenty horses, the endurance of a hundred, and adds
many fold to the acres he can cultivate. For the present it
consumes nothing from acres which might produce food for
mankind.

At the close of the nineteenth century there remained
practically no field which the manufacturer and inventor had
not touched upon in the effort to conserve human labor.
Mechanical power and invention had largely fulfilled their
immediate promise to the industries of making and carrying, and
with the twentieth century dawned the last great epoch in the
transition from hand to machine power in human enterprise.
Agriculture, the greatest of all industries, awoke fully to the
necessity for greater power — mechanical power. The duty
of agriculture is to supply food for the people, raw material
for manufactures, and products for trade and transportation.
With the introduction of machinery and animal power, this
task has been accomplished with relatively fewer and fewer
workmen. The application of mechanical power, which is

POWER AND THE FOOD SUPPLY 287

now the most promising development in agriculture, will
permit of a further reduction in the numbers required to
supply food and other materials, and force a greater return
from the soil to keep pace with the constant increase in popu-
lation. America has taught the world the conservation of
human labor by power machinery in manufactures and dis-
tribution; she must teach herself the use of power machinery
in agriculture or keep more and more of her workmen from
their places in the struggle for national commercial supremacy.

"Every invention which enables mechanical power to sup-
plant animal power is a distinct advantage to society," says
Doctor Hunt. It is not to be supposed that mechanical power
\vilC entirely supplant the animal, even as brute power has
never displaced the human muscle. In the history of the
human race, man's activities have ever increased with his
opportunities. The introduction of mechanical power on the
farm will augment man's resources rather than change entirely
his sources of motive power. The influence of power on manu-
factures and transportation is an indication of what may be
expected in agriculture. Not only will production be increased
and systematized but farm organization will take on in greater
degree the aspect of the factory. Efficient production de-
mands large units. Farms which can be operated by mechanical
power must continue to grow larger and more centrally con-
trolled. Ownership and management will inevitably approach
more and more that of the centralized industrial corporation,
unless the individuality of the farmer can be maintained by
effective cooperation.

Ten years ago, at the University of Oxford, a lecturer on
political economy laid it down as axiomatic that science and
invention, the division of labor, the law of diminishing returns,
could do little to save human labor on the farm; that the con-
ditions of its toil were nearly unalterable, its processes predes-
tined to be slow. Yet these few years have seen immense
advance, and to-day no forecast can predict the progress of

288 POWER AND THE PLOW

the future, for man is clearly shaking off the heavier shackles
of manual toil. Pipe and tabor no longer lead the procession
of harvest home, but drudgery goes as well as romance, and a
business air sets the thresher to factory pace. A manufac-
turer's catalogue says " To-day a new world has opened for the
farmer. To the aid of nature he has called the forces of science.
His factory under blue sky is as busy, and the wheels hum as
merrily as under any city-factory roof. Power — and the
most economical, pliant, and efficient of all power — is at
last his."

XXXI

THE CHOICE OF POWER

IN SELECTING a tractor for plowing, there are
countless factors to be taken into consideration.
In choosing a particular motor out of a general class,
its adaptability to the most pressing work must
be considered. However, before coming to that point, the
broader question of the type of power must be settled. It
would be next to impossible here to compare intelligently the
multitude of breeds and types, but a brief comparison of the
animal, steam and gas motors should be reviewed before making
the final selection. In purchasing a motor for plowing, one
should satisfy himself as to the investment; the efficiency ia
various particulars; the question of fuel supply; the cost of
maintenance during work and idleness; the attendance re-
quired; the concentration of power; the speed; effect upon the
soil; the range of usefulness; the endurance and the many
phases of each and every one of these essential considerations.
The horse is the product of thousands of years of natural
selection and of three centuries of careful breeding. The best
examples of his kind have seen but little improvement during
the century and a half of steam engine history. The steam
tractor is old and the gas tractor new. The traction mechan-
ism of both is in about the same state of perfection, but in a
quarter of a century of real development the gas engine has
become thermally much more efficient than the steam engine.
We may look for more rapid progress in the gas engine than in
the steam engine or the horse, but as an average of all represen-

290 POWER AND THE PLOW

tatives of each class, the two latter have the advantage of
reliability gained in many more years of field service.

One horse cares for twenty-five acres of crops. To his
value of $150 to $250 must be added the value of his harness,
and the breeding stock necessary to maintain the supply. For
every horse at work the farmer has an investment of $250 to
$300, or more than $10 per acre. A steam engine complete
with all equipment, except plows, will cost about the same as
a gas tractor of equal tractive horsepower with its less exten-
sive accessories. For each actual drawbar horsepower, either
type of engine and its equipment will cost from $90 to $100 in
the sizes commonly used for plowing. For the ordinary size,
the farmer's investment per acre is thus about half what is
required with horses. The smaller the tractor the greater
the cost per horsepower, hence in the smallest sizes the ad-
vantage in investment is wiped out.

These figures take no account of the fact that the farmer's
horses are part of a factory equipment for producing power
animals, hence the investment in tractor factories should
possibly be considered also. On the other hand, the farmer
who does not raise his horses must pay a higher price than is
assumed above. In the West a sound, well-trained horse,
capable of developing a full mechanical horsepower in plowing,
brings from $200 to $300. Western Canada in 1910 imported
$10,000,000 worth of horses at the rate of $300 each,
and pressed thousands of oxen into service at the plow for
want of horse flesh at any price. The mechanical motor can
be more quickly supplied to meet the needs of the season, as
factories working over-time can maintain an enormous out-
put, while a steady demand in the horse market waits four
years for a response.

The plow equipment required for each acre tilled by the horse,
is small. Three horses require a sulky plow, costing $40 and
plowing seventy-five acres per year, or less than 50 cents an
acre. A large steam engine will require an investment of

THE CHOICE OF POWER 291

approximately $1.00 per acre plowed annually. The gas
tractor, pulling a lesser number of plows, will require as much
as the steam engine, or perhaps a trifle more, as the smaller
sizes of plow cost more in proportion.

While at work the horse requires the greatest amount of
labor, the steam engine next and the gas tractor the least.
However, the horse while at work requires no adjustment, no
other attention than driving, and his food and water may be
taken at any convenient time and place. The tractor's fuel
and water is most cheaply brought to it, while the horse
economically goes after his. During idleness the horse
requires daily care, keeping men on the farm when no other
work requires their attention. He must be kept constantly
warm and sheltered, fed, watered, and protected from injury
and disease, while the tractor needs simply cleaning and oiling
when set away, and thorough overhauling before again being
put in commission.

One man may drive five horses, and in some cases even
twenty-five, but only in certain operations. Three to six men
and from two to six horses keep a steam engine at work with
the power of forty horses, one man controlling the power of
from six to twelve horses. With the gas tractor, one man
may control the equivalent of from twenty to thirty horses,
but the plowman's time must also be considered, since
with the horse outfit the driver is both engineer and plow-
man.

The average farmer knows the horse by instinct. A great
many operators know the steam engine well enough for prac-
tical purposes. Five years ago the gas engine was a mystery
to the average farmer. Now the stationary gas engine and the
automobile have educated him to the point where he regards
the gas engine as the next thing to the horse in simplicity.
Ordinary farm labor will more quickly grasp and operate the
gas tractor than the steam tractor, although much harm was
done in the early days of the gas tractor by unwarranted

292 POWER AND THE PLOW

claims as to the class of labor which can safely be intrusted
with it.

Of the three classes, the horse develops continuously the least
power in proportion to his weight, and his bulk is distributed
over a wider ground area, making his use in large units cum-
bersome. For each horse in the field, 20 to 25 square feet
must be allowed, while in a tractor the power of sixty horses
may be concentrated in a single unit, requiring less than 5
square feet for each horsepower. In the units where horses
and tractors compete, the engine is much more easily ma-
nipulated. While the bulk of the tractor is concentrated, the
actual supporting surface on the ground is sufficient to reduce
the pressure per unit to, or only slightly above, the pressure of
the horse's foot.

The commercial success of any type of power depends to
considerable extent on its fuel economy. The steam engine
at the present time uses a wide range of fuels, taking them
just as they come. Its sources of supply are wide, and its
most convenient fuel, coal, is by no means exhausted. The
gas engine, as used on tractors, requires fuel that has been made
fit for use by a refining process, hence the sources of supply
are more easily controlled by individuals. The steam engine
of the present and the alcohol engine of the future will make
use of all the waste materials about the farm. The horse
utilizes no waste material, except certain unimproved pas-
tures, and for the production of power requires a large part of
the most valuable products of the farm. His fuel, however
may be raised by every farmer every year, and on many sections
of Western prairie, a great portion of his maintenance still
comes from wild hay, which can be stored during slack seasons
at the mere cost of gathering.

In utilizing fuel, the average farm horse in any year prob-
ably converts less than 2 per cent, of heat supplied into energy
delivered. The steam engine in plowing has only the same
ratio or a trifle more, while the gas tractor at the same time

THE CHOICE OF POWER

293

converts from 10 to 15 per cent, of the heat energy in its fuel
into useful work. In stationary work the power of the horse
is decreased in transmission, while both types of tractor save
the enormous loss due to the propulsion of their own weight,
the steam engine delivering 4 to 6 per cent, and the gas engine
from 20 to 25 per cent, of its fuel energy to the driving belt.

The local cost and quality of fuels will vary widely, but the
following table, showing the heat units which could be
bought wholesale for $1.00 under northern Indiana conditions,
gives a fair idea of the relative cost of energy in various fuels:

ONE DOLLAR'S WORTH OF HEAT UNITS IN VARIOUS FUELS

KIND OF FUEL

COST OF FUEL

B.T.U.
CONTAINED

B.T.U.
BOUGHT
FOR $1.00

Bituminous coal

$3.00 per ton

13000 per Ib.

8,670,000

Hard wood (dry)

8.00

cord

8500

**

4,250,000

Kerosene 44°

.32

gallon

20000

"

4,187,500

Anthracite coal

7.00

ton

14000

»

4,000,000

Hay

10.00

"

8100

«

1,620,000

Gasoline 64°

.10

gallon

20000

M

1,204,000

Oats

.30

bushel

8400

"

896,000

Corn

.50

«

8000

"

896,000

Illuminating gas

1.20

1000 cu. ft.

550

CU. ft.

460,000

Alcohol, 90 per cent.

.45

gallon

11500

Ib.

174,500

Low-priced fuel is not necessarily cheap fuel, as its value
depends largely upon the heat units it contains. Moreover,
some cheap fuels are as cheap as they are, largely because
scarcity has led to the general abandonment of their use.
Cordwood, for instance, stands second on the list in point of
cheap heat units, yet if any considerable dependence were
placed upon its use for power, its price would be prohibitive.
Some of the lightest petroleum products are in the same
category, and, as we have seen, others are tending to become
scarce. At the prevailing prices it would seem that even the
more abundant petroleum fuels are almost prohibitive in cost
for a given quantity of heat units. However, even heat
units are not a reliable indication of the value of a fuel for

294 POWER AND THE PLOW

power production. We must remember that coal and wood
are used only in steam engines, which waste far more energy
than the motors burning gasoline and kerosene. The animal
motor on the farm, converting into power for plowing a low
percentage of the energy it receives, places the products of
the field far down the list as power producers.

The engine will outlast the horse, if properly cared for.
Repairs cost no more than shoeing and veterinary attendance.
The storage space for the animal and its food must be enor-
mously greater than that for the tractor. In the city, the
forty-horsepower auto seems lost in a corner of the barn which
formerly housed a half dozen horses, their feed and equipment,
and the modern garage in the back yard seems like a playhouse.
On the farm the shed for the tractor is insignificant compared
with the horse barn and needs far less care in its construction.
A ton of hay occupies from 400 to 600 cubic feet of space; a
ton of coal from 35 to 40 cubic feet; a ton of gasoline about 47
cubic feet; and a ton of kerosene about 40 cubic feet. Given
the space required to store the work horse's feed for an hour,
one would figure on about 10 per cent, as much per tractive
horsepower hour for a steam engine, 2.5 per cent, for the
gasoline engine, and 2.3 per cent, for the kerosene engine.

One horse plows an acre per day. The steam plowing en-
gine plows thirty acres in the daytime, and as much more at
night, if required. The gas tractor, stopping less often for
supplies, may compare favorably with the larger steam tractor,
since it will travel more miles in a day for the same geared
speed. The horse must cease work for rest while either tractor
works on. The gas tractor carries fuel and water for the day.
It can go farther from the base of supplies than the horse,
which must have food and drink every eight miles of plowing,
or the steam tractor, which runs short of water in two.

Endurance is the horse's weakest point, and flexibility his
strongest. By coupling from one to ten large horses together
in teams of different size, one has economical motors of from one

THE CHOICE OF POWER 295

to ten horsepower. In an emergency each horse may double
or triple his power, and sustain it for some time without injury.
The steam engine through the expansive force of steam, is more
flexible than the gas tractor and the wide range hi point of
cutoff gives it admirable overload capacity. In the gas engine
the maximum power is developed at the moment of explosion.
A considerable momentum, sufficient to carry the tractor over
ordinary emergencies, is stored in the flywheel. However,
if a sudden obstacle overloads the gas tractor while its speed
is reduced, it promptly stops working. In that respect it is
perhaps the most advanced of the three, since it tolerates less
abuse on the part of the operator.

As conditions are found on the farm, the horse has probably
the widest range of usefulness. His economy in small power
units, his great overload capacity, and the fact that he is
ordinarily ready at an instant's notice, make him by far the
most convenient power for widely diversified work. For oper-
ations requiring stationary power or great tractive power, he is
seriously handicapped, and yields to both types of tractor.
The steam engine is economical of labor only in the largest
units, hence is adapted more particularly for enormous
volumes of work in the field. Its great weight adapts it to
plowing new land and heavy hauling on good roads, rather than
for lighter work, though the lack of suitable bridges reduces
its usefulness in the latter particular. The gas tractor is eco-
nomical of fuel and labor in both large and small units. It is
generally lighter than the steam tractor for the same tractive
effort and is made in more widely divergent forms. It is
cleaner and more convenient to handle, is much quicker to start,
and undoubtedly stands second to the animal in general utility.

In so far as it is possible to generalize in ranking the three
types of power for plowing purposes on the foregoing essen-
tials, it has been done in the following table. Only the stand-
ard representatives of each type are, of course, considered.
Aside from the factors, involved in selecting a motor for plow-

296

POWER AND THE PLOW

ing, several are included which have to do with its usefulness
for general power purposes. To the many exceptions which
may be taken, the only answer is that the ranking has not
been undertaken except after exhaustive study of the adap-
tability of the standard general-purpose tractors to plowing
in a wide sweep of territory, presenting an extreme range of
farm conditions, in which naturally, many cases can be cited
to which few of these assignments will apply.

BELATIVE ADAPTABILITY OF COMMON MOTORS FOR PLOWING

ESSENTIAL PHASES OF ADAPTABILITY

FARM
HORSE

STEAM
TRACTOR

GAS

TRACTOR

Flexibility in power

1

2

3

Reliability

1

2

3

Range of usefulness

1

3

2

Necessity for adjustment

1

2 .

2

Ease of repair

3

1

1

Endurance in hours of work per day

3

1

1

Period of work without renewing supplies

2

3

1

Concentration of power in ground area

3

1

2

Investment in power per acre tilled

3

1

1

Investment in plows per acre tilled

1

2

3

Storage space per tractive h.p. of motor

3

1

2

Storage space for fuel per tractive h.p.-hr.

3

2

1

Quality of shelter required

3

1

1

Cost of maintenance in idleness

3

1

1

Cost of operation in small units

1

3

2

Cost of operation in medium to large units

2

2

1

Cost of operation in very large units
Skill required in operation

3

1

1
3

1

2

Amount of labor in operation

3

2

1

Frequency of attention in idleness

3

1

1

Weight of fuel per unit of work

3

2

1

Weight of water per unit of work

2

3

1

Variety of fuels utilized

2

1

3

Distribution of common fuels

1

2

3

Convenience in handling of fuel

3

2

1

Cost of energy in fuels

3

1

2

Thermal efficiency in stationary work

3

2

1

Thermal efficiency in plowing

2

3

1

Tractive power in relation to weight

3

2

1

Tractive power in relation to stationary power

1

3

2

Stationary power in relation to weight

3

1

2

Mechanical efficiency

—

1

2

Pressure exerted upon soil

1

3

2

Promise of future improvement

3

2

1

THE CHOICE OF POWER

297

RECAPITULATION

TYPE OF POWER

1ST OR
TIED

2D OR
TIED

3D OR

TIED

Farm Horse

10

5

18

Steam Tractor

13

13

8

Gas Tractor

18

11

5

A thousand and one variable factors operate to shift the
advantage in economy from one type of power to another.
A thousand factors other than cost make one power the most
adaptable to a given problem. Conditions are not exactly
the same on any two farms and each farmer must decide for him-
self the type of power best adapted to his use. After that he
should attempt to secure by a single purchase a motor that is
simple, durable, reliable, and efficient — adaptable to its work,
its working conditions, the intelligence of its operator, and
the fuel which he is able to provide most easily and at the
lowest cost.

XXXII
THE FUTURE OF THE TRACTION ENGINE

THE field that is now ripe for the introduction of
tractors on American farms alone is enormous,
without considering future and foreign opportuni-
ties. The tractor is best adapted, as we have
seen, to the raising of cereals. Thirty -five per cent, of the
horses and mules of the United States are found in ten cereal-
producing states where tractors are already used in large
numbers. In 1909, Minnesota, the two Dakotas, Montana,
Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and California
had 8,766,000 horses and mules of all ages, worth $859,444,000,
according to the latest Year Book of the Department of Agri-
culture. This is over five times our total annual output of
tractors and farm machinery for both domestic and export
trade. Many farmers in these states are replacing four horses
out of five with gas tractors. Let the average man replace
but one hi five, and there is sale for over 60,000 tractors at
$2500 to $3000 each. To pay cash for them would take less
than one seventh of the crop values produced in these states
in the year mentioned.

The tractor will eventually occupy much of this field. It
already saves enormously in the cost of production and mar-
keting. In the future we may expect to see great improve-
ment in performance as operators become more and more
skilled. We may look for cheaper costs of manufacture when
machines are standardized, when designing has been reduced
to a written science and when the experimental cost has been

298

THE VARIOUS USES OF THE TRACTION ENGINE

A swift trip to the creamery

Pulling harvesters and a lift plow

Reclaiming waste areas

FUTURE OF THE TRACTION ENGINE 299

distributed among many machines of the standard types.
The tractor is at the dawn, rather than the twilight, of its
development.

The rapidly increasing sale of tractors is due quite largely
to the many new uses to which they have been put. The traction
engine has developed from a monstrous toy into a powerful
and efficient servant. Its influence on the plow and production
has already been discussed. With the plow and the thresher
it has revolutionized the grain-raising industry, made possible
the settling of the Great American Desert, cheapened the cost,
and tremendously improved the quality, of our daily bread.
The same engines that solve the dry-farming problem may have
to cross rough fields with the threshing separator, ford streams
where bridges are unsafe or have not yet been built, and even
climb sizable mountains. It is all in the day's work, and has
no terrors for the experienced tractioneer. Perhaps the house
or granary needs moving, or maybe it is a load of lumber from
the railway. Possibly the road has to be built first, or perhaps
the railway, and after sawing timber for bridges and ties, the
tractor must grade the embankment all the way from farm to
the flour mill.

Off the farm the tractor has made possible the utilization
of many out-of-the-way patches of timber, and numerous
small deposits of stone have been turned by its aid into crushed
surfacing material for the highway. It is rapidly displacing
the horse in building and maintaining country roads. It digs
irrigation canals and fills drainage ditches. Contractors are
employing it more and more hi the arts of peace, and nations
are increasing its use for the business of war. It has hauled
machinery to the mines, raised the ore and carried it to the
railroad or smelter. It has brought enormous logs out of the
forest where big teams of horses could not manoeuvre. It hauls
the drill and the well casing to the oil field and helps produce
its own fuel. Even that most marvelously organized thing,
the modern circus, is playing traitor to the elephant and shifting

300 POWER AND THE PLOW

its heavy trucks with the traction engine, which also runs a
dynamo for lighting the evening show.

What the tractor has done in the past is but an inkling of
what it may do to aid humanity in the future. However,
its benefits will not be universally enjoyed until men universally
realize its usefulness and contribute more generously than in
the past to making conditions favorable for its work. Its
future is by no means entirely in the hands of its manufacturer,
nor yet of the farmer alone.

The future of the tractor depends a great deal on the educa-
tion of the people. The average farmer is familiar with the
horse from childhood. His son is learning the art of running
an engine, and colleges are educating a few in both the art
and the science. This phase of agricultural college work should
be richly endowed, since it is also giving students a broad grasp
of the profession of agricultural engineering. This will fit
them for directing the organization of farms and rural com-
munities on a more efficient basis, and the greatest efficiency
in the future will be realized by the use of all forms of
mechanical power.

The farm, after all, is really an engineering proposition. After
the chemist, the botanist, and the fertility expert have deter-
mined how a crop shall be raised, the actual raising of it is a
mechanical problem. The storing of the crop, its transporta-
tion, its protection from the elements and living enemies,
all require the exercise of engineering knowledge. There is a
need for a great national bureau in the Department of Agri-
culture to bring the engineering problems of the farmer to a
focus, where they may be solved by the men best qualified.
The farmer often fails to analyze the need for some machine
until it appears on the market. The manufacturer is often
handicapped in his investigation of the field for new machinery
by his lack of training in the problems of the farm. He is
forced to hesitate in developing new types to meet apparent
needs by the necessity of securing a commercial success. He is

FUTURE OF THE TRACTION ENGINE 301

thus apt to wait until forced into new departures. He needs
the broader outlook which could be secured from a central
organization having the viewpoint of the manufacturer, the
farmer, and the general public, all in one. The nations of
Europe, even Russia, are years ahead of us in this respect.

More suitable machinery is needed for making use of the
tractor's power, and to some extent the tractor's success is
dependent on the progressiveness of manufacturers in other
lines. The case is somewhat parallel to that of the edge-drop
corn planter, which was not a brilliant success until after
agricultural colleges had induced farmers to grade their seed
corn. Then the new style planter proved to be far ahead of
the old, even in the latter's best days.

We already have very efficient engine gang plows, but in
the main we are using the harrows, drills, and harvesters
developed for use with horses. Recently an experimental gram
drill of greater width and strength has been offered for engine
power, while other companies have just put forward large double-
disk harrows, which are compact and thorough in their work.
Another company makes a very efficient device for hitching a
number of binders together, adding many days each year to the
use of the engine. Large, heavy wagons, designed to follow
the track of the engine around any corner, add to the possible
length of the wagon train, and are so devised that they may be
drawn from either end to adapt them for us in close quarters
and save time in turning. As a rule, however, the farmer must
use some machine suited to animal power, and not strong
enough to withstand the strain when the power of from twenty
to thirty animals is exerted against a single point. No engineer
has as yet earned lasting gratitude by devising an easily manu-
factured hitch, whereby these various implements can be
conveniently attached in numbers sufficient to utilize the full
power of the engine. Even the plowmaker could add to the
success of the small tractor by devising a simple means for
enabling the engine driver to handle the plows easily without

302 POWER AND THE PLOW

leaving his platform. A simple, durable and efficient power-
lift plow, using some other medium than steam, would assist
in the solution of this problem.

But the tractor has still greater opportunities open to it.
Had the steam tractor become even fairly well perfected in the
early days of the nineteenth century, before Stephenson brought
forth his railway, the latter might easily have been delayed for
several generations. In its place we might have now a nation
closely knit together by a system of excellent roads, upon which
our freight and passenger traffic would proceed. But empire
builders have pushed smooth steel roads over easy grades into
all corners of the continent, and brought the ton-mile cost of
freight on heavily patronized lines to three eighths of a cent.
On our crude rural highways, horses haul farm products at
twenty-three cents per ton-mile and the best tractors at ten
cents, competing with the locomotive only in the ability to
traverse the byways and penetrate the fields left vacant by the
network of railway steel.

Brandeis startled the world by declaring that he could save
the railroads of the country $300,000,000 a year, simply by
improving their efficiency. What then might the nation be
saved if possible reductions were made in the cost of trans-
porting farm products? Mechanical power has revolutionized
transportation on railways and steamships, but masters of the
art have neglected the opportunity to apply it to a business
which the United States Office of Public Roads estimates at
a half billion dollars yearly. The opportunity of saving three
fourths of this cost by the introduction of mechanical power is
as startling as its neglect is deplorable.

Why has the traction engine not already saved the greater
part of this preventable waste? The answer is, that it is
more sadly handicapped than the horse by the conditions that
cause the waste — to wit, bad road surfaces and steep grades.
It is here, much more than in plowing, that the wonderful
flexibility of the horse finds its greatest usefulness. The gas

FUTURE OF THE TRACTION ENGINE 303

tractor, with its capacity for making an average round trip
from farm to railway without rest of supplies, is the worst
handicapped of all. Taking advantage of nature's gift to the
animal, we have built our highway system upon it, rather on
the basis of efficiency. As a result of the system, it cost in
1906, when ocean rates were unusually high, 1.6 cents, or 40
per cent, more to haul a bushel of wheat 9.4 miles from the farm
to the railway station, than to haul the same bushel 3100 miles
from New York to Liverpool.

In a report to the Country Life Commission, from which
these figures were taken, the Office of Public Roads states that
the cost of hauling with horses over our wagon roads is not less
than 23 cents per ton-mile, and probably 2 or 3 cents higher.
On the good roads of France, England, and Germany, trans-
portation with horses costs from 7 or 8 cents to 13 cents, or an
average of 10 cents per ton-mile. With universally good roads
the annual saving in our cost of hauling the products of farms
and forests to the railway would be a quarter of a billion dollars
on the basis of animal traction alone. Every argument in
favor of good roads for horse haulage is doubled in force when
we think of hauling with an engine. Better conditions for the
use of mechanical power reduce the cost in geometrical ratio,
until under the best conditions, as illustrated by the railroads,
the cost is a trifling percentage of the tax now imposed by
animals and bad roads.

The steam tractor is not quite so badly handicapped by pres-
ent conditions as the gas tractor. In England it is used ex-
tensively for heavy transportation over public highways. With
some changes in the design of tractor it might be possible to
effect an enormous saving in America without such a sweeping
improvement of roads as would make the gas tractor most
efficient. However, significant of what can be done by the
gas engine on short hauls with frequent stops is the growing
tendency of steam roads to use comfortable gas-driven cars
for local and suburban service. In the United States, more-

304 POWER AND THE PLOW

over, the gas tractor has a better opportunity than in England,
owing to the lower price of suitable fuel.

The selling price of farm products is rarely under the farmer's
control. His profits are represented by the difference between
the selling price and the cost of production and transporta-
tion to market. As the tractor cuts the cost of production, so
it adds to his profits. As it further cuts the cost of road trans-
portation, it adds greater profits without increasing the cost
to the consumer, and by increasing agricultural prosperity,
increases the welfare of the country, which is dependent upon
that of the farmer. The cheap transportation secured by the
use of better roads, which in turn favors the increased use of
mechanical power, will enable the extension of the zone around
each marketing centre in which certain bulky and perishable
products can profitably be raised. It will increase land values.
It will equalize supply and demand, since crops can be stored
at the lowest cost on the farm and moved at any time during
the year. It will equalize the traffic upon railroads, and make
Brandeis's saving easier. It will increase rural population,
encourage the attendance of children at school, extend the
usefulness of motor vehicles for passenger transportation, and
develop an attractive social side to farm life.

What do we need in the way of road improvement? In a
nutshell, we need to eliminate grades and establish better road
surfaces. The loss in traction efficiency due to poor surface
has been shown elsewhere, and that due to grades is perhaps
even greater. The power required to lift the prime mover
itself up a certain grade is constant, regardless of surface, and
the better the road surface the more rapidly will each percent-
age of grade cut down the proportion of the tractor's total power
which it can exert in pulling the load. To secure ideal condi-
tions, we must have ' state- wide road laws and standards of
quality in construction. Whether the road shall be built
by state or national aid, or by county funds alone, is a matter
of detail. The main point is, that the administration of these

FUTURE OF THE TRACTION ENGINE 305

funds must be placed in more intelligent hands than at present.
In the majority of states able highway engineers are prepared
to investigate, advise and assist, and there their authority
ceases. They should be empowered to put into practice the
results of their experience and training. They should be
assisted by competent highway supervisors, and road district
units should be made much larger than at present, in order to
afford and command the service of trained experts.

In spite of the loyal assistance which the traction engine
is now giving in building improved roads, the average legislator
is unable to see in it anything but an ugly machine which scares
horses, sets fire to property, breaks down bridges, and destroys
road surfaces. As a matter of fact, manufacturers everywhere
are willing to provide reasonable facilities for changing grouters
on plowing engines once they are proved destructive. It is
firmly established, however, that the pneumatic tire of the
modern automobile is far more injurious to good roads than
the heaviest steam tractor's drive-wheels. In fact, the state
highway engineer of Wisconsin recommends the use of the
traction engine in building and maintaining roads on account
of the power which it makes available for doing good work with
a grader, and because of the compacting effect of the wheels.

Much of the opposition to the tractor comes from a well-
organized purpose on the part of selfish interests to keep vehicles
off the public road that will make it necessary to provide better
and safer bridges. The control of public bridges is generally
in the hands of the county supervisors, who are not chosen
with reference to their engineering ability. In consequence,
they are at the mercy of bridge-building concerns which make
enormous profits out of the construction of flimsy bridges at
excessive cost to the public. In crossing these bridges the
tractioneer takes his life in his hands, and often is heavily
liable as well for damage to the structure. The average state
highway commission is powerless to do more than to recommend
praiseworthy laws and specifications. In the face of a powerful

306 POWER AND THE PLOW

lobby their recommendations count for little in the framing
of intelligent and just legislation.

Tractor manufacturers and the farming public must soon
insist upon the right of the traction engine to its place on the
public highways. Its abolishment would set the country back
fifty years in its methods of wheat production, and cause un-
told ruin and actual suffering through the shortage of food-
stuffs. Why, then, should the owner of such an engine be re-
garded in some states as a criminal in the eyes of the law while
in pursuit of his daily occupation? Why should the farm
tractor, which has created a new era in agriculture, and revo-
lutionized the methods of doing countless tasks both on and
off the farm, be discriminated against as a public nuisance?
Here are questions for engine manufacturers, for farmers,
engineers, and the intelligent business public to weigh carefully
and act upon.

The farm tractor solves the problem of our daily bread,
and makes possible the utilization of our whole wheat-
producing area. Its use is rapidly extending into the regions
of smaller farms and more intensive farming. It holds out
the promise of greater improvement and greater benefit to
humanity in the future than the mechanical power applied to
the great industries which have grown so enormously by its
use. Until now the use of the tractor has been so limited,
and the interests concerned in its manufacture and use so
dwarfed by great industrial corporations, that the lack of
just consideration from the public at large has been suffered
quietly along with a host of other abuses in our social organiza-
tion. Now, however, scores of well-established machinery
concerns, representing the most intelligent and progressive
manufacturing class of the nation, and tens of thousands of
engine owners and operators, are directly concerned with the
future of the tractor. Indirectly, but no less actually, the
whole population of the country, and of our rural districts in
particular, is interested in the attitude of publie officials toward

FUTURE OF THE TRACTION ENGINE 307

it. Its unrestricted development as an aid to mankind de-
pends upon this attitude, which in the past has been neutral,
even hostile. In the future the embarrassments which have been
imposed must be removed, and constructive measures must
be taken to widen the tractor's sphere of usefulness, or else
the great opportunity which is offered by this cheap, convenient,
and efficient servant of humanity will fall short of a full
realization.

SPECIFICATIONS OF LEADING GAS TRACTORS

(1) Specific gravity = weight (Ibs. per gallon) x 12

(2) Weight (Ibs. per gal.) = specific gravity

12

(3) Baume gravity = 140

specific gravity

(4) Specific gravity = 140 -^

130 -+- (Baume gravity)

(5) Indicated horsepower (I.h.p.) = PxLxAxN

33000

in which P = mean effective pressure (M.E.P.) in pounds per square inch;
L = length of stroke in feet; A = area of piston in inches; N = number of
power impulses per minute.

(6) For steam engines:
Ii.p, = 2PLAN

33000

(7) For four-cycle, single-acting, throttle-governed gas engines:
I.h.p. = PLAN

33000 x 2

(8) Brake horsepower (B.h.p.) = 2 x 3.1416 xLxNxF.

33000

in which L = length of brake arm; N = r.p.m. of flywheel; F = weight on
scale beam.

(9) Drawbar h.p. = speed (mi. per hr.) x drawbar pull

375

(10) Mechanical efficiency^ B.h.p.

Lh.p.

310

POWER AND THE PLOW

(11) Tractive efficiency = Drawbar h.p.

B.h.p.

(12) Thermal efficiency = 2545

B.t.u. supplied per h.p.-hr.

(13) Roberts' formula for rating small gas engines:
B.h.p. — DxLxRxN
18000

for four-cycle engines*

(14) and DxLxRxN
13600

for two-cycle engines,

in which D = diameter of cylinder in inches; L = length of stroke in inches;
R = revolutions of crankshaft per minute* N = number of cylinders.

Draft of different numbers of 14-inch stubble plows in sandy
loam soil of an Illinois cornfield, based on thesis of C. A. Ocock,
at Urbana, 111., in 1904. Average of 90 tests at each depth,
30 in wet, 30 hi dry, and 30 in ideal soil conditions:

No.
of 14"
Bottoms

z

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

XX

12

13

14

Draft
per Sq. In.
Cross
Section

4"

290

579

869

IO2I

IIS8

1448

1737

2027

2316

2606

2895

3185

3474

3764

4053

5-17

s"

340

680

I36l

1701
2003

2041

2381

2722

3062

3402

3742

4082

4223

4763

4.86

o

401

801

I2O2

1603

2404

2805

3205

3606

4007

4407

4808

5209

5609

4-77

7"

448

896

1344
ISIS

1791

2O2O

2239

2687

3135
3536

3583
4041

4031

4S46

4479
5°Si

4926

S374

5822

6270

4-57

8"

SOS

1010

2526

3031

5556

6061

6567

7072

4-51

Three-wheeled sulky plows used in all tests. For draft of
engine gang plows under the same condition add from 10 to
25 per cent. For heavier soils add from 25 to 200 per cent.

Capacity of plowing outfits in acres per hour at different
speeds, for furrows of varying width and number. Formula:
Miles net furrow travel and width hi feet of strip plowed -5-
8.25 = Acres:

SPECIFICATIONS

311

Furrow

8 inches

xo inches

is inches

Miles
per Hour

i.S

i. 75

2.0 J2.25 1 2.5

I.S

1.75

2.O

2.25

2.5

i-S

1. 75

No. of

Furrows

i

.12

• 14

.16

.18

.20

• 15

.18

.20

•23

• 25

.18

.21

2

3

.24
.36

.28
.42

$

•36
• 55

iC

• 30
•45

• 35
• 53

.40
.61

• 36

• 55

'il

4

.48

• 56

.65

• 73

.81

.61

.81

.91

.01

• 73

• 85

I

.61

•73

£

.81
• 97

• 91
1.09

.01
.21

•76
• 91

!o6

1. 01
I. 21

5:3

.26

•52

.91
.09

1^27

7

• 85

•99

•13

1.27

.41

.06

• 24

I.4I

1-59

• 77

.27

1.48

8

• 97

•13

.29

1-45

.62

.21

• 41

1.62

1.82

.02

•45

1.70

9

.09

• 27

• 45

1.64

.82

-36

•59

1.82

2.05

.27

.64

1.91

10

.21

.41

.62

1.82

.02

•52

• 77

2.02

2.27

•53

.82

2.12

ii

•33

• 55

• 78

2.O

.22

• 67

•94

2.22

2.50

•78

.0

2-33

12

• 45

• 69

•94

2.l8

-42

.82

.12

2.42

2-73

.18

13

•57

• 83

.10

2.36

.62

• 97

•30

2.62

2-95

3.28

•36

2.76

14

.69

• 97

.26

2-55

•83

.12

• 47

2.83

3-i8

3-54

• 55

2.97

15

.82

.11

.42

2-73

3-03

• 27

• 65

3-03

3-41

3-79

• 73

3-18

16

• 94

.26

•59

2-91

3-23

.42

2.83

3-23

3.64

4.04

• 91

3-39

\l

.06
.18

.40
•54

•75
• 91

3-09
3-27

.58

• 73

3-oo
3-18

3-44
3-64

3-86
4.09

4.29
4-54

3-09
3-27

3.60
3-82

19

.30

.68

3-07

3.46

3^84

.88

3.36

3.84

4-32

4.28

3.46

4-03

20

•42

.82

3-23

3.64

4.04

3-03

3 53

4.04

4-55

5-05

3-64

4.24

21

•54

• 96

3-40

3-82

4.24

3-18

3-71

4.24

4-77

5-30

3-82

4-45

c:__ nt

oize oi
Furrow

12 inches

14 inches

1 6 inches

Miles
per Hour

2.0

2.25

2.5

i.S |i-75

2.0

2.25 1 2.5

1.5 |i.7S | 2.0 [ 2.25

2.5

No. of

Furrows

2

• 24
.48

.27

• 55

:?!

.21

.42

• 25
• 49

.28

• 57

*

• 35

:3

.28

• 57

'.6S

.36

• 73

'£

3

• 73

.82

.91

.64

.74

• 85

• 95

l!o6

• 73

• 85

• 97

1.09

I. 21

4

• 97

1 .09

1. 12

•85

.99

1. 13

1.27

1.14

•97

I-I3

l.2g

1-45

1.62

I
1

I. 21
1-45
1.70
1.94

1.91
2.18

1-52
1.82
2.12
2.42

5:3

1.70

5:3

5:3

1.41
1.70
1.98
2.26

1-59
1.91

2.22
2-54

1-77

2.12

2.47
2.83

I. 21

1-45
1.70
1.94

1.41

1.70
1.98
2.26

1.61

1%
2.58

1.82
2.18
2-55
2.91

2.02
2.42
2.83
3-23

9

2.18

2.46

2-73

.91

2.22

2-54

2.86

3-18

2.18

2-54

2.91

3-27

3.64

10

ii

2.42
2.66

2-73
3.00

3-03
3-33

.12
•33

2-47
2.72

2.83
3-"

3-18
3-So

3-54
3-89

2.42
2.66

2.83

3-23
3-57

3-64
4.00

4-04
4-44

12

2.91

3-27

3 64

•54

2.97

3-39

3-82

4.24

2.91

3-39

3-88

4.36

4.85

13

14

3-iS
3-39

3-54
3-82

3-94
4.24

.76
•97

3-22
3.46

3.68
3.96

4.14
4-45

4-59
4-95

3-15
3-39

3-68
3.96

4.20
4-52

4-73
5-09

i:S

11

17

3^88
4.12

4.09

:S

4-54
4-85
5-15

3-18

3-71
4.21

4.24
4-52
4.81

4-77
5-09
5-41

5-30
5.65
6.00

3-64
3-88
4.12

4.24

4-84
5-17
5-49

5-45
5-82
6.18

6.06
6.46
6.87

18
19

20
21

4.36
4.61
4-85
5.09

5 '46
5-73

5-45
5-76
6.06
6.36

3- '8?
4-03
4.24
4-45

4-45
4.70
4-95
5-19

5-09
5-27
5.65
5-94

5-72
6.04
6.36
6.68

6.36
6.71

7.07
7.42

4-36
4.61
4-85
5-09

5-09
5-37
5-65
5-94

5-82
6.14
6.46
6.78

6.91
7-27
7.64

7.27
7.68
8.08
8.48

Horsepower and draft required to pull a 27,000-lb. tractor
over various grades and road surfaces at a net speed of 1.9
miles per hour (no allowance for slippage), calculated from
actual tests on the same day on level surfaces at speeds of from
1 . 77 to 1 . 99 miles per hour:

312

POWER AND THE PLOW

GRADE

MACADAM
ROAD

FIRM EARTH
ROAD
NOT STICKY

SOFT MUDDY
ROAD

SOF'J. FIELD

FEET PER MILE

PER CENT.

DRAFT

H.P.

DRAFT

H.P.

DRAFj.'

H.P.

DRAFT H.P.

Level

O

2135

10.82

2500

12.67

2650

13.43

3040

15-40

S3

I

2405

12.19

2770

14.04

2920

14.80

3310

16.77

106

2

2675

13-55

3040

15.40

3190

16.16

3580

18.14

IS8

3

2945

14.92

3310

16.77

3460

17-53

3850

19-51

211

4

3215

16.29

3580

18.14

3730

18.90

4I2O

20.88

264

5

348S

17-66

3850

19.51

4000

20.27

4390

22.44

422

8

4295

21.76

4660

23.6l

4810

24-37

5200

26.35

528

10

4835

24.50

52OO

26.35

5350

27.11

5740

29.08

634

12

5375

27.24

5740

29.08

5890

29.84

6280

31-82

7Q2

IS

6185

31-34

6550

33-19

6700

33-95

7090

35-93

It will be noted that the percentage of variation in draft
between different road surfaces is not so great as for wagons;
also that the draft ranges from about 160 to 225 pounds per
gross ton. These drafts per ton are higher than are usual with
wagons, and may be partly ascribed to the greater internal
friction. A ton of engine weight pulled about 19 per cent,
harder than a ton of wagon and load at the Winnipeg motor
contest of 1909. The speed of travel for the tests reported
in this table was 1.95 for macadam; 1.93 for firm dirt; 1.77 for
soft, muddy road, and 1.67 for the soft field. The tractor
pulling this load was designed to run at 2.05 miles per hour
on low gear, hence the slippage under the various conditions
ranged from about 5 to 18.5 per cent. If a constant figure for
friction of gearing, etc., were subtracted from the draft per
gross ton in each case, and for the better surfaces possibly a
trifle more in proportion as the speed increases, the difference
in draft due to road surface would be more strongly emphasized.
On grades, the friction and ground resistance are constant, for
all practical purposes, variation being due to the lift on the
tractor alone. In actual pulling, the internal friction would be

SPECIFICATIONS

313

increased to an undetermined extent, hence possibly 250 pounds
of resistance per ton of tractor weight would be none too much
to allow on the level in order to estimate the horsepower re-
quired to move a tractor over an ordinary road. Each per cent,
of grade adds 20 pounds per ton to the resistance. For example :
A tractor weighs 8 tons and moves at 2.5 miles per hour up a
4 per cent, grade. What power does it take to move it?

(8 x 250) x (8 x 4 x 20) = 2640 pounds.
2640x2.5 ,_,
-375— =l7-6h'P-

EFFECT OF VELOCITY ON DRAFT

Relative draft of a stage coach and passengers on Holyhead
Turnpike, in England, at different speeds of travel. Based
on table of dynamometer tests reported by Trautwine:

PROPORTIONAL ASCENT

4 MILES
PER HOUR

6 MILES
PER HOUR

8 MILES
PER HOUR

10 MILES
PER HOUR

FEET

PER CENT.

One in
15.5

6.45

100

102.9

107.1

114.2

20.

5.0

100

103.1

108.1

116.9

26.

3.85

100

103.2

107.1

113.0

30.

3.33

100

103.7

107.3

112.4

40.

2.5

100

105.2

108.8

114.1

64.

1.56

100

105.5

110.1

115.6

118.

.85

100

104.9

110.8

117.7

138.

.73

100

104.0

110.1

118.2

156.

.64

100

103.0

108.1

114.3

245.

.40

100

103.2

108.6

115.1

600.

.17

100

105.0

112.3

118.6

Level

0.

100

105.2

111.9

119.8

Average.

100

104.1

109.2

115.8

314

POWER AND THE PLOW

HAULING

Theoretical Capacity of Tractors on Grades

Assumed: Tractors delivering at all times exactly the brake
h.p. which will produce the rated drawbar horsepower on the
level; ground resistance uniform, at 160 Ibs. per gross ton
of load and wagon; increase of resistance due to grade 20 Ibs.
per ton for each 1 per cent; no slippage, speed constant. No
account taken of overload capacity of tractor, all of which would
be exerted on the load, with marked increase in amount hauled
This table is merely to show the loss due to grades which in-
crease the draft of load and decrease the power of the tractor.

WORKING CONDITIONS ASSUMED

TBACTOB NO. 1

TRACTOR
NO. 2

LOW GEAR

HIGH GEAR

Speed of travel, miles per hour

2.0

2.75

1.9

Working weight of tractor, Ibs.

15000

15000

27000

Drawbar h.p. developed

15

15

30

Drawbar pull.

2810

2045

5920

Draft per gross ton on level, Ibs.

160

160

160

Load on level

35100

25600

74000

Do. on 1% grade.

29500

21100

62800

Do. on 2% grade.

25100

17500

53800

Do. on 8% grade.

21500

14500

46500

Do. on 4% grade.

18400

12000

40300

Do. on 5% grade.

15600

10000

35200

Do. on 8% grade.

10000

5300

23500

Do. on 10% grade.

7300

3000

17900

Do. on 12% grade.

5100

1200

13400

Do. on 15% grade.

2400

0

8100

SPECIFICATIONS

315

EFFECT OF GRADE ON DRAFT

Relative draft of a stage coach and passengers as ascertained
by dynamometer trials on various ascents on the Holyhead
Turnpike, England. Comparison based on draft on level.
Table based on one by Trautwine.

PROPORTIONAL
ASCENT

AT 4 MI.
PER HR.

AT 6 MI.
PER HR.

AT 8 MI.
PER HR.

AT 10 MI.
PER HR.

AVERAGE

FEET

PER CENT.

One in
15.5

6.45

276.2

270.0

264.7

264.0

268.7

20.0

5.00

258.0

252.5

249.6

251.8

253.0

26.0

3.85

204.0

200.0

195.3

192.3

197.9

30.0

3.33

180.2

177.5

173.0

169.3

175.0
147.3

40.0

2.50

50.0

150.0

146.0

143.0

64.0

1.56

143.5

143.8

141.3

138.5

141.8

118.0

0.85

134.1

133.8

133.0

132.0

134.2

138.0

0.73

130.2

128.8

128.3

128.7

129.0

156.0

0.64

129.0

126.3

124.8

123.1

125.8

245.0

0.40

122.4

120.0

118.9

117.7

119.8

600.0

0.17

106.7

106.2

107.1

105.6

106.4

Level

0.00

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

FUELS FOR GAS TRACTORS

KIND OF FUEL

BAUME
GRAVITY

SPECIFIC
GRAVITY

POUNDS
PER
GALLON

POUNDS
PER BBL.
(42 GAL.)

Crude oil

12

.9863

8.223

345.4

"

16

.9600

8.004

336.2

«

28

.8889

7.407

311.1

«

35

.8521

7.101

298.2

Distillate

39

.8324

6.937

291.4

Kerosene

44

.8090

6.742

283.2

Naphtha

50

.7826

6.522

273.9

Gasoline

60

.7423

6.186

259.8

"

64

.7272

6.060

254.5

M

72

.6990

%5.825

244.7

«

76

.6857

5.715

240.0

Alcohol 90%

39

.8340

6.95

291.9

LIST OF AUTHORITIES CONSULTED

Elementary Dynamics, E. T. Ferry.

Cyclopedia of American Agriculture, L. H. Bailey. The Macmillan Co.,
New York.

Articles by Thos. F. Hunt, H. P. Armsby, P. S. Rose, Le Grand Powers,
C. S. Plumb, J. B. Davidson, John W. Gilmore, C. J. Zintheo, F. H. King,
F. B. Mumford, W. L. Carlyle, John A. Craig, C. F. Cutiss, H. W. Quaintance,
H. C. Taylor.

The Animal as a Machine and Prime Mover, R. H. Thurston. John Wiley
& Sons, New York.

The Horse, Youatt. Orange Judd Co., New York.

Judging Live Stock, John A. Craig.

United States Office of Experiment Stations, Bulletin 125, Recent Experi-
ments in Horse Feeding. C. F. Langworthy.

United States Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Statistics, Bulletins
48 and 73. Cost of Producing Farm Products in Minnesota.

Mechanical Engineers' Handbook, William Kent. John Wiley & Sons,
New York.

Civil Engineers' Pocketbook, J. C. Trautwine.

Royal Agricultural Society of England, Journal, 1871. Report of Agri-
cultural Motor Trials at Wolverhampton.

The Past, Present, and Future of Steam on the Common Road, R. H.
Thurston.

English and American Steam Carriages and Traction Engines, William
Fletcher. Longmans, Green & Co., New York.

The Traction Engine, J. H. Maggard. David McKay, Philadelphia.

Rough and Tumble Engineering, J. H. Maggard. The American Thresher-
man,

Farm Engines and How to Run Them, James H. Stephenson. F. J. Drake &
Co., Chicago.

Instructions for Traction and Stationary Engineers, Wm. Boss.

Heath School of Traction Engineering, E. H. Heath & Co., Ltd., Winnipeg,
Man.

Farm Machinery and Farm Motors, J. B. Davidson and L. W. Chase.
Orange, Judd Co., New York.

The Gas Engine, F. R. Hutton, John Wiley & Sons, New York.

Practical Gas Engineer, E. W. Longanecker, Anderson, Ind.

The Chemist's Manual, H. A. Mott, Jr. D. Van Nostrand Co., New York.

Liquid and Gaseous Fuels, Vivian B. Lewes. D. Van Nostrand Co., New
York.

The Problem of Our Gasoline Supply, Motor, New York, September, 1910.

United States Department of Agriculture, Farmer's Bulletin 277, The Use
of Alcohol and Gasoline in Farm Engines.

317

318 LIST OF AUTHORITIES CONSULTED

Oklahoma Geological Survey, Norman, Okla., Bulletin 1, Mineral Resources
of Oklahoma.

Past, Present, and Future of the Plow Industry, J. L. Bowles. American
Exports, New York, March 1910.

Transactions New York State Agricultural Society, 1867, Article by J. S.
Gould.

Physics of Agriculture, F. H. King.

Missouri Experiment Station, Bulletin 13, Draft Tests, J. W. Sanborn.

Utah Experiment Station, Bulletins 4 and 7, Draft Tests, J. W. Sanborn.

Draft of Plows, Thesis, C. A. Ocock. University of Illinois, 1904.

Department of Agriculture, Saskatchewan, Bulletin 21, Methods of Soil
Cultivation, J. R. Motherwell.

United States Department of Agriculture, Yearbook, 1909. The Farmers'
Cooperative Demonstration Work, S. A. Knapp.

Office of Public Roads, Report to the Country Life Commission, 1908.

Bureau of Statistics, Bulletin 49, Cost of Hauling Crops.

Twelfth Census of the United States.

Moto-Culture, A. Ph. Silbernagel. Oa Genie Rural, Paris.

Miscellaneous Articles from: Implement and Machinery Review, London;
Canadian Thresherman and Farmer, Winnipeg, Man; Gas Power Age,
Winnipeg, Man; Modern Power, Winnipeg, Man.; American Thresher-
man, Madison, Wis.; Threshermen's Review, St. Joseph, Mich.; Gas Power,
St. Joseph, Mich.; Gas Review, Madison, Wis.; Gas Engine, Cincinnati, O.,
Gas Energy, New York; Farm Implement News, Chicago; Farm Machinery,
St. Louis, Mo.; Irrigation Age, Chicago.

World's Work, Garden City, N. Y., August, 1910, The Passing of the Man
with the Hoe, Edward A. Rumely.

Papers by L. W. Ellis:

Journal American Society of Mechanical Engineers, March 1911; The
Economic Importance of the Farm Tractor; United States Bureau of Plant
Industry, Bulletin 170; Traction Plowing.

Transactions American Society Agricultural Engineers, 1910, Tractive
Efficiency.

Proceedings National Gas and Gasoline Engine Trades Association, June,
1910, The Gas Tractor and the Horse.

Proceedings North Dakota and Northwestern Minnesota Implement Dealers,
February, 1911, The Future of the Gas Tractor.

La Hacienda, Buffalo, N. Y., August and September, 1910, The Traction
Engine in Dry Farming.

Canadian Thresherman and Farmer, Winnipeg, Man., The Tractor vs. the
Horse, March 1910; Draft of Farm Implements, August, 1910; What Power
means to the Future, April 1911.

American Tresherman, Madison, Wis., March 1911, Substitutes for Direct
Traction.

Thresherman' s Review, St. Joseph, Mich., The Plows Behind the Engine,
Causes for Traction Failures.

Gas Review, Madison, Wis., Traction Farming: A source of New Problems
in Farm Economics, March 1910; Fuels for Internal-Combustion Engines,
November 1910.

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