THE SEMI WEEKLY TRIBUNE, NORTH PLATTE, NEBRASKA.
TRACTORS TURN
(Mrr-or-0isAKy
MMIM TO J0V-R10INQ
W Peopled
HEADS WAR INDUSTRIES BOARD
OS 4f I :v-i
The gasoline horse 4s rapidly
revolutionizing American
agriculture : : Robert H. Moul
ton describes for our readers
some of the wonders per
formed by the mechanical
hired hand on our broad acres
EI 13 former took to tlio uutomo
bile nn ho does to u clrcutf. Old
Dobblnn of tins buggy Iiuh long
since been smothered by the
'exhnust from tho four-cylinder
gus vehicle, and now ho Is be
ing ousted from his old nnd
arduous vocation of plowing
nnd harvesting. If It wero not
for the welcomlug arms of the
belligerent war buyers, ' thero
would be no one to love or
.cherish our black beauties,
and, like poor relations, they
would have to survive on the
husks. Farming has-ever bem
piltractlve to the city clinp. and It has always
been extremely tollRomo to the native. But now,
with the aid of facchnnlcal hired hands, farming
(In the future will be mere Joy-rtdlng. Instead
following n team of pnntlng, porsplrlng horses
wnd stumbling over rough clods In tho broiling
nun while trying to keep undur control n plow
whoso diabolical disposition Is to twist and turn
(from the straight and even furrow, Mr. Farmer
Can put on his nutomobllo goggles nnd gloves,
beat himself comfortably In the spring sent of n
Iractor, and under a canvas canopy thnt shunts ,
mvay tho sun, . guide his obedient stecj steed
ncross the flolds. In the springtime the, plowing
can be done to tho music of the birds, who gath
er n round to wateli. for tho luckless but luscious
worms turned up by tho blades. By one turn of
the wheel, a buttery of disk plows can bo made
ito obey orders Ilko soldiers.
When the plowing Is done, 4ho , mechanical
hired man will as cheerfully pull n harrow or a .
Heeding machine, and no stops need be inudo In
the shnde to allow the "critter" to "blow." A
.tractor loves to work nudjull It asks In return Is
that. Its stomach bo kept full of the spirits that
enthuse but do not Intoxicate
During the dinner hour, If the farmer follows
Jils 'efficiency book' faithfully, ho will connect up
Ills tractor engine with the pump and All tho
water reservoir, or perhaps he will turn tho
churn for mothor. After a long pull nt the elder t
ilmrrel nnd tho distillate tank, both master and
mervant are rendy to resume operations.
As the sonsbns merge on.o into nnothof and '
tho .crops nro nil planted nnd growing under tho
Jienlnl smiles of Oh1 Sol nnd the sympathetic mln
RtrntloiiH of Jupiter I'luvlus. Mr. Farmer, with
nothing to do but' wntch his grain grow, can
drive his tractor over to tho neighboring wood
'lot, nnd with the help of his husky sons, or hla
neighbor's Btalwnrt sontf, can cut enough cord
wood 'to defy the advance and siege of Jack
'llfrdst. Tho modern trncfor loves to .be tied to a
buzz saw, nnd It Hlng3 right merrily while doing
"Its work- When tho wood Is cut, the obliging
tracto? will haul It to tho woodshed, and then,
like the famous jnnn of history, will look for new
work to conquer.
The ovorwhclmjhg advnntago of tho tractor
over horses Is thntofpowor nnd endurance. If
jtho supply tank of one of 'these machines Is kept
(full of fuel, It will work on Indefinitely without
rest, whereas beasts of burden demand time to
cat nnd sleep and rest. Then, too, It Is much
easier on tho farmer to sit on a Rent and plow
by turning a wheel than to follow the furrows on
;foot. Consequently, tho farmer with a tractor
'will do all his plowing In from n fourth to a halt
of the time required with horses. By equipping tho
.machines with electric lights, generated by the
smotor, tho suijroundlng ground can be mado as
Jllght us day, nnd plowing can go on Independent
or tlie mm. Poor Dobbins would- glvo up tho
ghost If subjected to such treatment.
1- The superiority- of tho tractor Is also demon
futrotod by tho ability to get over ground so soft
nnd muddy that ordlnnry horses nnd farm Im
plements would mire In. They modern ball-trend
tractor Is built to run on ita own track. Being
wide and flat, with tfio weight of tho mnchlno
evenly distribute!!, this caterpillar type of per
nmbulntor can navigate through u sea of mud, and
by Its great traction power can pull anything
except teeth. In tho rlco Holds of California,
whoro water stands upon tho ground during all
the growing season, tho tractor' Is found to ho
the only feasible means of'gettlng over the fields
for plowing, seeding, cutting and harvesting tho
M .... 1 I . II...
crop, it even iurniBiien wiu uumvu jiunvrnir
thrashing tho rice.
If the road In front of tho farm Is rough and
meeds tho smoothing Influence of tho tractor, it
avIH do tho Job ami do It right If the hens have
been Industrious, or bossy's product has been
converted into golden butter oV cheese for the
city folkB, Mr. Farmer can haul them to market
by hitching a trailer behind his tractor. Many
of the machines are bought for their hauling abil
ity alone. It will even take tho folks to church
.on Sunday, If the Jitney happens to break down
on Saturday night.
In fact, tho tractor Is ub versatile as a movie
jjtnr nnd It doesn't mind showing oft Its diverse
talents. Ono has even been known to rid n cellar
of rodents by "coughing" tho gus front its exhaust
(through a rubber tube run into the prtvuto dwell
'Jng of Mr. Unt,
development of tho truct6r Is a niatlerof
iV -ATI.
LOWJT
Bi? LOACK3 OJY GAD ?OAD3
evolution. It Iiuh been with us for many years,
hut tho older members of the family, though big
In stature, were extremely awkward, had many
Ills and didn't believe In efficiency. They wero
very Impressive to fook nt, but when the farmer
bought ono ho usually found that It made tho,
most durable Impression upon the ground. It was
n better staller than a politician. '
.Through education,' however, ft was developed v
into n finer thing. It lost a lot of Its awkwardness
.with Its size and gained In strength nnd flexibility.
Its groans wero converted Into action. It began
to wear new shoes, and when a mudholo or n
gully confronted It, Instead of pulling nnd snorting
nnd marking tlm'e, as the older ones did, It rolled
on through the soft spots, or climbed, out of tho
ditches. Its new revolving track shoes could go
anywhere, nnd It did. Tlielntest proof of this Is
seen In the reports from the European battle
fields, whero, the' armored "tanks'' are ..walking
over all obstacles. It Is said on reliable authqrl
ty thnt these tanks nro byllt upon n foundation
of an American type of tractor.
It Is "In orchard work that tho tractor has won
Its way Into the hearts of many owners. In a
well-managed orchard It Is necessary to plow up
the soil as close to tho trees as possible. With a
team undone old-fashioned plow, It Is Impossible
to. rut corners nnd rench little out-of-iho-wny
nooks, but not so with tho tractor. It can turn
nrolind like a whirling dervish and enn come
close enough to n tree or the fence to caress but
no.t offend Jt. A favorite trick of one make of u
California tractor Is to turn completely around
on an ordinary railroad flat car. When one con
ciders the width of these cars the feat Is a re
markable one. If nil else falls, the machine
can Kct a Job In a circus ns a contortionist.
One ofthe odd uses to which tractors are put
w that of clearing land for cultivation. On the
virgin flelds of Cnnnda the Ranchers found tho
new land to be thickly covered with tough brusn
and young trees,-forming a dense mat, to clear
which by hand seemed n formidable task. A
tracfor owner rigged up assort of "summer soowt
plow" mnde of two sITnrp blades nt the bottom
and a number of steel rods placed horizontally
over a V-shaped frame that ran to a height of
four or flvo feet. By fastening this contrivance
to tho front of his tractor and by bucking tho
forest growth ns he would a snowdrift, the brush
wns cut off close to the ground and thrown to
one side nnd burned. Lnter tine same tractor
- went over tho ground with a gnngplow and
cut out' all the roots and turned up the soil for
nlantlmr.
The tractor the farm has come to stay, nnd
tho up-to-date farmer will find It as hard to get
along-without one ns a. wife, nnd much easier to
get along with.
Thero la a story in Washington to
the effect that when Frank A. Scott,
Ihead of the government's new war In
dustries board, applied for his first Job
as a boy in a freight office, the chief
said he would hire him if he were only
tall enough to rench the wheel of the
letter press. "Couldn't I stand on a
box?" nsked the boy. The freight
ngent had not thought of that, but the
Idea appealed to him, and Scott got
the Job. He mado such good use of
Its opportunities thnt In the course of
time he became the expert 011 freight
rates of the Cleveland chamber of
commerce. lie became various other
things, too, in organizing nndmnnufac
turlng, but this is not n biographical
Nketch of Scott. It is enough to say
that his qualifications wero sufficiently
known and appreciated by tho secre
tary of war and other members of the
administration for them to summon
him to Washington nt the outset of
the war to take the chairmanship of the general munitions board arid tho
munitions standard board, which had been created ns emergency agencies.
These bonrds served ns the box for Scott to stand on when he reached thq
Jevers of un Importnnt part of the government war machinery. But the box
wns not high enough, nnd the mnchlnery Itself developed serious defects In,
the course of early preparations for the wnr. Now it hns been scrapped by
tho council of defense, at the suggestion of the president. The new war
industries board has been created to take Its place, with Scott still as leader,
but with a much smaller and significantly modified personnel, with broader
powers and more concentrated authority.
Trade Secrets Held at Eqormous Prices
in guarding valunble processes ns nro marfufac
tururs. For oxnmplc, the Chinese government Is
the owner of tho secret of making vcrmlfllon red,
-which is held by many experts to be the most
beautiful shade of red In the world. No one has
ever been able to produ ce a like vermllllon.
The Turkish govemuient, It nppenrs, possesses
a similar secret process of lnlnylng precious met
, nis in the' hardest steel. The work Is done per-
fectiy nnd defies nil uttemnts at reproduction.
in 101.' It wns announced thnt a distinguished
chemist of tho Imperial technical school of Mos
cow had solved, the problem of making artificial.
rubber, and that he. could sell the new product at
about 80 cents a pound. Yet the price of rubber
remains pretty much the same, If not more. The
reason jnuy bo found by exnmlnlng tho patent
office records. In tho last decade many hundreds
of patents for nrtlflcinl rubber have been tnken
out. Substitutes have been mndo from petroleum,
from coni tar, turpentine, pent, from nitrated lin
seed oil and by treating perenls with phynlln.
The latter Invention created a considerable sou
satlon so long ago as 1000, yet, judging by the
"constantly, Increasing demnnd for the natural
product, it bus had little effect upon the real rub
ber market. ,
Tho chemist, working In his laboratory, can
take any substance and' naalyso It, that Is, break
If up Into Its Original constituents, nnd tell you
What they are and how' much of each element
the substance In question Is composed of; but
when It comes to building up the original sub
stauce out of Its prime constituents ho Is nt sea,
for tho, most part. By dint of- long nnd patient
experiments or perhnps by pure chance he mny
succeed In reproducing some few natural products,
but that Is as far as ho can go.
inuigouiue tooic many years to synthetlze. A
German chemist accomplished at last, but the
curious discovery was mado thnt If blended with
tho natural product. made from tho. Indigo plant
the color obtained was both, more durable and
brighter than thnt mndo by either dye alone. So
urtlflclal Indigo has not yet ruined the indigo
Planter.
Qutta Percha Becomes Soarcer.
Artificial camphor has also been produced. It la
now made from pine-tree turpentine. But the
chemist has not yet succeeded. In synthetizlng
guttn porchn. This commodity yearly becomes
scarcer. Knormous quantities are required for va-
. rlous purposes, notably the covering of mibmnrino
cnblcs and tho making of golf bulls. A fortune
uwnlts the mna who can make artificial guttn
percha rnt a prl,cothat will permit It to compete
with tho Juice of tho Dlchopls gutta. v
Cork Is another substance of everyday use that
seems to defy tho Inventor. Th only substitute
for cork Is paper trented with paraffin wax. But
such a cork could not be used for a bottle of wine.
So far nnthlng hns been artificially mndo to com
pete wltli.tlto hark of tho cork oak.
At Delhi, In India, stands an ancient Iron mon
ument which, though exposed to nil weathers,
never rusts or decays. Yet t hns no protective
covering. Here is a secret which would, bo 6lmply
Invaluable to the world, which has been discovered
y some Indian urtlflcer of old nnd most unfor-
.tuuately lost. At n meeting of steel and Iron
men in London," tho chairman said that (hey could
fnce tho future with complacency ir they could
rediscover the secret. To shipowners alone it
' would mean n yearly saving of millions. Bust
is the great enemy of the steel jhlp and sho has
constantly to go Into dock to have her hull coated
with an uutlcorroalvo solution.
The Oxford Press syndicate values Its formula
' for making the very' thin, tough paper used In
the Bibles and encyclopedias at more than $1,000,
000. To perfect thp process required 2r years of
hard work' and t)io expenditure of $1,000,000 In
cosh.
A secret of even greater-value Is the formula
for making tho paper employed for the Bank of
' England notes. This Is a family possession of
tho Portals of Lavenstroke, to whom already In
two generations', It has brought' an enormous for
tune. Tho brilliant red cloth of tho cardinals' robes
worn at tho Vatican .Iiub been mnnufnetured fon
mnny generations by tho same firm of merchants
at Burstcheld, near Alx-ln-Chnpellc.
Tho secret process of distilling tho dye Is given
by father to son, wl,th every precaution to prevent
nny outsider from gaining possession of the reci
pe, according to a writer in the Los Angeles
Tlptes, In this connection It Is rnthor curious to
note thnt this family of cloth merchants ls of
Huguenot descent nnd 1 s Protestant today.
Recipe for Green Chartreuse.
When the monks of La Grande Chartreuse were
expelled from Franco, tho senior nbbot carried
tho recipe for tho famous liqueur in a casket of
tempered steel, and this was never for a moment
out of his possession. In tho open mnrket after
ward the formulae for tho twin liqueurs, the
green chartreuse and tho yellow, we're sold for
$1,000,000. At the time this liqueur was first
made the recipe was written on a single fragment
of parchment, six Inches by nine. One by one
additional Ingredients wero introduced.
It has been stated that at tho present time
the mixture contains 1J17 different, substances.
And every addition to tho drink required nn ad
dition to the recipe.
The result was u volume of more thnn 100
pages. It Is no exaggeration to say that this Is
the most valuable book In' the world. This be
comes rather amusing when1 wo remember thnt
the mendicant friar who first concocted tho
liqueur regarded his Invention with considerable
disfavor.
Ho was ub shortsighted as Giovanni Fnrlnn,
who was the orlglnntor of eau do, cologne. Ho
offered tho roclpo'for snle at $3,500." A conserva
tive estlmnto of the total value of Its sales profits
since that Is $2,000,000.
Famous Maraschino Cordial.
The Nainls of Zarn, In Dnlmatla, wero wiser.
They possessed as one of their heirlooms a family
recipe for n drink distilled from tho piarnsco, or
wild cherry. When they fipnlly consented to pnrt
with their secret they received therefor n largo
sum In cash apd land to tlm extent of" several
thousand acres. This Is the cordial popular the
world over as Maraschino.
It has frequently hnppcned that valuable trade
socrots havo been lost beyond recovery. For In
stance, tho best watch oil, It appears, cannot bo
obtained today because tho secret process of mix
ing perished with file Inventor.' It, Is said that
the lust quart of this famous liquid was sold for
$200, nnd that was 85 years ago. Since then every
effort has been made to aualyzo tho product In nn
attempt to reproduce tho oil, but without success.
Tho man "who mado It who aloio know Its compo
sition died, nnd, It further appears, not even hla
name orthe place of his burial Is known. Ho
never revealed to anyone tho details of his process
and It was not until after his death that the real
value of tho oil was appreciated, ' '
Business firms are not the only possessors of
trade aecrct8. Governments nroJust as zealous
EXPLAINS WORK OF W. C. T. U. IN WAR
At the meeting of the presidents
of national women's organizations
called by the women's committee of:
the council of national defense in June
to confer on woman's work In the war,
one of the strongest and clearest ac
counts of activities was presented by
Miss Anna A. Gordon, national presU
dent of the Women's Christian Tern
perance union.
"The National Women's Christian
Temperance union, comprising nearly
half a million women, already is ren
dering splendid wnr service," said Miss
Cordon in a personal interview follow
ing her public talk. "Our order stands
for peace, but when President Wilson
decided that the time had come for
this country to take up arms against
oppression nnd crimes against human
ity, we pledged ourselves to stand by
him to the limit of our strength, and
because of the perfect organization of
the union there was no delay in out
lining work. We believe it is our duty to suffering humanity to unite with
the nation In defending the principles of Chrlstlnn civilization.
"There are some SO or 40 departments of work In our order carried on
under the general definition of preventive, educational, evangelistic, social,
legal, and the organized workers in each department were rendy to respond to
the call of patriotism."
CHOSEN TO COMMAND ARTILLERY
Gen. Peyton C. March is recog-
nlzed as the greatest artillerist In the
American army and as such at the per
sonal request of Major General Per
shing wns detailed by the secretary of
war ns the commanding' artillery offi
cer with the first forces to be sent to
France.
As a colonel he wns In command
of the nrtlllery forces on the Mexlcnn
border during the recent disturbances,
and while a strict disciplinarian, his
command, almost to the man, hns re
quested thnt It be allowed to uecom
pu,ny him to' France.
He was In command of the Amer
ican forces In action at Tilad Pass,
Luzon, P. I., In which General del
Pilar was killed ; during tho eame ex
pedition Gen. Vennnclo Concepslon,
chief of staff to Agulnnldo, surren
dered to the then Major March and
Agulnnldo's wife and her escort ware
captured by his command.
Ho was a member of the general
staff corps for four years and was detailed as military observer .with the
Japanese army in their eastern operations during tho Itusso-Japanese war.
CHIEF AID OF SECRETARY M'ADOO
"When It gets so hot I can't hear
it," said n man who lives In Washing
ton, "I Just run over to Byron New
ton's office, In the treasury building,
und look at him for a while."
Mr. Newton Is assistant secretary,
of the United States treasury, and
how he acquired the' knack of keep
ing so cool nobody knows.
"Maybe It's because I am In tho
vicinity of so much cold cash," said
Mr. Newton when he wus asked about
It. Years ago Mr. Newton was a re-
porter for the New York Herald, and;
even In those dnys he had the knack of:
keeping cool when everyone else wns
sweltering. Heis a Inrgc man, rather.'
red of face and not the typo one'
woijld expect to see oblivious to tho.
heat
AVhen Secretary McAdoo Is away
Mr. Newton is acting secretary, and
ho nets so well that some of his friends
say that if Mr. McAdoo ever goes back.
to running his trains under the Hudson river his assistant ought to be ap
pointed to fill the vacancy. One of tho blgge"st Jobs ahead of Mr. Nowton ls
tho collecting-nnd checking up of tho huge wartaxes which congress is levying.'
"We've had trouble enough with the Income tax," he said, "but It's only a,
Btnrter to what tho war taxes will be. We will have to maintain a field army,
of our own Just auditing books, collecting and Investigating." New York
Herald.