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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (July 20, 1913)
The Omaha Sunday PART TWO EDITOEIAL PAGES ONE TO EIGHT PART TWO SOCIETY PAGES ONE TO EIGHT VOL. XLIHNO. 5. OMAHA, SUNDAY MORNING, JULY 2Q, 1913. SINGLE COPY FIVE CENTS Modern Farm Efficiency Demands Better Power Plants. fV saw.. imasMsaqmo O O Ol k O O- l. . '. ..nr . - i fiiinr-?iM-Mr 9 OST people aro the lifo that they movements take form under their very eyes, This, is an ago of progress and de velopment. We aro Just entering; upon an era that ic almost revolutionary in the commercial, Indus trial and agricultural conditions that it will de velop. We have already fairly entered upon one of the greatest changes wrought out under the compelling force of the law of evolution. Perhaps there 1b no field of human endeavor ' that is more slow to take on tho spirit of thlB new age than agriculture. Dut agriculture Itself is be ginning to rospond to the breath of this new era. Within the next twenty years agriculture will havo laid aside most of its outworn methods and will have adopted new me'thofls more in. harmony with tho spirit of the ago, better adapted to economic and industrial conditions, and more certain to bring to the agriculturist tho reward of his labor. Under the old agriculture the farmer earned his bread by the sweat of hlB'brow. " He is boginnin,g to see that more bread may bo earned with less perspiration; that greater efficiency may bo at tained with less effort; that rewards may be so- -cured with less muscular toil. Mind to Supplant Muscle Heretofore the work of tho farm, arduous and severe as it always has-been, has been performed not by ' mind but by muscle. - To bo sure, the farmer no longer uses his own muscles to the ex tent that ho used thpm when he used mow his hay with a scythe, harvest his grain with a cradle and tend his corn with a hoe. But it is muscular effort still, to a large extent, as he tills his ground with the power furnished by the muscles of hones. There is a better, more efficient, more economical, more productive method . in sight. With the en gine, the product of man's brain, doing men's and horses work for them, the new era is opening.' It will be found upon examination that at the present time horse power is uneconomic; that is, it costs , the farmer more to do his work with horse power than it would cost him to do it with mechanical power. In the Missouri valley terri tory it is estimated that it costs $72 a year simply to keep a work horse. This does not take into ac count the fact that the horse is liable to become Injured or disabled through bis work, Is liable to contract disease which will take him away,. or Is so subject to physical conditions that the maxi mum of effort and work may not at all times be secured from him. If the horse were not subject to all these conditions, he would still be more ox pensive than the engine. The engine, consumes fuel only while it works. The horso must not only be fed three tlmes a day, but must receive shelter and care and attention in many ways that mean just so Jmucli additional cost, or so much additional care and care in the .last analysis is cost, so that if farmer wishes to secure the cheapest power fon his farm 'operations he win have to choose mechanical power. Efficiency tho Demand of Ago. Mechanical power Is much more efficient. The Utao' for the old shiftless, haphazard method of so.rriucnioccuplod with 1 V':,J ' . Ml'lPfSli, immediately -about thorn WMjmv t , 4'V j uC .V X- ' .lx 'V M f, KMW . . fail to 'notice the broad 3 ' V;Wff J :1 '$ WX V - V' fOl UW, .iiO that aro beginning to S,, - : -lN M&Sm , - . "AWm tM&mmmil, ' 4 mmm rsin: "B cultivation has gone never to return. If the maxi mum of production is to be secured, thore must bo deeper plowing, plowing to a depth doublo what is ordinarily done with horso power, more thorough cultivation. This will require extra power. If such work Is to be done as it should be dono to secure the best results, horses will be found inadequate to do it. No man can work mor9 than a' certain number of horses on a single imple ment. ' Tho cultivation of the soil in the future will demand more power than can be furnished by any number of horses that may be practically and efficiently handled in the fiold. More power, then, in thief case, means different power, concentrated power, power that will be adequate to all demands 'that may be mado upon it This means mechan ical power. ,- The use of mechanical power also means econ omy of time; that is, the doing of more labor, tho cultivation of more soil in -tho samo time. Tho lipf'so is .limited to ten hours of work a day. Ho must have his hour of nooning. He cannot profit ably begin work boforo 7 in the morning, and it will not pay in tho long run to work "him lator than 6 at night. Tho engine requires no such con sideration. It is always ready for work, day or night. And ono engino can do much more work, figured at less than $10 additional per month, do-it In a much bottor manno?, do it In Iobs tlnio, than can possibly bo done by horses. Where Engino Saves Money. The employment of mochanlcal power upon tho farm will help to solve the problems connected with farm labor. If a man has an engino that can pull six plow, bottoms, ho is doing the equivalent of work porformed by three four-horse teams, each in charge of 'a man paid by the month. By using the engine, tho farmer avoids the necessity of hiring the additional men to run the plows, and this is no little saving. Tho wages paid to hired men Jn .tho Missouri valloy, where they begin In March and end at corn harvesting, is $30 a month with board. No one would think of boarding a hired man at an expense of less than $10 per month. Tho additional equlpago'for a hired man, when additional breakago is taken into account, and in many cases tho care of a driving horso for tho hired man must ulso bo considered, cannot bo This would inako the gross coat at $G0 a month per man. The man that uses, an engine, and, 1b . thereby released from tho necessity of employing bo much help at large wages, with so much cost, will make a very noticeable saving. Hero, then, in a nutBholl, aro tho arguments In, favor of mechanical powor. First, when ovory thing is considered, it will bo found to bo lesa ex pensive in tho matter of inero current exponso of horso powor. In the next place, the engino will be found capablo of doing much mora work and doing it much more efficiently, of complying-mora nearly with tho demands of enlightenod, modern agriculture than is possible with tho use of horses. In tho third placo, it assists the farmer In solving the over pressing problems connoctod with farm labor, and makes a great saving In tho expense of Workhouse Preferable to His Wife's Views A By ADA PATTERSON. MAN appeared in the police court of Yonkers and told the Judge he wanted to be sentenced f pr a term in the workhouse. "I would consider it a great favor, your honor," he said, "for I want peace. I've been married for twenty-four years and our married life has been one long battle of chattor." Tffe Judge Investigating found that what the man's wife bad chattered about was the husband's failure to support his family. It seemed that the family life was one long song, , with her as chief soloist, and that the burden of her song waB, "Why won't you, an able-bodied man, work? Why won't you work? Why won't you work?" Tho woman had no trouble in proving that her song was a true one, but Adam, like the man who wanted to go to the workhouse, made a counter movo. He told the Judge he was bringing home money for family comforts, but that without wait ing to find out whether he had any she began the refrain, "You won't work." No doubt moat men and some women who readHhat newB from Yonkera remarked to themselves, or the family audience the only audience that can't escape "Here's a man driven to the workhouse by his wife's tongue." 'Why shouldn't a woman tell plain homo truths to a husbarid who won't support his family? Why should she sit silent while the head of the house Is also sitting silent, and the butcher and grocer aro clamoring at the outer 'gates? Why in a country where the press has the right of free speech, the preacher can tell a community it is going to perdi tion, a lawyer can tell a witness he is a liar and the person ho Is opposing that he is a menace to the public weal, should not a wife tell her husband ho lacks energy it he does? But as murder is Justlfable as a means of self defense, so nagging may be Justified in extreme cases. There are some situations in life when pa tience is no longer admirable. The woman who stands at the wasbtub while her husband lies In a drunken stupor In the corner, and a brood of little children pull at her skirts, is carrying tho doctrine eof non-reslstanco too far. Her family affairs would be hotter were she to submit lesB and ener gize more. If she had her unlordly lord arrested for drunkenness and nonsupport, or if she feared bis reactionary vlolenco and made a now home for herself and children far from his beastiallzlng in fluence, sho would be a far raoro admirablo figure than as a tear-drlpplng-lnto-tho-washlub-flgure, and for it her children would be more prono to call her blessed. But if her instincts and training, and what she deems her principles, all point away from this course, what else can sho do but talk, talk to hen husband, and talk very much to the point? Always Bott Caterpillar Tza.cloi owned i farm labor, provided tho labor were always to bo had and woro alwayB of a satisfactory character. Engino that is Xocdod. In selecting tho type of ongino that will be best adaptod to hla uso. tho farmer must bo gov erned by the conditions with which ho is con fronted. It is solf-ovldont that tho Bmall farms oi tho Missouri valloy will require a different type of ongino from thoso specially adapted to tho "wide roaches of arable land on tho big ranges of tho west. Again,, tho character of tho soil must enter into calculation, nnd the farmer rauBt select such tools ns will do tho most efficient work in his particular typo of soil. It is also, solf-ovldont that n gonoral utility engine is better adaptod to uso upon tho small farms of this territory than the heavier and more pondorous types. Tho average farmer in tho Missouri valley will noed an engine not only for the cultivation of the soil, but for the hauling of loads upon tho roads, for driving threshing machines and corn shollors, for road grading, .for silo filling, and for the delivery of whatevor' power may bo required, for whatever purposo, upon tho avorago farm. Such an engine roust bo flexlble and adapted to this gonoral utility purposo. It must bo flexible in its uses so that a farmer nt a moment's notice may turn from ono kind of work to another and , always find his en gino adapted to tho usos domandod of It The farmer that scob only ono typo of engine, or Hsten3 to tho porsunsion of a singlo salesman, la in, no position to Judgo as to what engine will best meet his neods. Exhibition of Engines Planned. For tho purposo of affording the farmers ofj central Nebraska a chance to form an Intelligent! opinion with roferonce to thiB matter at first hand,1 tho Commercial club of Fremont is promoting a! Farm Power Tractor Exhibition and Demonstra tion. It, II, Woodruff of the Twentieth Century Farmer will havo charge of tho field work. This will in no sense bo a contest. It will bo Blmply anl exhibition- of engines for delivering power for alll purposes. It will afford to tho farmer tho oppor- tunity so much needed of seeing all classes of en gines at work, and of Judging from what they sea as to what typo of engino will best meet their In dividual needs. There will bo held at the same time with this exhibition a four-county agricul tural fair, participated in by Dodge, Douglas, Washington and Saundora counties. This will make an agricultural exhibit second in importance only to tho state fair. Tho exhibition will begin, on September 8 and will close on September 13. It will be one of tho most notable exhibitions ever held in this part of tho country. Winnipeg for years has had a plowing exhibition and contest that has drawn visitors from all parts of the world. It in time that the United States, which has such greater needs for farm power than have yet been) developed in upper Canada, should have an exhibl-t in her heart is a hope that some argument of hers may finally sink into bis soul and stir his con- tion ofiftB own. Tho farmers of the mlddlo west science. Meanwhile sho does all sho can, Sho . will have anv opportunity at this exhibition suclu keeps on talking. And who that la -fair-minded' and wishes humanity well can blame her? If there is an alternative, let some male or fomalo Solomon arise and announco It. as has novqr' been affordod them before. It is) earnestly hoped that they will take full advantage of the opportunity so generously afforded by thai cltv of Fremont.