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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 9, 1914)
The Omaha Sunday PART TWO SOCIETY PAGES ONE TO TEN PART TWO EDITORIAL PAGES ONE TO TEN VOL. XLIV-XO. 8. OMAHA, SUNDAY MOHXIXd, AClll'ST !, 10U. S1XULK COPY -K1VK CKXTS. nn rata o V: v oiripetin e ovv orx- nn ! iry i iKe Greai I Crtxe-TTVau-v ouifrt J J i f rift V"' . l -A . r i " -Mil I II -1 7 1 ouinx Sod A 1 ' v. :Jf frtlr IA- Vi .v-'. . W- . W .1..-.- i n ... . . 'V . ..i' i .-r 1,1.,' . , - TV A. v., ,r A.'. J 1 It .fitiV's- lUauType Small Tractor - I ..-X ... - l ? V-1 3s- 1 7 ' '' 'V, w: M V' m - - - . IvvJ ilk LI 1 i l . Ml '3m- . . -' mm , v - y m . x- . :- &v v ; . T'rkJ,4r; One o P last Yea'S PopaUr Tractors? . ( ' ' . ,rr ' 7 ? XV ll7ZtT. ' ' ' Plowiq Aorul IK Exv 1 fc. ' ' ' ' r ; - ;,. 'I Y - 7 llllii' ii f i mMrM THE world's groatest farm tractor denioa tt ration is to be held just outside Fre mont, Neb., August 17. to 22 of this year. . It may advisedly be culled the "world's greatest," because farm tractor demon strations are a new thing, and were practically ini tiated ia Nebraska and at Fremont. The first one was held last year, September 8 to 13. Before that, many wondered whether there cculd be any interest in seeing a lot of engines plowing up the stubble fields. Many wondered whether anyone would come out to see. ' A crowd of 20,000 people came to see. That was the answer. It proved that the farm ei s of Nebraska and adjoining states are taking an interest in tractors. It proved that in the march of progress the progressive farmers have already seen that the farm tractor is to take the place of the farm horse in doing the big, heavy field work, and that the up-to-date farmer must supply him self with tractors. Farm horses die. Tractors do not, if kept in good repair. Farm horses eat corn and oats that is becom ing more and more valuable. Farm tractors eat gasoline, which Is comparatively cheap, and which yields far more power per gallon than many bush els of costly corn and oats will when fed to horses. Horses must be fed through the winter, when there is no field work to do. Tractors are pushed itto the shed the fall, where they cost nothing until time to take them into the fields in the tpring. The horse was completely pushed off the map or agricultural activity at the big demonstration' last year. He will be even further relegated to the background at the demonstration this year Tractors plowed the 500 acres of ground in the demonstration work in the beautiful Platte valley last year. No horses were harnessed to the plows. Automobiles brought the farmers to the scene, and from the cushioned seats of their automobiles they watched the work of the tractors as they fol lowed them across the fields. Truly the tractor demonstration spells the doom vtxec Tructoxd ckt-Ui hotflea - A J" iK'LJ-;-. . t " ?T . . . . ,?, v f. ' - V w . m 1 , VYA Ii-xxe Up ai. Lat Yeaj?c5 Slvow. of the farm horse, however far or near in the fu ture it may be. The very first of the tractor demonstrations brought out thirty-nine tractors into the field. They were of all makes and sizes. The demonstration this year is to bring out some sixty, as that many have already signed the entrance contract. This year S00 acres are to be plowed. The ground has already been leased for the purpose. It lies just outside the city limits of Fremont, so that it is within easy walking distance of the business part of the city. The coming of the era of power farming was never perhaps ' better heralded than by the late Prof. E. W. Hunt, associate editor of the Twen tieth Century Farmer, when he wrote: "Man is measured by the power that he uses. 'The man with the hoe almost a brother to the Insensible clod he stands upon' is a type of the lowest plane of human effort. Ills body only ii alive. His mind is dormant. Continued exhaust ing physical exercise deadens mental activity and prevents mental development. " 'Grant roe but to see, and AJax asks no more,' was the cry of the blinded hero In the thick black ness of the hostile camp. That cry typifies the yearning of every man that struggles toward a higher plane of effort. Brain power indefinitely multiplies muscular power, and finally supplants it. The discovery of the use of the lever and of the Inclined plane, which made the powerful screw possible, marks a new level In human achievement. The engine, the product of man's brain, doing man's work for him, touches the highest level of achievement in human labor. "Brain power emancipates man from brutaliz ing drudgery of mere physical toil. Brain power makes possible the cultivation of the humajltiea and the art of living." And Prof. Hunt penned these lines before even the first tractor demonstration had been held at Fromont He penned them before the farmers of Nebraska were fully awake to the poHsibilitles of tractors in farm economies. A 'tractor show doesn't sound as interesting as a circus. Knglnes seem rather dull and stupid things to the uuinitlated. But when one goes to a tractor show and sees the big central tent, with blue pennants flying in the Nebraska breezes, crowds of men standing about auj excitedly dis cussing the merits of their favorite machines, the moving picture men running here and there with their cameras, and the powerful tractors, each surrounded by an interested crowd of observers, plowing deep furrows in the rich, black soil, one begins to feel that an engine is an attractive thing after all. The farm tractor was once considered for the amateur farmer, the rich man who, with the money made In other pursuits, bought a wido stretch of fertile country and tried. out ton It the "back-to-tbe-land" theories evolved in his many years of banishment from the soil. - The tractor was a first cousin of the railway locomotive big, black and puffing out clouds of smoke and steam as It crept along. Tlio tractor business . has . undergone a Changs In the last few years. The small farmer, with from 1C0 to 000 acres, has cast longing eyes on this saver of time and labor, this dumb hired hand that docs not eat in the winter. He wants to spend his time doing other things than Blowly following i team of horses or mules' back and forth over the fields, and carrying feed and. water to these horses and mules after the hard day's work is done. ' He has demanded a tractor fitted to his conditions, and i. mall and compart enough' to pay on his small farm. . . ' ' ' lias this demand been met? .If you will go to Fremont, Neb., during the week from the 17th to the, 2 2d of August, you will be surprised to see how (treat the response has been to this call of the farmer for freedom from the drudgery of farm work. The inventors of this country and other countries have turned their attention to the farm tractor, and they have evolved many effective machines. , For the small farm It is uneconomical to use a great, heavy tractor. The buying of such a ma chine means the tying up of more capital than the small farmer feels he is justified in spending on a piece of machinery that. is used. but a compara tively small part of the time. The cost of the fuel ii bed in propelling such a heavy engine mounts up too fast. Of cose, the big machine will get over more ground in a day, but for the man who does not own a ranch or plantation of many thousand acres, thia Is not important. What he wants is a happy medium between the slow horse and the big tractor that will pull an almost unlimited number of plow bottoms. This need is met by the cheap tractor of small proportions, ' but, ; compared with ,the horse, of, ' (Continued on Page Nine.)