Farm Vehicles
IT IS common knowledge that the materials with which the farmer carries on his work are plants, animals, and the soil. It is less generally realized, or at least appreciated, that in using them, the farmer has to practice in no small degree the applied sciences of mechanics and engineering. This is a condition of relatively recent growth. For many years farming retained its early simplicity; practically all its tasks were accomplished by hand or horse or ox power with the help of crude, cumbersome tools. The muscles of man largely measured the magnitude of his accomplishments and consequently his agricultural success.
But times have indeed changed. Analytical and inventive genius have applied themselves to the problem of creating machines to do farm work—both because man power is becoming scarce, and in order that the farmer might employ less of his energy in manual labor and more in mental achievement and - planning. New standards of living have arisen to make farmers ready and anxious for more comforts and conveniences in their homes and barns—and better buildings in which to install them. Modem investigations have discovered, simplified and perfected engineering methods for improving soil conditions and reclaiming waste lands. All these developments have not only offered the farmer new opportunities, but have also demanded of him new abilities, and shouldered him with new responsibilities. To-day the most successful farmer is not he who can cradle the most grain or build the smoothest hay stack, milk the most cows in a dairy or work best side by side with his hired hands; rather it is the man who has the most complete and best cared for outfit of farm machinery; who can ran and repair the most efficient power plant; who can design and construct the most economical barn or poultry house; who can most effectively drain a marshy meadow or irrigate a leachy, drought-ridden slope. There is no indus¬try to-day (outside of those that are essentially and technically mechanical) that makes such varied and extensive and important use of mechanical and engineering principles. It is for this reason that the entire present volume is devoted to the different phases of this subject.
These fall into five groups as shown in the index: first, Vehicles, including the tractor (which is that and much more); second, Machinery; third, Power, where to get it and how to use it; fourth, what may be called the Civil Engineering of the farm; and fifth, the Design, Construction, and Equipment of Buildings, from the dwelling to the least of the wagon sheds and farm ice houses. Since there are many professional men whose sole interests lie along one or another of these directions, it is not to be expected that the farmer—who as such is a specialist in a very complex and different industry—will become an expert in all, or any one of them. But as he becomes reasonably familiar with their principles and methods, he is becoming ever more independent, better equipped, and more assured of ultimate success and prosperity. The wide range between a one-horse light runabout or a dump cart and a six-cylinder touring car, a three-ton truck or a 40 H. P. gas tractor—each of which is no longer a mysteiy to many a real farmer—is but one illustration of the diversity of interests and abilities that marks the twentieth century tiller of the soil —EDITOR.
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