Show labor costs reduced and farm effice efficiency ency greatly increased with improved mechanical g developments i farm equipment has now mechanized farm work now no brother to an ox ax by george L galil tte editors note bore george L gillette cillette is u fres president ident of 0 the farm Equip equipment Tent institute udd has long been active in in the manu facture anil and distribution of farm machin vy ry and equip equipment mene agriculture has come a long way since mince the days when then the forked stick the scythe and the flail were the rule rather than the exception but it was not until the advent of farm machinery hi nery a little more than a century ago that agricultural practices made any real progress even in the early century the methods used by the fellaheen of ancient eg egypt apt were still followed even in many of the more advanced countries and then in the space of 50 years agriculture made greater strides than in the preceding 50 centuries with the coming of the plow the reaper arid and the other earlier types of farm machines farming in though not an easy life w w www v V e X plow used on gen george plantation in virginia has wood moldboard wood standard no landside flat iron share and iron coulter certainly became more attractive than it was to millets man with the hoe with the development of other types of equipment which have followed in rapid succession agricultures agriculture agri cultures ts progress has steadily continued no longer does the tiller of the soil fit the poets description of stolid and stunned a brother to the ox no longer does the plowman homeward plod his weary way he rides the horse drawn cultivator and grain binder li have ve given way in many areas to the tractor cultivator and the combine harvesting of the forn corn cro crop p is now performed in ever increasing measure by the tractor operated corn picker cotton costs are being reduced by the mechanical cotton picker the primitive pump is succeeded by the electrically operated water system hand milking by machine milking the heretofore laborious job of making hay is becoming less of a backbreaking chore through the newer machines for harvesting and storing of this important crop such as power mowers rakes pickup pick up balers forage harvesters and so it goes each step an improvement over the old less labor in growing and harvesting of food and feed crops in livestock raising in horticulture or dairying in every branch of agriculture the story is the same increased effi efficiency ici ency through use of the machine reduced effort on the part of the operator more time for fer the better things of life impossible of attainment in former times when the days were riot not long enough even to perform the single job of raising the food for the family in discussing the part which modern farm equipment plays in saving time and labor for the farmer we are apt to overlook some of the important services which it renders in the job of food production modern farm equipment has done more than any other one thing to neutralize weather hazards it enables the farmer to both control and an d shorten his crop handling time thu thus s increasing the amount of work tha that t can be done in the hours of sunshine allotted to him weed control and eradication can be adapted to individual weeds controlled plowing depths do much to bury such insect pests as the corn borer hessian fly and the boll weevil quick and positive erosion control is made possible through modern mechanized farm equipment all of these tend to increase acre yields and in many cases save entire crops cost per unit decreased one hundred years ago with tools then available it required require d several days of man labor to grow and bar harvest an acre of wheat today in LIFE OF MACHINERY the life of farm machinery can be greatly extended as proven by tests conducted at the university of missouri corrosion and lack of care of farm f arm machinery cut its life in half and added to the upkeep cost A record on a few of the implements life equipment housed walking plows 20 years 15 years gang plows 20 years 10 years corn planters 8 years 4 years cultivators 20 years 8 years mowers 12 years 7 years binders 12 years 5 years wagons 24 years 19 years disk harrows 15 years 8 years the great plains areas of the united states expenditure of less than 10 minutes of man labor per bushel is not unknown when modern methods and machines are used in other crops the story is similar and because of such methods and the marvels of present day equipment it t has been possible for the farmers of af the americas great britain or 0 of the united nations to maintain or expand their production v aft tp ww of food in the war period despite reduction of workers on the land without the aid of such labor and timesaving time saving machines there is little doubt that the millions of men in the armed services and the many millions more at home would have long since faced serious food crises that might have jeopardized the outcome of this world struggle it is true that thousands of persons in war torn countries cut off from normal food supplies have perished and that in areas where the population still depends upon primitive agricultural methods starvation is not 4 n A J facsimile ot of original mccormick reaper which proved one ot of agri cultures most important machinery developments 1 uncommon but su such ch disasters serve to underline the importance apor of substituting improved food producing equipment for the hand tools of 0 f the ancients man can get along without many things but not without food or the means of producing it with the wider distribution of present day equipment and the new even more efficient machine tools of agriculture to be available after the war is it too much to hope that the scourge of famine may be stamped out entirely in any event the manufacturers of farm equipment can be relied upon to do their utmost toward that end in the meantime they are continuing to produce both for civilians and military purposes doing big war job their factories have been turning out immense quantities of munitions and material for use on land sea and air and they will continue to do so as long as the emergency r requires e they have produced more r repair e parts in the last several years than at any time in their history to make sure that machines already on the farms will continue to function tion they have manufactured as many complete machines as available materials manpower and governmental ern mental restrictions would permit and have maintained throughout this period the high standards for which american farm machinery is noted throughout the world products of the farm equip meat industry have always been sturdily built to take the beating farm work demands some idea ot of their sturdy construction is indicated by the orders for repair and replacement parts received by manufacturers tor for machines 30 and even 40 years old still sirl operating today equipment going into the hands of the farmer is better engineered than ever knowing something of the men who design and manufacture these farm machines I 1 am convinced that the products for the postwar era will be even better the history of the farm equipment industry has been one of continuous progress and of ever iacre increasing asing service to agriculture I 1 am confident that this record will be even brighter in the years ahead aneer publication as to contour farming and about abou t the plow he used on his son in laws virginia farm but jeffersons efforts to teach the pioneer american farmer to build a permanent agriculture and with it community and national prosperity were soon forgotten in the rush to virgin lands that opened up to settlers as the louisiana purchase and other territorial acquisitions beckoned young farmers toward the midwest mid west and the pacific while good farmers on their own initiative followed conservation practices comparatively little was done in an organized manner until the united states department of agriculture in the began taking active notice of the erosion of top soil on cultivated lands set up ero sion control experiment stations and an d instituted an intensive study of if soil so erosion in 1935 the soil soi conservation service was established and by the middle mid the of last year 45 of the states state s had soil conservation co ri districts totaling 1114 4 arid and embracing acres |