Some New Farm Machines

by R. B. GRAY THE ACUTE labor shortage and high crop-production goals during the war emphasized the need for labor-saving machines. But before the war and after there has been a steady effort to make farming even more efficient-although, as the wartime production of American farmers proved, agriculture in the United States had reached a high point of efficiency.

A limited output of standard machines was possible during the war. Some new types even appeared in small numbers. Others were scheduled for production at the close of hostilities, but the scarcity of materials and labor held up their manufacture. Now we are on the threshold of a new era of mechanization: Many machines are now in the experimental stage; others are so recent that we de not have full information describing them and their performance; others are on draftsmen's boards, but more than a dream, because farmers, agricultural engineers, and implement manufacturers have determined that there is a need for them.

The new equipment is of the kind to excite men's imagination : A cultivator that uses a flame to kill weeds, for example; a potato harvester that digs, gathers, grades, sacks, weighs, and delivers the potatoes to a waiting truck, with an estimated saving of $50 a day or more over the old way of handling the crop; an experimental planter, developed by Department engineers for southern planters of corn and peanuts, that opens the beds, plants the seed, and places fertilizer at one time; the cotton picker that extracts the lint cotton from the open bolls; sugarcane harvesting machines that cut the cane and load it-at a speed of 7 or 8 miles an hour, and an estimated saving of one-half to two-thirds of the hand-harvest labor.

A striking feature of these and many other developments is the growing interest of farmers in the South in mechanization. Another feature is that designers of implements are determined to furnish machines that will reduce the small farmer's drudgery at a price he can pay.

Great strides have been made in improving the design and uses of tractors, the main source of mechanical power on the farm. Emphasis now is on small units for the Southeast and on garden tractors. For the crawler tractor an adaptation from war service is the rubber-tread track (next page, at the top), to replace the conventional steel type. A tractor so equipped can do about 14 miles an hour on highways with less vibration. An hydraulic lift now incorporated in most wheel tractors permits fingertip control in lifting plows, harrows, mowers, and such from the ground, lowering them to a wanted position, or (middle, next page) raising the tractor to change tires. A tractor, shown (lower left) with a direct-connected vegetable planter, is between the conventional one-plow tractor and the garden tractor in size, and is rated at 10 horsepower on the belt. It will pull a 10- or 12-inch single-furrow plow or handle the type of attachments and drawn equipment commonly used with larger row-crop tractors. A speed range up to 6 miles an hour makes it possible to plow 3 acres a day with a 12-inch plow. On large farms it can supplement larger tractors. A new 1 1/2-horsepower garden tractor (lower right) has a speed change based on the shifting of a driven disk with which the driving rolls engage. As the going gets tougher the disk is automatically moved for slower travel without altering, theoretically, the power output. Attachments available are a 7-inch plow, small disk harrow, mower, and cultivator. A maximum speed of 4 miles per hour and a plowing speed of 1 mile per hour is claimed for it. Other new tractors of this class have appeared.

THE AUTHOR R. B. Gray is an agricultural engineer in charge of the Division of Farm Power and Machinery of the Bureau of Plant Industry, Soils, and Agricultural Engineering. After graduation from Iowa State College, he entered commercial tractor experimental work and spent most of the following 10 years in such investigations in Europe and South Africa. During the First World War he was loaned to the British Government to conduct educational demonstrations and schools on the use of tractors in connection with the food production program. Later, at the request of the British Government, he organized similar programs in France and Italy. From 1920 to 1924 Mr. Gray was head of the Agricultural Engineering Department at the University of Idaho.

Tractor

TILLAGE MACHINERY.-Several new machines plow, disk, and harrow a seedbed in one operation. One, at right, uses a steel cutter spiral revolving in the soil transversely to the direction of travel and powered by the power take-off. As the machine moves forward soil and surface trash are thrown up against the leveling hood; the broken trash is distributed through the top inches of soil, and the soil is more or less pulverized. We do not know definitely what effect such seedbed preparation has on soil structure and crop growth. For breaking up hardpan formed after years of ordinary plowing at the same depth, a double-decker moldboard plow (below) is being offered. The lower bottom breaks the hardpan without bringing it to the surface, is adjustable vertically, and may be set 2 to 4 inches below the upper bottom, according to the soil. The shares on both the upper and lower bottom are of 10-inch size, but the lower one is set outward and backward and offset away from the upper base by 4 inches, thereby making a full 14-inch cut. It is said that very little additional pull is required for this plow than with the conventional 14-inch tractor plow and that its use increases yields of certain crops.

PLANTING MACHINERY.-Special attention has been given the development of quick methods of attaching and detaching planter equipment. A four-row tractor-mounted corn planter with fertilizer attachment is available; it can be attached or removed quickly. The fertilizer is placed in bands a few inches to the side of the seed and at the depth of the seed. Available also are two- or four-row corn planters with rope-controlled power lifts for pulling behind tractors. Covering wheels are independent of transport wheels and are lifted automatically with the planting shoes and marker when the power-lift rope is pulled. A differential is provided for the transport wheels. It is said that 60 acres a day can be planted with the four-row machine. Airplanes are frequently used to plant large acreages, for example rice, range grasses, and mustard. Rice fields to be air-planted usually are flooded first and seeded at about 50 acres an hour.

A double-decker moldboard plow

For combining grain

WEEDS.-A new one-man flame weeder appears to perform well on crops like cotton and corn and on certain weeds. A hot air-blast flame burns weed leaves as the machine is drawn along the rows. Two burners flame one row. A 3-mile speed prevents undue heating of plants. The four-row size can cultivate up to 50 acres a day.