EVOLUTION OF FARM-IMPLEMENT INVESTIGATIONS. 223 



The German Governnient has enc()iira<»:tHl this industrv in every 

 way possible, and has removed all taxes from alcohol used for tech- 

 nical purposes. Alcohol has been produced in (jermany for 13 cents 

 per gallon, and with very slight changes the ordinary gasoline engine 

 can be made to use alcohol in place of gasoline. 



It is hoped experiments may be conducted to determine just vrhat 

 changes are necessary in the present gasoline engines to adapt them to 

 the use of alcohol as a source of motive power; also to learn at Avhat 

 price per gallon the alcohol can be manufactured in tliis country from 

 the waste materials on the farm, such as small and unsalaljle potatoes, 

 poor grades of corn and barley, and even waste cornstalks, beet pulp, 

 and sawdust. There is no question but that alcohol can be used as a 

 sul)stitute for gasoline for various purposes, nor is there any doubt 

 but that a great many of the products of the farm now wasted can be 

 utilized for the production of alcohol. 



The introduction of alcohol for technical purposes and its manu- 

 facture from the by-products of the American farms will open up 

 new fields of labor. The farmhouses may have all the modern im- 

 l^rovements of city homes. They may be lighted by alcohol, the farm- 

 er's wife may cook the food without much labor, and the farmer may 

 apply this source of power to a great number of the drudgeries of the 

 farm, and perhaj^s do his general farm work with alcohol motors 

 instead of horses. 



It will thus be noted that farm machinery investigations in the 

 United States are of quite a dill'erent nature from those which so far 

 have been conducted in Europe. The needs in this country are also 

 quite ditl'erent from those of other countries. American inventors 

 have developed our modern farm implements, and have supplied our 

 farmers with a great variety of machines, but for this very reason 

 there is need of scientific and impartial investigations to determine 

 which of these types of machines will best meet the requirements of 

 different soil and crop conditions, and to elimiuate those which prove 

 to be unprofitable for the faruier to use. Such investigations would 

 also form the l)asis for the development of new types of machines with 

 which to meet the requirements of modern methods of agriculture, 

 and thus to increase the yield of crojDS and reduce the cost of 

 production. 



