Department of Farm Mechanics 79 



This at once brings to our attention a phase of the Farm Mechanics' 

 work which will require the most delicate handling. The farmers will 

 expect the department, and reasonably so, to act on occasion as their 

 consulting engineer in matters pertaining to the selection of their 

 machinery. On the other hand, the greatest care must be exercised to 

 avoid injuring the trade of any manufacturer by carelessly condemning 

 his goods without just cause. Since the work is supported by the people 

 of the State they have a right to demand results. This forces us to the 

 conclusion that the only just course is to issue no statement actively 

 derogatory or especially commendatory of any implement or machine 

 unless such statement is founded on facts obtained by accurate tests con- 

 ducted under thoroughly fair and fully specified conditions. To this 

 course, the writer believes, neither the farmers nor the majority of the 

 implement trade can offer reasonable objection. 



There are, however, many other lines in the way of general education 

 in engineering matters in which the work of this department may be ex- 

 tended to the farmers of the State and this work will be taken up at the 

 earliest possible moment. 



Changes in the Equipment. 



On its organization, this department received from the old Agronomy 

 Department, under whose charge the work had been previously done, a 

 considerable equipment of machines, notable among which are a number 

 of plows both walking and sulky, a threshing machine complete with 

 many attachments, a traction engine, and a number of historical imple- 

 ments. Mention should also be made of the set of copies of the Rau 

 plow models secured by President Andrew D. White in Germany in 1868. 



During the past year, much attention was devoted to the task of bring- 

 ing the work and aims of the Department of Farm Mechanics to the 

 attention of a number of the larger manufacturers of agricultural imple- 

 ments and machinery throughout the country and of soliciting their aid 

 in the way of furnishing catalogues for distribution and machinery for 

 use for exhibition purposes or in connection with the laboratory exercises. 

 It is a pleasure to report that these letters have been met invariably with 

 courtesy and with a ready acquiescence to practically every request made. 

 Among the most important additions to the equipment may be noted three 

 gasoline engines, a six foot windmill on stub tower, several pumps, a 

 sectioned pump model, engine lubricators and other fittings for laboratory 

 study, three grain-binder attachments, a grain-drill, and a garden seed- 

 drill. Owing to lack of room, the department was obliged to refuse the 

 loan of a second threshing machine and traction engine, 



