3 2 4 THE NEW AGRICULTURE. 



inventive skill, that of machinery for the dropping and plant- 

 ing of seeds is not less wonderful. The accuracy and rapidity 

 with which these implements operate far surpasses that of 

 the human hand, and the yield per acre is largely enhanced. 

 For a long time the corn planter was unsatisfactory because 

 the different sizes of the grains in the hopper interfered with 

 precision in the operation of the dropping mechanism. This 

 difficulty has been obviated by the use of a separating device 

 which provides grains only of a uniform size, and the yield 

 per acre has thereby been increased by 20 per cent. The po- 

 tato planter insures a stand which leaves nothing to be de- 

 sired in the way of uniformity. The potato harvester which 

 scoops up and sifts the tuber from the soil and at the same 

 time removes the vines, leaving rows of the clean esculents 

 alongside of the trenches where they had grown, is an indis- 

 pensable adjunct in the raising of a large acreage of this 

 product. 



Animals and windmills have long provided the chief power 

 for the farm, and they will for an indefinite time continue in 

 large demand. For many purposes the windmill is incom- 

 parably the cheapest form of power that can be suggested. 

 For exceptionally heavy work, as for gang plowing, thresh- 

 ing, etc., the steam traction engine has a large and growing 

 field of usefulness, but at present there is being introduced 

 upon the farm a kind of power which is destined to become in 

 one form or another practically universal in farming opera- 

 tions in this country. The gasoline engine is so safe, so sim- 

 ple, so efficient, so light, so ubiquitous in its utility, and at 

 the same time may be so well and so cheaply constructed and 

 sold, that its adoption, which may be said to be just now at its 

 beginning, is practically certain in the near future to attain 



