256 PRINCIPLES OF RURAL ECONOMICS 



The equipment of the farm. As stated in a previous chapter, 

 the question of the equipment of a farm is partly one of propor- 

 tion. That phase of the question, however, has been sufficiently 

 discussed already, and we may now consider the kinds of equip- 

 ment rather than the mere question of the quantity of each kind 

 to use in combination with the others. 



Power. The first problem in the equipment of a farm, as 

 well as in that of a factory or a railroad, is the problem of power. 

 Every one is familiar with the facts regarding the revolutions 

 which have been wrought in other industries by the substitution 

 of new sources of power, particularly steam. While there are 

 many other operations upon a farm where power is needed, yet 

 the greatest need is in the treatment of the soil, turning it, pul- 

 verizing it, and making a proper seed bed of it. Next in im- 

 portance to this is the need for power in the transportation of 

 crops from the fields to the barns, and from the barns to the 

 markets, and of seed, manures, fertilizers, fencing materials, etc., 

 to different parts of the farm. For none of these purposes is 

 a stationary engine available ; they all require traction power. 

 Wherever stationary power is needed, mechanical power of some 

 kind is clearly, and beyond all question, cheaper and more effi- 

 cient than animal power. But where traction is needed, there 

 is no such clear and indubitable advantage in mechanical over 

 animal power, except where there is a suitable roadbed prepared 

 especially for the engine. This is, of course, impossible in most 

 of the farm work. Some of the heavier work of the farm, such 

 as plowing and drawing loads to market, may be done econom- 

 ically with a traction engine, though even here the advantage is 

 sometimes doubtful. And there is a multitude of operations on 

 every farm which cannot be performed efficiently or economically 

 except with animal power. Harrowing, drawing the corn plant- 

 ers, grain drills, etc., cultivating the growing corn, cotton, po- 

 tatoes, etc., and all similar tasks, demand animal rather than 



