MANUAL TRAINING 225 



with electric power. His home farm comprises two 

 hundred and sixty-three acres, but he adds that hav- 

 ing electricity to run his machinery, he hires very lit- 

 tle help except in haying and harvesting. Where 

 there are electric companies, with electric plants, it 

 is not infrequent that you can purchase power enough, 

 at a reasonable rate, for lighting buildings and doing 

 a large share of your work. This of course is an easy 

 way of settling the help problem. 



The original cost of a gasoline engine that will do 

 your ordinary farm work will not exceed one hun- 

 dred and fifty dollars, for a two- or three-horse 

 power machine. Not seldom you can purchase one 

 at a very much reduced rate. Even if it does no 

 more than run your grindstone, your churn, your 

 washing machine, besides waiting on the boys in the 

 shop and cutting feed for the horses and cows, it will 

 serve a satisfactory purpose. But in selecting an en- 

 gine it will be better to get one large enough to work 

 easily, especially as a larger engine is less likely to 

 get out of repair. 



If you have a flowing well, such as is very common 

 in the celery fields of Florida, the problem is solved 

 for you, but otherwise a storage tank becomes an es- 

 sential. This tank must of course be filled either 

 by hand power or electric power, or by a gasoline 

 engine. If you have a gasoline engine, of course you 

 have only to attach a hose and carry the water where 

 you like. You can at least take good care of a straw- 

 berry bed a few yards square, and in such a case a 



