224 POWER AND THE PLOW 



were inexperienced; and the cost of maintaining a horse was so 

 much less than at present that animal power suffered no real 

 competition. 



With the growth of grain farming in the West the demand 

 for larger and faster threshing outfits resulted in a consider- 

 able increase in size of steam engines. These, however, were 

 designed with reference to the work they could deliver through 

 a belt, rather than at the drawbar; hence the growing use of 

 these engines for plowing resulted in the same conditions as 

 before. Steam plowing was generally regarded as a large 

 farmer's fad, even by manufacturers, but the demand for a 

 better plowing power became so insistent about the beginning 

 of the new century that engine makers began one by one to 

 comply with it. The first step was merely to increase the size 

 of gearing, axles, shafts, etc., but at length the pressure and the 

 outlook for profitable business led manufacturers to design 

 plowing engines of better material and proportions from the 

 ground up. The steam-plowing boom, which had waited only 

 for serviceable equipment, was then on. 



The steam-plowing engine, in less than five years, reached 

 a high state of efficiency as compared with the former types. 

 In large units it proved to be most economical, especially after 

 suitable plows were developed. The power required for 

 plowing a given area was so much greater than for threshing it 

 that plowing engines too large in size for economical use at 

 other work were soon in demand. Skilled operators were 

 developed, equipment improved, and more uses found for 

 engines. The practice of steam plowing was rapidly extended. 

 Vast tracts of level territory were opened where the acreage 

 was so great as to discourage the idea of turning it with single 

 teams and horse plows. Prairies were tamed in a twinkling. 

 Large areas which would otherwise have remained unculti- 

 vated were brought quickly into productiveness. They have 

 since been cropped with a minimum of horse and man labor, 

 which has constantly become more expensive. 



