THE GENESIS OF POWER PLOWING 225 



The path was then clear for the gas tractor. The farmer 

 had been educated to traction farming. The desire for economi- 

 cal motors of smaller size, the scarcity and high price of labor, 

 the difficulty of obtaining cheap coal; and the limited supply 

 of good water in some sections created the demand. Designers 

 of all but the first few gas tractors started with the certain 

 knowledge that their engines would have to meet the severest 

 possible test i. e., plowing. In consequence not all the 

 costly experiments of steam plowing engines were repeated. 



The future of the gas tractor has been bright from the mo- 

 ment that the first practical machine was placed on the market. 

 After they were once successfully introduced their manufac- 

 ture increased by phenomenal steps. Standardization has 

 proceeded with marvelous rapidity, and the gas tractor to-day 

 stands ready for hard and lasting service, in less than half the 

 years it took to make the steam plow even practical. It is 

 now so far perfected as to be remarkably efficient, and is rapidly 

 freeing itself from the charge of unreliability. Moreover, it 

 presents a wide field for improvement, while both the horse and 

 the steam tractor seem to have approached the probable 

 limit of immediate perfection, and will progress much more 

 slowly in the coming generation. 



