POWER "AND THE PLOW 



battery is needed to care for the peak loads on starting and 

 elsewhere, thus reducing the size of engine required. The 

 resulting combination is convenient and flexible for certain 

 purposes, but very high in cost in proportion to power. Steer- 

 ing, reversing, etc., are accomplished without gears, and the 

 great possible variation in speed could not be obtained as simply 

 in any other way. There is, of course, considerable loss in trans- 

 forming rotary motion into electrical energy and back again 

 into rotary motion. However, a great deal of attention is 

 being given to the development of this type of motor truck, 

 and it is quite possible that some of its advantages may in due 

 time be embodied in a plowing tractor. 



Electricity from a central plant, wherever available at all, 

 can usually be had quite cheaply, especially where there is 

 abundant water power. Long-distance transmission lines 

 bring the current from generators located at mountain water 

 sites, thus using the "white coal" man has been wasting for 

 centuries and now, in this country, proposes to mortgage to a 

 few far-sighted monopolists. The use of this power for plowing 

 at once implies the necessity for a much less mobile form of 

 motor. It is obviously impracticable to stretch trolley wires 

 and lay tracks at intervals across a farm field. Something 

 on the order of the cable system must be employed with its 

 added expense and other disadvantages. The simplest form 

 necessitates two motors proceeding in parallel paths at right 

 angles to the furrows as in the double-engine cable system. 

 Such an outfit has already been put into operation on a small 

 scale by an European inventor. 



