260 POWER AND THE PLOW 



values and rents are low, hence from a business standpoint, 

 the practice seems justifiable. However, the better class of 

 farmers are realizing that with better equipment and cheaper 

 methods they gain in the long run by applying more intensive 

 cultivation. The traction engine has greatly cheapened the 

 cost of the necessary tillage operations, and added to the cer- 

 tainty of their execution. It is, therefore, being adopted by 

 farmers who prefer to make some effort of their own rather 

 than trust entirely to providence. 



In the great Southwest, the hottest and driest of the dry- 

 farming regions, the only plowing that can be done economically 

 during the greater part of the year is with the traction engine. 

 It is at its best in the hottest weather. Heat is its very life. 

 The steam engine produces its steam more economically, the 

 internal-combustion engine its gas more perfectly, in the highest 

 temperatures. The mechanical cooling apparatus of the latter 

 removes the enormous handicaps placed on that other internal- 

 combustion motor, the horse. Two thirds of the muscular 

 energy consumed by the animal during work is given off as 

 waste heat. Nature's cooling apparatus is unequal to the 

 task in the heated zones. The temperature of the animal 

 rises quickly to the danger point, and work must stop. But 

 not so with the tractor. Let the sun shine mercilessly, let the 

 ground dry and bake; disk plows will penetrate it; its very 

 solidity aids the traction wheels to transmit more power to the 

 plows; heavy rollers or crushers drawn behind the plows crush 

 and pulverize the soil, the harrow smooths and stirs the sur- 

 face, and the bare field has become a seedbed. Even after 

 the crop is up and growing, light cultivation adds enormously 

 to the yield by breaking up the dry crust which grips the young 

 plants. With the tractor the farmer may thus cover two or 

 three sections twice in the growing season, a task impossible 

 with teams. 



In the humid sections the weight of enormous steam tractors 

 is occasionally a detriment on account of the packing of the 



