22 



THE IKRIGATION .AGE. 



of these complex tools. This has been brought home to 

 us in our studies of pumping machinery used in lifting 

 water -for irrigation. Two years ago I gathered the re- . 

 suits of eighteen gasoline pumps installed in a valley in 

 the Southwest. Thirteen of these had been abandoned, 

 not because irrigation by pumping did not pay, but be- 

 cause the men who bought this machinery were not equal 

 to keeping it in order. They had never before tried to 

 run anything more complicated than a mule and the 

 change to a gas engine was too violent. 



This year our investigations have included a large 

 number of field tests of pumping machinery in Louis- 

 iana and California. Millions of dollars have been in- 

 vested in this kind of machinery. Measured by value, 

 nearly one-tenth of the irrigated products in this country 

 are now grown with water lifted by pumps. In the rice 

 districts of Louisiana, one-fourth of the outlay in grow- 

 ing a crop is for pumping. Manifestly the efficiency of 

 this machinery has much to do with the profits of -farm- 

 ing. In the field tests made this year, the highest effi- 

 ciency was sixteen times the lowest, or 5 per cent for the 

 poorest pump and 82 per cent for the highest. 



Last spring I called on the owner of one of the 

 largest ranches in Southern California a ranch where 

 much of the water used in irrigation is pumped and 

 where in consequence the importance of proper mechan- 

 ical training has been made conspicuous. I told the 

 owner of this ranch that our office wished to obtain the 

 services of a man who had a knowledge of irrigation 

 methods and who, in addition to that, was a skillful me- 

 chanical engineer ; that we wished him to do two things : 

 investigate the efficiency of the pumping machinery in 

 a particular district; advise the farmers how to correct 

 defects where they were observed, and show them how 

 to use water in the right way. The reply was that if his 

 ranch had such a man, the department could not obtain 

 him; that such a man would be worth $20,000 a year 

 and that they were prepared to pay for the man who 

 promised well a salary of $5,000 a year. This, of 

 course, is an extreme case, a case where large interests 

 were involved, but a better knowledge of mechanical 

 principles to the small farmer and to the maker of farm 

 machinery in the country at large is relatively just as 

 important. 



The importance of mechanical knowledge to the 

 American farmer is just beginning to be appreciated. 

 Until within the last ten years training in farm mechan- 

 ics was practically ignored by our agricultural colleges, 

 but in recent years some of the most progressive have es- 

 tablished courses of instruction and begun investiga- 

 tions. The results of this innovation have been most 

 encouraging. These colleges ha,ve, however, labored 

 under one serious difficulty. It takes all the time and 

 strength of instructors to do the work of the classroom. 

 They are not in a position to conduct investigations and 

 collect data needed for their students, and there is at 

 present a lack of any systematized information for use 

 in the classroom. Eealizing this fundamental need in 

 the training of the future generation of farmers, Dr. A. 

 C. True, director of the Office of Experiment Stations, 

 in his report for 1904, recommended that the irrigation 

 and drainage work of this office be extended to include 

 investigation in the applications of power to other agri- 

 cultural purposes besides irrigation. In support of this 

 he made the following statement : 



"The need of a better understanding of the principles 

 of mechanics and of better training in the use of ma- 

 chinery is one of the features of American agriculture 



which has not yet been adequately recognized in the 

 courses of instruction in our agricultural colleges or in 

 the work of this department. We are the greatest 

 makers and users of farm machinery in the world, and 

 it is owing to this fact more than to any other single 

 cause that we have been able to maintain our agricul- 

 tural supremacy in the markets of the world. The cost 

 of this machinery to the farmer is one of his heaviest 

 outlays, and the gain by increasing its life through bet- 

 ter care or its efficiency through more skillful operation 

 can hardly be overestimated. The difficulty of doing 

 this is greater today than ever before. The character 

 of this machinery every year becomes more complicated, 

 requiring increased knowledge of engineering principles 

 on the part of farmers. The traction engine, the steam 

 plow, the combined harvester and thresher operated by 

 steam power, the automobile, the growing use of elec- 

 tricity as a motive power on the farm, the machinery 

 now required in dairies, in the cultivation and harvesting 

 of rice, in the growing of sugar beets and manufacture 

 of beet sugar, are illustrations of the momentous changes 

 in the character of farm machines which have taken 

 place in the last fifty years. The increase in skill and 

 mechanical knowledge required by farmers to operate 

 these complex and costly machines compared to what 

 was needed to operate the primitive tools of half a cen- 

 tury ago can not be stated in percentages. The leading 

 European governments have recognized the revolution- 

 ary character of this feature of farm life more clearly 

 than we have. Especially is this true of Germany and 

 Prance, where both governments are continuously inves- 

 tigating this subject. The recent investigations of the 

 German Government to determine the possibility of 

 using alcohol,, which can be purchased at home, to sup- 

 plant gasoline, which is not produced in Germany, to 

 operate farm engines, is an illustration of the govern- 

 mental studies being made in Europe." 



This extension of the work of the Agricultural De- 

 partment was approved by Secretary Wilson, who sup- 

 plemented Dr. True's recommendation by an extended 

 statement, which will be found in his report for 1904. 

 Prom this I have taken the following extracts : 



"Closely related to the healthfulness, convenience 

 and cheapness of farm buildings is the right selection, 

 care and use of farm machinery. The studies of pump- 

 ing machinery have shown that the most important 

 factor in its successful use is the mechanical skill of the 

 farmer, and we are beginning to understand that the in- 

 creased complexity and cost of farm machinery make the 

 education of the American farmer along these lines 

 more and more desirable. 



Realizing the need of improvement in these mat- 

 ters, and partly to meet the requests of implement man- 

 ufacturers for young men having agricultural and me- 

 chanical training which will enable them to design and 

 construct implements suited to the conditions of the 

 American farm, a number of agricultural colleges and 

 experiment stations have inaugurated courses of in- 

 struction and begun systematic experimentation for the 

 purpose of bringing about a general diffusion of intelli- 

 gence about this feature of farm work. They have ap- 

 pealed to this department for aid in this work similar 

 to that already given them in other lines of agricultural 

 investigation. 



The requests of the colleges and stations for aid in 

 carrying out these investigations and in planning courses 

 of instruction have been supplemented by numerous sim- 

 ilar requests from farmers for advice and assistance 



