MOTIVE POWER FOR THE FARMER. 



[By Frank G. Johnson.] 



The time has come when motive power to the farmer is indis- 

 pensable. Only a few years ago the farmer was compelled to do 

 everything by hand — not an apparatus or machine could be found 

 on all his premises which required motive power. But, by the 

 rapid progress recently made in science and the mechanic arts, 

 the farmer has come to be supplied with machinery for perform- 

 ing nearly every branch of his labor. Agricultural warehouses, 

 instead of containing farm tools merely, are now filled with hun- 

 dreds and thousands of farm machines^ the majority of which would 

 be perfectly useless without motive power. The utility of many 

 of these machines will depend almost entirely upon the facilities 

 of obtaining some cheap, simple, and universal motive power with 

 which to operate them. 



It is evident that no one thing can combine all the advantages 

 in every application; so that steam, although, at present, standing 

 at the head of motive powers, is very poorly adapted to the far- 

 mer's use, for the reasons : 



1st. They are too expensive in their first cost. 



2d. They are not economical — consuming too much fuel, espe- 

 cially on prairies, where fuel is scarce. 



3d: Steam, to be an economical power, needs to be used more 

 constantly, and more on its maximum capacity, than the farmer 

 requires. 



4th. They endanger the farmer's premises with fires. The 

 boilers are also liable to explosion, thus endangering life. 



5th. They are too complicated, and liable to require repairs, 

 whicli the farmer, for want of skill and tools, is unable to make. 



6th. The fai-mer does not generally understand the ordinary 

 operation of the steam engine practically, so as to be able to "run*' 

 it himself 



[Am. Inst.] 13 



