July 16, 1920] 



SCIENCE 



65 



Farm machinery, aeeoidiiig to Mr. Terkes, has 

 not only increased the output per worker, but has 

 made possible the more rapid extension of the culti- 

 vated area, and the increased production per acre 

 thanks to the more thorough tillage of the SOU and 

 the more uniform methods of fertilization, plant- 

 ing and harvesting. On the vi^hole, the use of farm 

 machinery may be said to have increased the effi- 

 ciency of man labor on American farms approxi- 

 mately eight times. In not a tew instances the 

 increase in man power efficiency has been even 

 more striking. It ^ould be remembered in this 

 connection that the manufacture of machinery 

 takes up a very considerable amount of labor, and 

 that a certain allowance is to be made for it in 

 calculating our labor resources. 



"Notwithstanding the almost marvelous prog- 

 ress which has been made in less than a century 

 in developing farm machinery of all kinds, there 

 is every indication that the progress in the future 

 seems likely to equal, if not surpass, that which 

 has already been accomplished. It is realized that 

 this may sound like an extravagant statement, 

 nevertheless calm consideration of the whole sub- 

 ject must invariably lead one to the conclusion 

 that this is entirely possible. Just as the inven- 

 tion of the reaper and its subsequent development 

 produced a complete revolution in the methods of 

 grain raising, so the invention and development of 

 the internal combustion engine seems destined to 

 work another revolution in general fanning." 



In his consideration of the second topic on the 

 program Mr. E. W. Peck, of the Office of Farm 

 Management, pointed out that farming differs 

 from most of the other industrial pursuits in that 

 it compels the performance of a relatively large 

 amount of work in a limited space of time. In 

 spite of the great range of conditions that one 

 finds on American farms the question of labor effi- 

 ciency is nearly always paramount. There is, 

 therefore, an obvious relation of farm power to 

 labor efficiency in American agriculture. The eco- 

 nomic factors involved in the study of farm power 

 relate to: (1) the requirements for power in farm- 

 ing; (2) the kind of power most readily available; 

 (3) the form of power in its relation to man; (4) 

 the influence of any given form of power on the 

 organization and operation of the farm. 



A study of the utilization of horse labor on 

 three farms of different type sfhowed that on a 

 dairy farm in Wisconsin 6 horses were kept for 

 143 crop acres; on the Illinois corn and hog farm 

 9 horses were kept for 182 crop acres; and on the 

 Iowa seed, grain and stock farm 12 horses were 



kept for 261 crop acres. SimUar studies were con- 

 ducted on large grain farms in North Dakota and 

 Washington. In a general way it was found that 

 on most farms hauling operations require more 

 than half of aU the horse power used; that plow- 

 ing, harrowing and disking require from 15 per 

 cent, on the small cotton and corn farm to 64 per 

 cent, on the large Dakota grain farms. "It is 

 safe to say that in most instances the seasonal and 

 weather conditions limit the hours within which 

 most operations must be performed, with the re- 

 sult that the work can not be expanded as might 

 be desired." 



In commenting on the same subject Mr. C. J. 

 Galpin, of the office of Farm Management, said ia 

 his paper : ' ' The machine is profoundly affecting 

 the farmer's physical and mental life, as it is all 

 human life. With every advance in machine power 

 for the farmstead, both in the house and on the 

 land, a shift occurs in the strain upon the farm 

 family. Mechanical power takes more and more 

 the brunt of gravity, and the big human muscle 

 engine more and more falls into disuse, while the 

 second series of finer, smaller muscle engines come 

 more and more into play in farm work. . . . The 

 machine-farmer becomes a new cerebral type, whose 

 very struggle with the earth summons him to an 

 employment of his hereditary intellectual mechan- 

 ism, and a consequent intellectual life. Ever since 

 the days of bits in the horse's mouth and reins to 

 guide the horse, down to the present age of gas- 

 driven tractor and motor car, the machine-farmer 

 type has been in process of evolution. However, 

 the hoe-farmer, both man and woman, can be 

 found in every land, in every part of America, true 

 to primitive type. Between these two types lies 

 the mass of landworkers in the United States." 



Under the topic ' ' Application of Power to 

 Save Labor" Mr. Wayne Dinsmore, secretary of 

 the American Percheron Society, Chicago, 111., con- 

 tributed a discussion on ' ' Animal Power ' ' ; Dean 

 A. A. Potter, of the Kansas Agricultural College, 

 on "Tractor Power" and Mr. Lee, of the Do- 

 mestic Engineering Company, Dayton, Ohio, on 

 "Electric Power." It was stated by Mr. Dins- 

 more that the mechanical motive power units in 

 use in 1919 did not exceed 200,000. In other 

 words, they had displaced but 2.2 per cent, of the 

 horses and mules on the farms of the United 

 States. According to the investigations of W. F. 

 Handschin, of the University of Illinois, horses 

 furnished the most economical source of farm mo- 

 tive power on all farms under 260 acres in area. 

 But even on larger farms 75 per cent, of the work 



