Gardening on a " Machine-to- Win-the- War" Basis 



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ADOLPH KRUHM 



LOSS OF MAN POWER FOR THE GARDEN OFFSET BY MODERN TOOL EFFICIENCY 



The toothed rol- 

 lers of the Star pul- 

 verizer working 

 over newly turned 

 soil, makes a good 

 seed bed 



HREE years 

 have demon- 

 strated that 

 this is a war 

 of man and his machines. Now, that the 

 war has come home to us, it is well 

 that we should seriously take stock 

 of such machines as will help us 

 win greater production from the 

 soil with less labor. In the final 

 analysis, it is not the machine of 

 destruction, but of production that will count 

 most. Before men can fight, they must be 

 fed. Before they can be fed, we, of Ameri- 

 ca, must grow the crops. A large part of 

 the food needed by our allies and ourselves 

 will be grown in, or saved by, our gardens 

 this year. To make these gardens more pro- 

 ductive with less help, we need to make use 

 of better machines, implements, tools. 



Man started to make gardens with the 

 only implement the creator gave him — his 

 hand. Five bent fingers opened the first 

 furrow, dropped the seeds and covered them. 

 When the fingers were replaced by wooden 

 pegs, fastened to a crossbar, the rake was 

 born. A sharpened stone, tied to a stick, to 

 penetrate hard soil, represented the first hoe. 

 A longer, larger stone, fastened to a stronger 

 handle, to dig after root crops, was the 

 ancestor of the modern spade. [Elsewhere in 



this issue, the reader will find a description of 

 the usefulness of all the elementary tools in 

 garden making. — Ed.] 



When man reached that stage of intelligence 

 where the domestic animal was made to serve, 

 a sharpened stick, tied to a log and pulled by 

 other men, or by oxen, saw the birth of the 

 plow. In China they still use wooden plows 

 worked by a single man. The evolution into 

 the modern American tractor which is now 

 rebuilding the gardens and farms of France 

 parallels the progress of human development. 

 It is significant, however, that, after thou- 

 sands of years of improvements, modern 

 tools show few radical departures 

 other than motive power or 

 method of handling. In principle 

 of design, nearly all garden tools 



This tool is fairly rep- 

 resentative of the now 

 considerable family of 

 wheelhoes with change- 

 able attachments 



Here's a "spring lever" machine cultivator which has the 

 "push" converted into a "pull" on the wheel. Has snow 

 plow boards 



— hand or power — perpetuate the idea of the 

 first application of the bent fingers 



Very recent indeed is any effort to combine 

 original principles. Why have a separate 

 tool for digging a hole, uprooting a weed, 

 for raking or hoeing or smoothing the soil, 

 when one combination tool might do all 

 three? Quite a number of combination tools 

 are now available, all serving different pur- 

 poses in good fashion. 



God gave man his spine to walk upright 

 and the bent back has ever been a cause of 

 hardship, of labor in an unnatural position. 

 Nearly a quarter century ago a pioneer 

 American tool maker, Norcross, grafted the 

 five-bent-finger-cultivator idea on to a long 

 handle. The short teeth became long prongs 

 and an efficient long-handled cultivator was 

 created. By putting a joint into the other- 

 wise stiff rake, it was transformed into the 

 now well-known Pull Easy culivator, chang- 

 ing the pegs of the rake into effectively 

 bent and practically shaped cultivator 

 teeth, gave birth to quite a variety of, other 

 cultivators, all steps in the right direction. 

 But all are based on the principle of the 

 human hand. 



When necessity obliged man to do more 

 cultivating in less time, he looked about for 

 means whereby to cover the ground more 

 rapidly. Cultivator teeth mounted on frames, 

 attached to wheels, were logical steps in 

 improving the garden tool. Pushing being 

 more practical than pulling — push handles 

 were attached. Thus, the modern wheelhoe 

 came into being. Though quite a number 

 of models are available, they differ in phy- 

 sical detail, rather than in princiole of design. 



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The "potatriot" will be 

 interested in this special 

 tool for hilling 



Nearly all of them 

 have quite a va- 

 riety of adjustable 

 attachments mak- 

 ing them indeed 

 many tools in one. 



The Iron Age 

 wheelhoe cul- 

 tivators and 

 the large Planet 

 Jr. family of 

 garden tools 

 have become 

 as household 

 words with effi- 

 cient garden- 

 ers. The all 

 metal cultiva- 



For light soils these 

 disc attachments to the 

 wheelhoe are obviously 

 serviceable in mulching 



tor, adjustable in many ways is made for per- 

 manency. On the theory that the mofe 



A "different" type of cul- 

 tivator weeder having teeth 

 that are wider at bot- 

 tom and adjustable to any 

 angle and distance between 

 rows 



weight is taken off the cultivator teeth, the 

 more power becomes available to push the 

 cultivator, the Lou Dillon Tandem culti- 

 vator has a wheel in front and one in back 

 of the teeth. Because some crops, like onions, 

 require strictest weeding in the row, as well as 

 between the rows, special rotary weeders, like 

 The Golden and The Tornado were invented. 

 As man learned more -about the science of 

 soil tillage, the need of thorough pulverizing 

 to preserve moisture called into existence spe- 

 cial discing and mulching imple- 

 ments. In an endeavor to make 

 the modern garden tool useful 

 the year around, The Colfax cul- 

 tivator may now be equipped 

 with special snow plows. 



The gasolene engine is being brought into use in a garden 

 tractor, to offset the diversion of man and horse power due 

 to war 



