October, 1911 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
371 
The Small Motor on the Farm 
What It Has Contributed to the Farmer's Comfort 
By L. W. Ellis 
Xe HUNDRED years ago the production of the 
) necessities of life kept four families out 
of five on the farm, and those four barely 
supported the fifth by their surplus prod- 
ucts. Choice of occupations was neces- 
sarily limited. Since the invention of the 
steam engine, the manufacture of count- 
less necessities has been transferred from farm to factory. 
The steam engine has made possible the wonderful develop- 
ment of our land and water transportation system. It has 
fostered the growth of our great centers of population, in- 
creasing the opportunities for employment away from the 
farm. ‘The transfer of manufacturing to the city and the 
development of wonderfully efficient horse-drawn field ma- 
chinery for crop pro- 
duction released mil- 
lions of workers from 
the isolated life of the 
country. _In, conse- 
quence we have had for 
a generation the prob- 
lem of making farm 
life more attractive. 
It has remained for 
the engineer to accom- 
plish what the agricul- 
turist failed to do, and, 
naturally enough, by 
the same methods by 
which he made life 
away from the farm 
attractive. He is estab- 
lishing easy means of 
communication 
and transport, devis- 
ing conveniences for 
the farm home, and, most, of all, he is introducing me- 
chanical power to take from human shoulders the monoto- 
nous daily tasks that cannot be shifted to those of the 
animal. ‘The agricultural world is awakening to the stun- 
ning fact that, after all, the farm is an engineering propo- 
sition. Production, to be efficient, must be organized on 
View of mechanical horse-clipper in usec, whose work eliminates unnecessary labor 
the same lines as in other great industries. The smail 
motor is only the beginning of a wonderful development 
in agricultural engineering, and has greater significance than 
the importance of present installations would indicate. It 
is significant of the tendency to intensify agriculture by 
applying more power to each acre and carrying processes 
farther on the farm. It means the elimination of drudgery, 
the saving of unnecessary human labor, which is conser- 
vation of the highest type. It means the opportunity for ex- 
ercise of mental rather than physical strength, the develop- 
ment of broader intelligence on the part of our farmers, 
with direct benefit to those who must depend upon the 
farmer’s efficiency for their daily bread. 
Electrical machinery has gone through wonderful devel- 
opment, and competi- 
tion in commercial 
fields has at last brought 
the farm to the manu- 
facturer’s attention as 
an unworked source. of 
trades Onen soi) the 
papers at a recent meet- 
ing of the American 
Society of Agricultural 
Engineers was read by 
the representative of a 
large electrical com- 
pany, the title being, 
“The Promise of an 
Electrical Agriculture.” 
The resulting  discus- 
sion developed the fact 
that both engine and 
electrical manufac- 
turers are looking to 
the farm for their 
greatest volume of business in the near future. 
Without dwelling further on the economic phases of the 
question, we may pass to a consideration of some of the 
many adaptations of internal combustion engines and elec- 
trical motors to farm purposes. The discussion will be con- 
fined to those operations involving the saving of hand 
