THE P E R C H E R O N REVIEW 
11 
Please send ine the hulletins on the Itorse situalion, as ive 
are going to try the (I'td reliable instead of trying to make a 
\ortune ivith tractors, which pull nothing but your leg. 
At present we are working joo acres with motor power, 
but NEVER AGAIN. 
A Big Team — The Off Horse Is Ivan 108146 
2M) PRIZE AGED ST ALI.K IOWA STATE KAIR. 1917 
come just at the very time the machines are most needed. 
Repairs required are seldom carried in local implement 
houses. It usually is necessary to telegraph factories or 
branch distributing points for repairs. Delay in obtaining 
them often is certain, and a week's loss of time is the least 
that can be reckoned on under average conditions. Such de- 
lays are serious, especially at seeding time. By the time re- 
pairs are received and made, wet weather may have set in 
and field work be delayed ten days or two weeks. This does 
not injure the man who has finished seeding; but it may mean 
disaster for the man who, because of a broken tractor, failed 
to have his seeding finished before the change in weather. 
The same general principles apply in harvest. The grain 
must be cut the moment it is ready. Delay may cause the 
ripe grain to be subjected to a storm, with the result that it 
goes dou n and never can be harvested. Specific instances can 
be cited in any number, but the following letter drives home 
the need of reliable power as well as dozens of instances 
would do : 
The writer's name is omitted, since he reports that he 
cannot afford to be involved in a controversy; but the original 
letter is on file, as are many other letters of similar nature. 
A farmer must have power that can be absolutely relied 
upon ; and this reliability is lacking in the tractor, and, from 
the very nature of the case, always will be. 
Farm power should be in convenient sized units. Plow- 
ing, discing and harvesting require much power ; planting, 
cultivating, mowing, raking, hay hauling, and many other 
farm tasks much less. The man who uses horses can 
put five or six on the plow, and would be considered insane 
if he hitched the same team force on a planter or cultivator. 
This is exactly what the tractor user does when he seeks to 
do the lighter work with a tractor powerful enough to do 
plow ing and discing. A man farming with horses may be 
plowing with six big mares on a gang plow. A month later 
he splits this team and is operating three separate cultivators 
with the same power. A little later he may be operating a 
mower, rake, and hay wagon, three widely separated units, 
with the same power. Horse power is in units of con- 
venient size, readily grouped to meet all farm needs. The 
tractor farmer cannot reduce the size and weight of the 
tractor used nor split it into separate units. When he comes 
'to lighter work, he can only buy a tractor of lighter stamp, 
or rather, must purchase three or four lighter machines 
promptly to make it possible to do cultivating, haying, and 
the like. The absurdity of such a course is self-evident. 
Farm power needs to be, in many kinds of work, prac- 
tically self-guiding. This is especially true in cultivating 
corn the first and second times, and in corn husking. A good 
pair of horses quickly learns to follow the corn row, so that 
the driver can give practically his entire attention to careful 
cultivation, and to making sure that no corn is covered. Men 
who have tried corn plowing with tractors report the dam- 
age done by reason of having to watch the tractor, as well as 
A Team of Grade Percheron Mares Haying 
