Vol. LXXI. No. 4180. 
NEW YORK, DECEMBER 7, 1912. 
WEEKLY. $1.00 PER YEAR 
THIS HORSE EATS GASOLINE. 
And Does All Sorts of Work. 
MEDIUM WEIGHT TRACTORS.—Up to a com¬ 
paratively few years ago traction farming in America, 
with occasional exceptions, was confined to the grain 
kings of the great West. The big tractors, with their 
proportionate equipments of tillage implements and 
harvesting machinery, fitted well the unobstructed 
way, turning furrows by the dozen, or cutting mighty 
swaths of grain. These large outfits were of course 
not well adapted to quarter and half-section farms 
with highway, division line and cross fences. The 
development of reasonable reliability in gasoline and 
kerosene engines, however, gave manufacturers an 
a great deal more. It furnishes its own power to be 
placed where it is wanted; it does much of the work 
of horses in the field and on the highway; and when 
it is idle it requires nothing by way of maintenance. 
COMPARISON WITH HORSES.—Did the farmer 
reader ever seriously consider the cost of keeping his 
horses? If he has been in the market as a buyer of 
late years he need not be told of the outgo for pur¬ 
chasing a good pair. But the everyday feed that they 
must have, whether giving good returns for their keep, 
just paying their board, or not earning him anything 
—as is the case with most of them during the long 
Winter—is generally figured less closely than the 
rations that go to sheep, cattle and hogs. At the same 
time the feed consumed by horses has the money value 
rowed at the same time. During the performance of 
this work his teams may have ample employment, and 
the hired men more exercise than in holding reins. 
The tractor says to him when the stubble fields are 
bare: “You and I and the boy and engine gang will 
get busy with Mother Earth before the weeds grow 
ripe. The hired men and the horses can take the 
manure spreaders and tackle your barnyard bank, 
which has been receiving deposits regularly and not 
paying out to the field what it should, because you 
haven’t had the time to draw on it.” 
WORK WELL DONE.—There is “business” in six 
furrows turning in unison, and richness which has 
long awaited the alchemy of air and sunshine rolling 
up from below the old plow-crust of the horse gang. 
A WISCONSIN OUTFIT WHICH PLOWS AND HARROWS AND WORKS WITLIOUT REST. Fig. 505. 
THE GASOLINE FARM TEAM WALKING OFF TO THE PIAY MARKET. Fig. 506. 
opportunity to adapt tractioneering to a smaller scale. 
The result has been the production of numerous light 
and medium-weight tractors designed to pull from 
three to six plows and furnish belt power. Some of 
them have not been in the field long enough to acquire 
a successful past; others have, and can be relied upon 
to make good in performance. With these facts in 
mind the writer purchased in the Summer of 1911 a 
tractor which he knew to be reliable, and which be¬ 
longs to the medium class in weight and capacity. It 
pulls six plows and delivers 40 horsepower to the belt. 
ADVANTAGES OF GAS TRACTORS.—The gas 
tractor, like the automobile, has come to stay. This 
is shown by the general interest manifested by farmers 
in its work, and the steadily increasing purchases by 
those convinced of its possibilities. It puts the power 
plant of the farm where it will do the most good. 
For years farmers have hauled heavy portable engines 
about with horses. These engines serve their purpose, 
but their helpfulness is limited to the belt. The 
tractor does all the work these portables perform, and 
of just what it is worth on the market. One hundred 
dollars a year is a reasonable sum to charge to a 
horse, if he is taken through the Winter in condition 
for work in the Spring, aside from veterinary attend¬ 
ance and shoeing. That the tractor affords the means 
of reducing the number of horses required is reason¬ 
able; and that with its aid in plowing, disking, harrow¬ 
ing and hauling, the use of the horses that are retained 
may well be turned to work that is ever calling but 
often gets no answer, or at least a delayed one, is 
most certain. It is absurd to speak of dispensing with 
horses on the farm, as do some over-enthusiastic 
votaries of mechanical substitution for their services. 
The tractor has come as an able assistant to the horse 
in relieving him of much of his hard work, thus pro¬ 
longing his usefulness and freeing him for miscella¬ 
neous duties performed at the right time. It enables 
the farmer to “make things go” more certainly and 
effectually than he can with horses alone; his usual 
Fall plowing possibly done in August, and ground 
intended for Winter grain plowed, disked and har- 
The deeper plowing gives promise of better things 
to be—practically a new farm from the old, tried acres. 
The farmer has time for reflection as he guides his 
outfit about the field and sums up its work. It is 
performing the service of 12 horses, of three drivers 
of horse gangs and six of walking plows. And him¬ 
self and the boy are handling the whole job! The day 
may be sultry, but, unlike horses, the engine works the 
better; the flies do not bother it, and the furrow-line 
is straight and true if the steersman keeps his eye 
alert. The horses and the men are working the spread¬ 
ers to advantage on the meadow, instead of plowing 
lightly and resting languishingly. 
EXPENSE OF THE WORK.—Now what does it 
cost? This is a very common inquiry in the English 
language—and I suppose in all languages, for that 
matter, spoken by people who wear clothes and face 
responsibility. The farmer, of all men engaged in 
production, may well consider the cost, for he gets 
it coming and going. Unlike the manufacturer with 
whom he is sometimes compared, he cannot add a 
