1154 
Oic RURAL NEW-YORKER 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
Tractors. —I w<>nt down to Plainsboro, 
N. J., last week, to witne.ss the tractor 
demon.stration on the Walker-Gordon 
farms. It was a great showing, and I 
think it will have a wonderful influence 
upon the future of Eastern farming. The 
Walker-Gordon farm is famous for the 
l)roduction of certified milk, and thus 
the main crops are silage corn and Al¬ 
falfa. These two make the “meat and 
l)otatoe8” for a cow’.s ration, with grain 
and other dry fodder for trimmings. The 
farm buildings are located close to the 
railroad, and the sti-ong land stretches 
away in great level fields. It was a fine 
place for such a trial. There was room 
enough to give the tractors a fair chance, 
the place is ea.sy of access, and there are 
thousands of acres of similar land all 
through that .section. Thus hundreds of 
cars rolled in through the gates of this 
farm and great crowds of earnest men 
and women came to see if it is really 
possible and practical—^this blowing 
over the furrows and sma.shing up the 
soil through the explosion of gasoline. 
Well Staged. —Whoever organized 
and directed this trial knew his business. 
There was no fuss or confusion. Each 
tractor fell into its place and worked just 
as a fine farm team driven by an intelligent 
farmer would have done. On the first 
day they seemed to have w'orked in corn 
stubble—land from wdiich a crop of .silage 
corn had been cut. This field had been, 
turned over in beautiful shape, ready for 
rye .seeding. I was there the second day 
and saw them .start on the Alfalfa .sod. 
I did not learn how old this sod was, but 
I should judge three or four years._ Two 
crops had evidently been cut from it this 
year. On part of it the third crop was 
standing, in some places 18 inches high. 
A good coat of manure had been spread 
on this .sod, and it was all to he turned 
under. Any farmer who has w’orked in 
an Alfalfa .sod knows what that means. 
The tractors worked side by side across 
this field. Strips of equal size w'ere 
marked oil' and fairly assigned, and with¬ 
out parade or fu.ss the tractors were told 
to “go to it.’’ The conditions were fair 
to all. Of coTir.se in any large field there 
will be differences of grade, due to little 
slopes and depressions, and in some parts 
the growth of Alfalfa was larger, but, 
take it as a whole all the tractors had a 
fair showing. 
The Crotvd. —The majority seemed to 
come in cars and were for the most part 
of the solid, earnest farm type, charac¬ 
teristic of middle New Jersey and East¬ 
ern Pennsylvania. There was a surpris¬ 
ingly large proportion of young men and 
women. There can be no doubt that the 
development of the tractor for farm work 
is having a great influence upon the young 
farmers. They see in this the mastery of 
power W'hich is to put their business more 
and more in the class with manufactur¬ 
ing. The young, hopeful mind, in order to 
find contentment, must feel that it dom¬ 
inates or masters some mighty power. I 
think this tractor development is to ap¬ 
peal to the spirit and pride of the young¬ 
er farmers, and thus prove one of the 
mighty forces which are to bring farming 
back where it should be. This thought 
came powerfully to mind as I saw the 
great procession of cars winding along 
the dusty road to this demonstration. The 
explosive power of gasoline has blown 
the people together—shaken them up in 
the great social bag. until through some 
sort of human osmosis they have acquired 
a fellowship and power of united thought 
which they never had before. Ten or five 
or two centuries ago this utilization of the 
power of gasoline would have been held as 
a right of the privileged classes and used 
to make their power of robbery and ex¬ 
tortion yet stronger. Now it is blowing 
down the barriers and giving men a fairer 
view of freedom and the road to it. Per¬ 
sonally, I think the development of the 
tractor for farm u.se wall be along some¬ 
thing of the .same line. Most people 
speak only of its jiractical or mechanical 
effect upon farming. I think it will go 
beyond that, and have a great effect upon 
the social and political side of farm life. 
You cannot put the concentration of pow¬ 
er into the hands of any class without 
influencing every side of their life. The 
women came, as one man put it, “to give 
color and class to the show.” Many of 
them glanced over the tractors and then 
grouped in the shade with their knitting. 
For be it known, as all must see, that 
while our soldiers are using the sword 
and bayonet at the front, millions of our 
W'omen are flashing the steel of knitting 
needles at home in order that the soldiers 
may be warm. These knitters were con¬ 
tent that husband or father or brother 
should select the tractor must suitable to 
the farm, but they want one, just as they 
want everything that will make the farm 
a better and more profitable place for 
living. There are some women, how¬ 
ever, who took a personal interest in the 
trial and followed every tractor on its 
rounds. Some women have farms of their 
own Others are the natural mechanic or 
the driving force of the family, and they 
are as well able to classify these tractors 
as they would work horses. 
The Start. —^The first tractor to start 
was the “Cleveland.” This little crawl¬ 
ing machine, close down to the ground, 
like a giant “caterpillar,” lined up at the 
stake and the driver looked across the 
long field to the marking stake at the 
end. With, a cough and a deep sigh it 
wa.s off. It reminded one of a pony-built 
horse, close down to the ground, bending 
himself to the load. And behind two 
plows threw over the thick sod evenly— 
ripping through the big Alfalfa roots and 
burying all out of sight. It seemed im- 
jiossible that this small, crawling thing 
could exert such power, yet it went on 
with ease and at the end of the furrow 
turned around in the space of a fair¬ 
sized room and was at it again. The next 
to start was the Moline. This is al.so of 
the lighter type, but with larger wheels 
and thus higher from the ground. “The 
Happy Fai’mer” came next, ripping and 
slicing the sod in a way to make any 
farmer happy. The driver of this tractor 
put in a side act of leaving his .seat from 
time to time and letting the machine 
guide itself, which it did by keeping a 
wheel in the furrow. The Taff slashed 
into the sod with great power. This is a 
New .Jersey machine, and was particular¬ 
ly interesting to Jei-seymen. The Case 
went steadily and powerfully on, to.ssing 
over the thick sod as a child would dig 
sand with its spade. Soon they were all 
at work; Avery, New Leader, Staube 
(an attachment to the automobile), Gile, 
Mogul and New Huber. Farmers fol¬ 
lowed them as they puffed and strained 
their way along, or stood in groups at 
the end to see them turn. It was an im¬ 
pressive sight, and these sober, earnest 
farmer folks realized it, for here was a 
sure demonstration of a mighty power 
which is to wipe many of the wrinkles 
off the face of New Jersey by scratching 
it over and healing it again. If, after 
this showing, any old-timer tried to say 
that these tractors are not practical, his 
young folks had only to take him to the 
strong, powerful car in which he had 
come to the show, and ask him to remem¬ 
ber the clumsy, limping car of 20 years 
ago The old man has seen the old car 
developed into the new. Does he doubt 
that the tractor cannot climb the same 
road V That is what dozens of the young¬ 
er men are putting up to the objectors, 
and it would have been a bad day at 
Plainsboro for the latter. 
The 'i\’'ORK. —Let us consider for a mo¬ 
ment what could actually be done by any 
of the tractors in that field. I do not 
know what the 'Vi^^lker-Gordon people will 
do with that Alfalfa .sod. If I had it I 
should seed at once to rye and Alsike 
clover. Of course, this clover will not 
give anything like full growth, but it will 
pay cost of seed and labor several times 
over. The tractor will disk and harrow 
the field, doing the work of two teams. 
It will pull the drill and put in the grain 
and clover. Next Spring the tractor will 
plow under the rye and clover, pull the 
lime drill, di.sk and harrow. With a care¬ 
ful man to drive it the tractor will run 
two corn planters .side by side. It can 
drag a weeder or spike-tooth harrow over 
the corn until it is a foot high. Some 
corn will be smashed down, but not 
much. Home people claim to use the 
tractor for cultivating high corn, but I 
que.stion the wisdom of this. I know 
that corn well harrowed and on well ma¬ 
October 6, 1917 
nured ground will not need very much 
cultivation. When the corn is ready tne 
tractor can run a corn harvester. It 
can haul the loaded wagon to the silo and 
then put its hand on the silo machinery 
and blow the cut cornstalks into the silo. 
It might not be practical to do all this, 
but it could be done. In addition, it can 
run the milking machine, work the litter 
carrier and haul the manure spreader, 
pull in the hay, grain and coal, and cut 
the wood and turn every wheel in the 
barn or house. It can do all this directly, 
or spend its otherwise idle time turning a 
dynamo and .storing electric power with 
which every household wheel will turn 
in a house lighted and warmed by the 
tractor. It may .seem wonderful, but that 
is what this metal hired man is to do in 
the future to show his mettle! 
Which One. —I think this demonstra¬ 
tion proves conclusively that on thou¬ 
sands of New .Jersey farms a good tractor 
could be made to pay as well as a good 
farm team. On my steep and rocky farm 
I doubt if any of those machine would 
work profitably. On more level land I 
think, without question, they would. It 
has now come to a farmer to figure how 
much level land he must have to make 
such a machine pay, and which one will 
suit him. In the barns on this great farm 
I saw cows with the blood of various 
breeds—Holstein, Jersey, Ayrshire, Short¬ 
horn, Guernsey and others. They must 
all have been profitable or they would 
not have been kept on this well-ordered 
(Continued on page IKk'i) 
More Than You Ask 
In a Car—But You Need It 
It is evident that IMitchells offer 
more than buyers ask. Were it not so, 
all fine cars tvould need to have these 
extras. 
The usual margin of safety is 50 per 
cent over-strength. Mitchells are built 
to the standard of 100 per cent over¬ 
strength. That is, each part is twice as 
strong as need be. 
That means costly steels. It means 
oversize parts. It means toughened steel 
in more than 440 parts. 
It means $100,000 yearly for radical 
tests and inspections. Gears are tested 
for 50,000 pounds per tooth. Springs are 
so tested that in two years not one rear 
spring has broken. 
But it means to you a lifetime car. 
Two Mitchells that we know of have al¬ 
ready been run over 200,000 miles each. 
And it means repair cost reduced by at 
least 75 per cent. 
Other Wanted Extras 
There are 31 features in Mitchells 
which nearly all cars omit. Things like 
a power tire pump, reversible headlights, 
shock-absorbing springs, etc. They are 
more than you ask, but every feature is 
something that you need. 
There is beauty and luxury in costly 
extreme. We build our own bodies, and 
thus save a vast amount. All of that 
saving goes into added luxury. In the 
Mitchell you find every known attraction. 
Yet a Lower Price 
Yet the Mitchell prices are far below 
other cars of like size and class. Note 
that $1250 buys a 40-horsepower Six, 
with a 120-inch wheelbase. 
• The reason lies in a model factory, 
built under John W. Bate. By efficiency- 
methods he has cut our labor cost in two. 
Every machine is designed to build this 
one type at the lowest factory cost. 
With our mammoth output, this sav¬ 
ing is enormous. Part of it goes into extra 
values—into over-strength, extra fea¬ 
tures, added beauty. And part of it 
shows in the lower price. 
Here is the greatest value to be 
found in the fine-car field. You can see 
that at a glance. But the years will show 
you more than you can see. 
Our latest models will amaze you by 
their beauty and completeness. For your 
own sake, go and see them. If you do 
not know our nearest dealer, ask us for 
his name. 
MITCHELL MOTORS COMPANY, Inc, 
Racine, Wis., U. S. A. 
$1525 
^ roomy 7-passen- 
IVlllLllUil ggr Six, with 127- 
inch wheelbase and a highly de¬ 
veloped 48-horsepower motor. 
Tbree-Pasaengrer Roadster, $1490. 
Club Roadster, $1560 
Sedan, $2275-Cabriolet, $1960 
Coupe. $2135-Club Sedan, $2185 
Also Town Car and Limousine. 
TWO SIZES 
Sixes 
$1250 
Mitchell Junior~“ ^ 
w Maaawa passcnger 
Six on similar lines, with 120-inch 
wheelbase and a 40-horsepower 
motor. 34-inch smaller bore. 
Club Roadster, $1280 
Sedan, $1950—Coupe, $1850 
All Prices f. o. b. Racine. 
