American Agriculturist, June 28, 1924 
Farm Machinery-Old and New 
Some Tools Our Fathers Used Compared with Ours 
Here are a number of 'pictures of old and modern farm 
implements and methods. Sometimes we don't realize 
what strides. have been made in modern times in perfecting 
farm machinery to reduce the amount of hard labor. 
How Old is the Reaper? 
P opular opinion would have it that the first 
reaping machine the world ever knew was in¬ 
vented by a Virginia blacksmith, Cyrus Mc¬ 
Cormick, in 1831. On the contrary, mechanical 
reapers—and very efficient ones—were contrived more 
than two thousand years ago. Indeed, so well de¬ 
veloped were such machines that the Roman author 
Pliny, writing in the first century A.D., about farming 
in Spain and France, was filled with admiration for 
the ingenuity with which 
such devices were con¬ 
structed. 
“Of reaping itself,” 
says he, “there are several 
methods. In the broad 
plains . . . enormous 
machines, with teeth set 
in a row, placed on 
two wheels, are driven 
through the standing 
grain by an ox [yoked in 
a reverse position (that is, behind the reaper). Thus 
the gram cut off falls into the furrow.” 
What is still more surprising, those ancient farmers 
within another century or so had invented what was 
almost a reaper and thresher combined! Their machine 
not only cut the grain, but separated it from the straw 
and deposited it in a wagon, as the contrivance went 
across the field. Can the most up-to-date piece of farm 
machinery do much more? Here is the exact descrip¬ 
tion by a Roman agricultural writer of about 340, 
Palladius Rutilius: 
In the Gallic lowlands they employ a more expedious 
mode of reaping, requiring in addition to the labor of 
How Old Is the Grain Drill? 
HESE pictures are interesting in showing the 
development of the 
modern grain drill. 
The old-fashioned drill 
is taken from the pic¬ 
ture in American Agri¬ 
culturist printed in 
September, 1850. It was 
called the “Premium 
grain drill.” Did you 
ever use one? 
men the assistance of a single ox during the whole harvest 
time. A cart is constructed which moves on two wheels. 
The bottom of it, which is rectangular in form, is pro¬ 
tected at the sides by boards sloping outwards, so that 
the upper part of the vehicle is wider than the lower. 
The boards in front of the cart are lower than the rest. 
At that part a great number of teeth, curved upward, 
are arranged in a row, at intervals adapted to the size 
of an ear of grain. Behind this cart two very short 
shafts are fastened like the poles of a sedan-chair. To 
these an ox is yoked and harnessed, with his head turned 
toward the cart. The animal must be well broken in, 
so as not to exceed his driver’s pace. When he proceeds 
to drive the vehicle through the grain all the ears are 
caught by the teeth and fall in a heap into the cart, the 
broken stalks being left behind. The driver, who fol¬ 
lows, generally regulates the elevation or depression of 
the teeth, and thus by a few courses backwards and 
forwards the whole crop is gathered in the space of a few 
hours, this system is useful in even and level places, 
and in those where the straw is not absolutely wanted.” 
Strange, is it not, how man makes and forgets, pro¬ 
gresses and falls back? For fifteen centuries after that 
description was written farming ingenuity declined and 
declined until field laborers forgot that a mechanical 
reaper had ever existed, and knew only that back-break- 
mg device, the scythe. In fact, even in open-minded, 
progressive America, when Cyrus McCormick made his 
first crude mechanical reaper in that Virginia smithy, 
the farmers laughed at the contraption, even intimated 
that the inventor was insane, and gave him so little en¬ 
couragement that he turned to the frontier town of 
Chicago, where future millionaires were more “gullible.” 
That McCormick never heard of Pliny or Palladius 
Rutilius or of the reapers that they described is morally 
certain. The human race seems simply to invent and 
forget and re-invent.— Carl Holliday' Ohio. 
DoYou Remember the Old Wooden Hay Rake 
ALTHOUGH the editor is not so aged, he once raked 
. _ hav with an old-fashioned revolving wooden rake 
similar to the one in the accompanying picture. The 
teeth of the rake were arranged in two sets which 
revolved around an axle. There were no wheels, the 
teeth being held in place by the operator who walked 
behind. The set of teeth that were held on the ground 
gathered up the hay until the accumulations between 
the rakers and those held perpendicular out in front were 
filled. Then the operator released his hold, the rakes 
slipped around and a new set came into play. The 
operator held the next set as it came up bringing them 
into use. How many of you have had the same experi¬ 
ence? 
* * * 
Where Elephants Do the Work 
A N elephant pulling a manure spreader! An improb- 
11 able farm sight, particularly in the United States, 
and impracticable even were it possible, the average 
farmer would declare. On the ordinary farm, of course, 
the farmer’s surmise would be correct, but on the 550- 
acre Wallace circus farm, as it is called, near Peru, 
Indiana, it is an entirely different story. On this farm 
elephants do pull manure spreaders and they make the 
going easy even with the heaviest loads possible through 
any kind of slush, mud or quagmire. 
The winter boarders at this interesting farm include 
twenty-seven elephants, fifteen lions, five tigers, five 
bears, five camels, seventy dogs, one hippopotamus, one 
ape, a number of monkeys and deer, three hundred 
horses, as well as a great many permanent residents, 
such as swine and cattle and other typical farm animals. 
Naturally on a large-sized, special farm such as the 
Wallace circus farm, farming operations are carried on 
in a big way. In the matter of manure spreading al¬ 
ready mentioned, for instance, five McCormick-Deering 
spreaders are employed and the use to which each of 
these machines is put in three winter months is the 
equivalent of that which a machine on the average farm 
gets in five years. The Wallace farm people load these 
spreaders heavily and sometimes when the manure is 
frozen and the going unusually hard, horses or mules 
are not equal to the pulling job necessary. It is then 
that an elephant hitched to a spreader as shown in the 
illustration steps in and makes the job easy. 
* * * 
When They Ruilt Wheelbarrows 
for the Women Folk 
A 
'THIS picture was taken from an issue of American 
Agriculturist published in April, 1846. The 
statement with it said: 
“She ought to have a 
small light wheelbarrow 
with long handles curving 
upwards, which by throw¬ 
ing the weight principally 
upon the wheel is moved 
with much more facility 
than those with long straight handles, does not strain 
the shoulders so much, and is better suited to woman’s 
dress as she is not obliged to bend the body so much 
forward, which throws the skirt upon the ground and 
puts her every moment in danger of being tripped up 
and having her nose broken.” 
Times have certainly degenerated, for now the ladies 
won’t use any kind of a wheelbarrow even when it is 
especially arranged for them. 
* * * 
Gasoline Engine a Time and Labor Saver 
VA7E FIND the gasoline engine to be one of the 
t V greatest things ever invented for saving time, 
labor and strength. I believe every farmer should own 
one. As labor is so scarce and high-priced now, one of 
the great benefits derived from one of these engines 
(where one possesses a washing machine) is that the 
family washing can be done in a few hours by most 
any member of the family from the housewife down. 
Then, there are still a good many other uses to which 
the engine may be applied that will greatly lessen the 
hard task of work or labor. The woodsaw, p um p, feed 
cutter, separator, corn crusher, all can be done with this 
little labor-saver, and operated at little expense. One 
will pay for itself in six months’ time.—W. H. H. 
* * * 
Before Horses and After 
AN old-fashioned haying scene, contrasted with one 
T*. right up-to-the-minute. Haying with the old 
methods went pretty slowly, and often it lasted close to 
eight or ten weeks. It was 
the big job of the year, 
but fortunately there was 
plenty of help. Modern 
machinery is the chief 
reason for the over-pro¬ 
duction of farm crops, in 
spite of the large drift of 
farm population to the 
cities. Without the ma¬ 
chinery on the farms, city people would either have to 
return to the land in large numbers, or else starve. 
A Milk House That Has Many Good Features 
(Continued from page 588) 
from the tank and which serves as a supply for drinking- 
purposes. Overflow from the cooling vat passes to a 
stock tank in the barnyard. From here, the overflow 
is carried also to two or three other drinking fountains 
m different lots about the place. For power purposes 
in case the wind fails, a small motor in one corner of 
the milk house is belted to an overhead shaft, from 
which the pump can be operated. Power also is 
supplied from the same source for operating a churn 
and a separator. 
The milk house itself has been designed in such a 
way that its lines are in harmony with those of the 
base supports of the windmill tower. The reader’s 
attention is called to the method employed of altering 
the stays on the tower frame at the point where these 
would otherwise interfere with the use of the door. 
