for harvesting the grain. In the first part of the century all the
work was done with the flail, and on farms where a large amount of
grain was grown it kept a man busy a good part of the winter to thresh
it. The first improvement was in threshing the grain by tramping it
out with horses, and with two men and four horses, under the most
favorable conditions, from fifty to one hundred bushels could be
threshed in a day. But by both these methods there was the disadvantage
that in all damp weather the work must be stopped, as the grain would
become so tough that it could not be threshed. Another disadvantage
of these methods was that it took a long time to prepare the crop for
market, and in case of a sudden rise in price the farmer could not
take advantage of it as he now can when his grain is all threshed in a
single day and held in the granary for sale. In the thirties, the first
threshing machines were put in use, and were but little improvement
over the method of tramping with horses. The machines were of small
capacity, and simply threshed the grain, but did not separate it from
the straw and chaff, both of which operations had to be done by hand;
and if the straw was to be saved, either in the barn or in a stack, it
had to be all handled with rakes and forks. The first threshing machine
that the writer ever saw was one that was called “The Traveller.” This
was followed by machines run by stationary horse-power. These were
called “chaff pilers,” from the fact that they threshed the wheat but
did not separate it from the straw or chaff. The first horse-powers
were inclined planes, or endless chain powers, as they were called,
and were run by the weight of the horses, the floor revolving under
their weight as they attempted to go up the grade. These were soon
superseded by lever powers, made at first for two or four horses, but
afterward increased in size and power until ten or twelve horses were
used; and about this time the machinery for separating the grain and
chaff was added to the machine. It almost seemed to the farmers at this
time that perfection had been reached when two or three hundred bushels
could be threshed in a day and also cleaned; but the feeding of this
large number of horses was a heavy tax upon the farmers, particularly
when a rainy day would intervene before the job was finished, and they
were obliged to keep the horses two or three days. The invention and
introduction of the mounted steam-engine not only saved the farmer
from this expense, but also increased the power and doubled the daily
capacity of the machine. For a short time the farmers were satisfied
with this; but the engine was heavy, and often the farmers’ teams
were light, and as it was the rule that each man must draw the engine
from his farm to where the next job was to be done, and often the
distance was great and the roads bad, it was not long until he tired
of this. Then came the traction engine, which not only transported
itself but also drew the thresher and separator. About this time
another difficulty arose; for now that the machine had been improved
and the power increased so that under favorable conditions a thousand
bushels could be threshed in a day, the handling of the straw became a
serious problem, for it was impossible to build it in a stack suitable
for keeping as fast as the machine would deliver it. The first step
to lighten and expedite this labor was in adding a straw carrier, a
kind of revolving platform, which was attached to the separator and
would lift the straw some twelve or fifteen feet. For a year or two
the farmers were satisfied with this help, but soon found that it was
inadequate for the work. Then the stacker was invented, a separate
machine which was backed under the straw carrier to receive the straw,
and which had, mounted on wheels, an elevator which would carry the
straw to a height of twenty-five or thirty feet; and not only could it
do this, but it was the work of a moment, with a crank at its base,
to raise it, and it could be run at any angle. When the machine first
started, the straw carrier was placed horizontally, and as the stack
grew in height, it was raised until in the finishing out of the stack
it stood at an angle of forty-five degrees or more. The straw carrier
could not only be raised, but by an ingenious arrangement of small
wheels, it could be moved from side to side by a light pressure with
one hand, or by a man on the stack pushing it with his fork. With
this admirable machine for handling the straw, it seemed as though
perfection had been reached, and that there was now practically nothing
more to be desired. But it was not long until the farmer found that
with the delivery of six tons of straw per hour it was heavy work for
six men to build the stack, and that it was the most disagreeable work
about the machine because of the dust. About 1890, some inventive
genius produced the “blower” to take the place of the stacker. This
is a long jointed tube, some sixteen or eighteen inches in diameter,
mounted at the rear of the cylinder through which the straw is forced
by compressed air which is furnished by the machine. It can be raised
or lowered, turned to the right or to the left, so as to deliver
the straw at any desired point on the stack. It is managed by a man
standing on top of the separator near the rear end, does away entirely
with any hands on the stack, and thus reduces the force about six
men. Some other improvements which have been added are the putting of
knives in the cylinder to cut the bands, thus saving one or two hands,
for often it was necessary to have a man on each side for cutting the
bands when the wheat was dry and the work was done with the greatest
rapidity. Then a revolving platform, called a self-feeder, was added in
front of the cylinder, on which platform the bundles could be thrown
from a wagon standing on each side, and be carried automatically and
dumped into the cylinder, doing away with the man who formerly fed the
bundles to the machine. To some machines an automatic weigher has been
attached, which does away with a man for measuring and keeping tally
of the wheat. Compare for a moment this modern machinery which, with
a force of twelve or fourteen men, will thresh and clean for market
from 1200 to 1600 bushels of wheat per day, with the man with the flail
laboriously pounding out ten bushels, and you will get a vivid idea
of the progress in agricultural machinery. One somewhat curious fact
must be taken into account in this, which is, that with some of these
most wonderful machines the cost of labor is about the same it formerly
was. But the advantage is that the work can be done in a few hours, and
the farmer’s crop be ready for market to take advantage of increased
prices, while by the old plan the work would reach almost through the
winter.
[Illustration: AUTOMATIC MOUNTED STACKER WITH FOLDING ATTACHMENT.]
In the cutting and handling of hay there has been as great improvement
as in any portion of the farm. A first-class mowing machine, new from
the shop, can now be bought for $40 or less, and with it the farmer can
drive to the field after supper, in the cool of the day, and in an hour
cut more grass, and do it better, than a man could with a scythe by
working hard all day.
[Illustration: DISK HARROW.]
Instead of shaking out the swaths slowly with a fork, with a single
horse hitched to a hay tedder about two acres an hour can be shaken up
and left in such shape that both sun and wind have perfect access to it
and cause it to cure rapidly.
Instead of raking the hay laboriously by hand, a steel sulky rake does
the work easily and quickly, doing more in an hour than was possible in
a day with the hand rake. On farms where the acreage of hay is large, a
self-loader attached to the rear of the wagon gathers the hay from the
windrow and delivers it on the wagon. At the barn, instead of the slow
and wearisome hand pitching, the hay fork and hay carrier deliver it in
the top of the highest barns.
[Illustration: ACME HARROW.]
The invention of the hay baler enables the farmer now to condense his
crop, so that one third of the room for storage formerly required for
hay will answer; and it also enables him to ship it to market by rail,
where formerly it was necessary that it should be taken in wagons.
While the plough has not been improved to the extent that many of
our farm implements have been, it is vastly superior to those used by
the pioneers, and modifies somewhat the adage of “Poor Richard,” who
wrote:—
“He who by the plough would thrive,
Himself must either hold or drive;”
for the modern ploughman must not only hold and drive, but drive
three horses at that, and turn as many acres in a day. Another adage
attributed to “Poor Richard” was—
“Plough deep while sluggards sleep,
And you shall have corn to sell and keep.”
But the modern farmer has learned that the depth to which he ploughs
must be governed by the nature of his soil, and that deep ploughing on
heavy clay lands, or lands with a crude subsoil, is often the cause of
short crops and permanent injury to the soil.
It is doubtful if in any line of farm implements there has been more
improvement than in that of harrows; and yet this improvement dates
back but about a quarter of a century, as previous to that time the
old “A” harrow or drag, which was hard on the team and did indifferent
work, was the only one found on most farms. More recently the cutting
and slicing harrows have been largely introduced, and many other forms
of improved harrows have been put on the market. For the preparation of
hard land for a seed bed, especially for small grain, the disk harrow
cannot be excelled.
But for garden use, or for pulverizing sod land which has not been too
much compacted, the slicing Acme harrow is the most perfect implement
in use, it being of light draft, easily transferred from field to
field, and capable of making the finest and best seed-bed.
The cultivators in use have been greatly improved. It is necessary to
describe but two of them. The two-horse cultivator with fenders, which
enables the farmer to cultivate both sides of the row at once, driving
two horses in the field instead of one, as by the old method, has more
than doubled the capacity of the individual; as by its use he is able
not only to cultivate both sides of the row at once, but to dispense
entirely with the man who, under the old rule, was obliged to follow
the cultivator and uncover the corn. This “fender” is exceedingly
simple, and the only wonder is that it took the farmer so long to
find out its value. Costing but a few cents, it has saved the farmers
millions of dollars, as previous to its adoption it was necessary to
have one man follow each one-horse plow to uncover the corn. There
are two forms of this “fender,” the simplest being a light piece of
galvanized sheet iron attached to the cultivator or plow so as to come
just between it and the row of corn; the other is in the form of a
rolling cutter, and attached in the same way. With either of these the
farmer goes into the field as soon as the young plants can be seen in
the row, drives his team astride the row, and stirs every inch of the
soil, putting a little fresh earth around each hill of corn or potatoes
without covering a single plant. As a single State grows some millions
of acres of corn, it can be seen that the saving from this little
invention to the farmers amounts to millions of dollars in a single
year.
The old idea of deep cultivation of most crops has been proven to be
wrong, and modern implements are made to cultivate the surface to a
depth of two or three inches rather than to tear up the roots of the
plants; and one of the most perfect of all implements for this purpose
is the “Planet Junior one-horse cultivator.”
Perhaps no other class of machines has relieved the farmer more than
the ones for planting the grain; and with a modern two-horse corn
planter two rows can be planted at a time in checkered rows, so that
it can be cultivated both ways and with more precision, both as to
alignment and as to the number of plants in a hill, than by the old
hand method of planting. The small grain is sown by a two-horse drill
arranged for not only the grain, but at the same time to deposit
commercial fertilizer along the rows of grain, and with a grass seed
sower attached. In the garden a hand drill is used. It is easily
adjustable to any sized seed, from that of the turnip up to beans and
peas, and the seed is perfectly distributed in straight rows, while the
garden hand cultivator does away largely with the use of the hoe.
[Illustration: DOUBLE CORN CULTIVATOR.]
One other modern implement, which promises to be very useful, is “the
weeder,” and its value rests on two facts which it required the farmer
many years to discover. The first is that the thorough pulverizing of
the surface, even to the depth of an inch, breaks the capillaries and
checks the evaporation of moisture; but to do this it is necessary that
the work be done just as soon after a rain as the land will crumble,
and since often if a drying wind blows the land gets dry in a few
hours, a machine is needed that will enable the farmer to thus stir a
large surface in a short time; and this the weeder does, as it is made
to cover the width of three rows at once, and more than two acres an
hour can be stirred with a single machine. The other fact which makes
this implement of great value is that all weeds are easily exterminated
when in embryo, and this stirring of the soil kills every one that is
starting.
One other machine which has been greatly improved is the clover huller.
Previous to its invention, most of the clover seed was sown in the
chaff, and when clean seed was required it took several days’ work with
four horses to tramp out three or four bushels, and then much of the
seed was left in the chaff.
The modern huller is equipped with the blower and self-feeder, and with
it from twenty to fifty bushels can be hulled and cleaned in a day, the
amount depending on how well filled the heads are with seed.
It is quite recently that machinery has been invented that relieves the
farmer of the hard work of planting potatoes by hand, and at the same
time does the work better than the old way, as the machine drops the
seed at a uniform distance apart and covers it perfectly. A man with
this machine will do the work of eight or ten men dropping by hand.
Several potato diggers, operated by horse power, have also come into
recent use. They greatly lighten and accelerate the work, and the cost
of growing potatoes has been reduced several cents a bushel by these
inventions.
III. IMPROVEMENT OF STOCK.
Perhaps it would be well in beginning to write on this subject to ask,
what is “pedigreed stock”? Many people have the idea that pedigreeing
is an arbitrary rule adopted by stock growers to mystify the buyer and
secure larger prices for their stock. The fact is that it is intended
as a protection to the purchaser, and is, or should be, a guarantee
that the stock has been bred along certain lines for a sufficient
period to establish the desirable qualities which it is wished to
perpetuate. A rigid censorship is exercised over the record books, and
it makes every one recording stock, in a certain sense, a detective to
see that the records are truthful and represent the animals just as
they are.
It is doubtful if along any line of farm operations there has been
greater improvement than in the breeding and care of stock; yet there
were greater difficulties to overcome in doing this than in improving
the implements. These difficulties may be classed as follows: First,
the one already alluded to in the opening chapter, to wit, the expense
of importing and the consequent high price of thoroughbred animals; and
when we recall that this was at a time when the farmers were hewing
out their homes from the forest, and could not obtain large prices
for their products, it will be seen that few farmers could afford to
improve their stock. Second, as to cattle and hogs, it was almost
impossible to breed pure stock; for all animals were allowed to run
at large, and the woods were full of “tramp males,” which would break
through the fences and invade the fields where the improved stock was
kept. Third, those engaged in breeding stock found that there was a
limit which when reached brought barrenness to high-bred animals, and
in many other cases reduced the vitality so as to invite disease.
That this evil was a real and serious one is shown from the fact that
large numbers of high-priced animals failed to produce young among
cattle, and that many herds of pedigreed swine were carried off by
epidemic diseases. Fourth, and perhaps the most serious hindrance
to improvement, was the indifference of farmers and the want of
appreciation of good stock, and of course the farmer who did not want
it would not coöperate in producing it.
The difference between the improvement of implements and stock
consisted largely in the fact that trained mechanics were responsible
for the former, and they would perfect the implements until the farmers
could not afford to do without them; while the slipshod farmer would
be satisfied with his common stock, and would fail to accept the help
of the men who were trying to improve it. Another thing which farmers
learned slowly was that good stock requires good care, which not only
means shelter and liberal feeding, but also that the food be adapted to
the wants of the animal. More fine animals were ruined by over-feeding
with corn—a heating and fattening diet—than by insufficient food and
exposure to cold and storm. It took many years to teach the farmer what
a balanced ration was, and why it was necessary.
[Illustration: MODERN CLOVER HULLER.
Showing Uncle Tom’s Stacker and Self-Feeder.]
It would be interesting to take up each separate breed of cattle and
trace its source, giving credit to the men who improved and developed
it, and the date of each importation; but the limitations of this
article forbid anything more than brief mention of the more prominent
breeds, and many which possess great merit cannot be even mentioned.
The improved cattle of the United States may be grouped under three
heads—beef, dairy, and general purpose. Of the first the Short-horn
holds, perhaps, the highest place, or certainly did for a long series
of years. These for many years were bred under the name of “Durham,”
but about a generation ago the name began to undergo a change to
Short-horn.
These animals, while especially adapted to the block, are fairly good
milkers, and some strains of them are superior dairy cows. They have
the quality of early maturity and produce a larger per cent of fine
cuts of meat than most, if not any, other breeds. These cattle were
first imported into America in 1797, and many other importations were
made during the first half of the present century.
Another breed which closely resembles the Short-horn is the Hereford.
These cattle are usually of a uniform color—a pale red—with white
face, breast, and flanks, and drooping horns. They were first
introduced by Henry Clay in 1817. Another importation was made in 1840,
but it was not until 1860 and subsequently that they were imported
largely and a “herd book” established for them. Since that time they
have multiplied largely.
[Illustration: HEREFORD COW. “LADY LAUREL.”]
The last of the three distinctly beef breeds is a hornless race
originating in Scotland, and known by the name of Aberdeen Angus,
Galloway, or Polled cattle. These cattle have the distinctive quality
of hardiness, and as they have very thick, close hair they are able
to subsist on the range without shelter better than perhaps any other
breed. The males have a remarkable prepotency, and the cross-bred
animals very rarely show horns. Like the Herefords, they are poor
milkers; for while their milk is rich, the quantity is small, and they
usually go dry for several months of the year. They were first imported
into this country about 1850, and in 1883 nine hundred were imported
and distributed among the cattle breeders of the plains. Polled cattle
are becoming more popular every year, and many farmers now dehorn the
cattle of other breeds; and the time is not far distant when horned
cattle will be the exception and not the rule.
The Channel Island group—the Jerseys, Alderneys, and
Guernseys—embraces unquestionably the best butter animals of the
world; and if we are to judge by their wide distribution and great
popularity, the Jerseys lead the list. They were first introduced into
the United States in 1820, and in 1850 large importations were made;
but it was during the decade from 1870 to 1880 that greatest interest
in the breed was awakened and large and frequent importations were
made. There has been a strong and bitter opposition to these cattle by
many farmers on account of their small size, but they have won their
way until they are more universally distributed, and are to be found
on more farms than any other breed. Remarkable yields of butter from
the individual have been recorded, many of them running from 12 to 18
pounds per week under high feeding and extra care.
While the Ayrshire possesses great merit, so few of them have been
imported into this country that it seems scarcely worth while to more
than mention them.
[Illustration: GROUP OF ABERDEEN-ANGUS CATTLE.]
Under the head of general-purpose animals come the Holsteins, Devon,
and Red Polls. All of these breeds possess fine qualities. The
Holsteins were probably not introduced into this country until the last
half of the century, and the “Holstein Herd-Book,” published in 1882,
shows that about 5000 registered animals were in this country at that
date. While fair beef cattle, the Holsteins are deep milkers, and show
a record of the largest quantity of milk of any breed in America,—some
cows giving over 12,000 pounds of milk in a year. The milk, however,
is not as rich in butter fat as that of the Jersey, but probably they
are the best breed of dairy cows for the cheese factory in the United
States.
The Devons are beautiful red cattle. They do not rank as large
milkers, but produce a superior quality of milk, and are unexcelled
in this respect by any breed but the Jersey. One peculiarity about the
breed is the comparative smallness of the cow; for while the steer will
weigh from 1400 to 1600 pounds, the cows will average only from 800 to
1000 pounds each.
[Illustration: JERSEY COW. IDA OF ST. LAMBERT.]
The importation of Red Polls from England is comparatively recent, and
they come nearer filling the idea of a general purpose animal than
any other breed in America. The first importation was made in 1873,
and consisted of only four animals. Two years later four more were
imported, and in 1882 twenty-five. Other importations soon followed.
They are of a uniformly cherry-red color, with occasionally the tip of
the tail white or a little white about the udder. Ninety per cent of
the grades are hornless. They are of large size, mature bulls weighing
from 1800 to 2200 pounds, and occasionally one will exceed 2500 pounds.
Cows weigh from 1100 to 1600 pounds, and will average 1200. That they
mature early the following weights, copied from the report of the
Smithfield Club, of England, will show:—
Steer, twenty-two and one half months old, weighed 1390 lbs.
Heifer, twenty-one and three quarters months old, weighed 1258 lbs.
Steer, twenty-three and one half months old, weighed 1500 lbs.
Steer, twenty-two months old, weighed 1336 lbs.
At the same show a mature cow was exhibited that weighed 1903 pounds.
As dairy cattle they show good records, giving an average of 5500
pounds of milk per year, and some have exceeded 500 pounds of butter in
a year, milking over 300 days.
While the United States can show as good horses as any other country
in the world, they are not as generally distributed among the farmers
as are animals of other breeds of stock. This perhaps can be accounted
for, first, from the fact that a horse must be mature, and not less
than six years old, before it can be put on the market; and that the
low price of the service—fee of grades and scrub stallions—is too
great a temptation to the farmer who is in debt and short of money.
Still, our standard has been advancing, and there is a sure but slow
bettering of the working stock of the country.
[Illustration: POLAND-CHINA HOG.]
In the draft class we have the Norman, Percheron, Clydesdale, and
Belgian, and possibly some others, while the Cleveland Bay comes as
near the general-purpose horse as any other breed. The importations
that have given us the magnificent horses which are being used in this
country have been made chiefly from France, England, Belgium, and
Germany. The blood of the English thoroughbred and of the Arab has also
contributed to the development of the qualities desired.