FARM POWER. Aside from the labor of man and the domestic animals on the farm, the sources of power available to the farmer are the natural forces of wind and falling water, and the mechanical power generated by engines through the combustion of some kind of fuel. The power afforded by the windmill, although the cheapest to install and maintain, is uncertain and comparatively feeble, and it has been em ployed only to a limited extent. It has the serious disadvantage of not being portable power, and has to be used where it is located. In some few cases the power of windmills has been converted into electricity and thus dis tributed about the farm. The various types of farm water-wheels develop a larger and more dependable power than windmills, but labor under the same disadvantage in point of porta bility. The cheap, portable, reliable farm power of the present day is the gasoline or kerosene motor. The steam engine is also available but is of much heavier and more complex construc tion, more expensive to buy and requiring more skill to maintain. As to cost of operation, the steam engine is undoubtedly the cheapest where there is wood on the farm. The cost of run ning it is about one-sixth that of doing the same work with horses. Gasoline and oil motors are but little more expensive than steam ma chinery, and consequently are much more in favor.
Gasoline engines for farm use are made in two distinct types: stationary and tractor. The former can be used for many kinds of work which can conveniently be brought to the en gines — such as churning, pumping of water, corn shelling, feed cutting, threshing, etc.; the
tractor engine is for work which cannot be brought to the power — where the engine must th go to the work— such as plowing and harrow ing, seeding, mowing and reaping and harvest ing. The stationary types are adapted to several different kinds of fuel, burning indifferently kerosene, distillate or alcohol, as well as gaso line. The tractor engines are comparatively heavy, ranging from 6,000 pounds upward. A tractor of that weight will do the same amount of hauling as 12 horses, and do it continuously, without requiring time for rest. Heavier machines of 10,000 pounds will exert tractive power equal to 25 to 30 horses. These tractors are geared down to slow speeds of one and three quarter to two miles per hour for use in plowing, which cannot be done faster. They burn gasoline as a rule. For farms within reach of an electric power plant there is the portable electric motor which is serviceable in a multi= tude of farm operations, even to doing the milking. (See FARM MACHINERY; HYDRAULIC RAMS WATER-WHEEL; WINDMILL) . Consult Eighmger, S. IL, and Hutton, M. S., 'Steam Traction Engineering' (New York 1916)1 Hirshfield, C. F., and Ulbricht, T. C., 'Farm Gas Engines) (New York 1913) ; Page, V. W., The Modern Gas Tractor) (New York 1913) ; Potter, A. A., 'Farm Motors) (New York 1917); Shane, A. 'Electric Power on the Farm' (New York 1915); Stephenson, J. H., Farming and Traction Engineering' and Engines and How to Run Them' (Chicago 1913).