The chart shows the relative amount of power on American farms as compared with power used for manufacturing. All of this power on the farm is utilized through machinery, and the large investment in farm machinery makes it important that the best of care shall be given to insure long life and efficient service.
When the call came for greatly increased production many farmers who doubted their ability to handle the modern farm machinery hesitated to undertake the larger acreage. In some cases crops already started were not harvested for want of help and lack of ability to use the machinery that might have taken the place of man power.
The more complicated machinery becomes, the more important becomes its proper care and management. Neglect or improper usage shortens the life of the machines and often causes breakage, necessitating repair or new parts. The services of a man who has ability and training in the repair and operation of such implements are needed to secure the best results. If maximum life and service is not secured from farm equipment the farmer can not afford to have it. With maximum service the farmer can not afford to do without it.
The Farm Tractor
The tractor is the most important recent addition to farm equipment. Its use is increasing because it enables one man to do the work of several and do it better.
Many farmers hesitate to invest in the tractor and other modern machinery now available, because realizing that they are not mechanics, they doubt their ability to operate such equipment satisfactorily. Manufacturers employ mechanics to care for and operate their machines. Farmers must adopt similar methods. They are recognizing that in heavy farm work the tractor will accomplish more and do it better than horses, and that the tractor does not require feed or care when not being used.
The use of the tractor involves so many changes in methods of work that farmers are often staggered by the new problems to be solved. Every farmer has grown into the use of horses and horse-drawn equipment. He knows he can handle them, but he has not the same conscience in his ability to handle the tractor and the machinery that goes with it.
The farm mechanic will be expected to operate the tractor in plowing, seeding, cultivating, harvesting, and various other operations. He will be able to get more and better work out of the tractor and other machines than one who does not fully understand them.
If the services of a trained farm mechanic were obtainable, many farmers would adopt the methods of the manufacturer, and they would find it profitable to use such modern machinery as is adaptable to their needs. This machinery, to give the best service, must be kept in first-class condition, which requires the attention of a mechanic familiar with farm machinery, not a machinist trained to do one, two, or several things in a fully equipped up-to-date machine shop, but an ingenious all-round mechanic who can keep the equipment in condition for operation at all times.