Farming evolution was no 6 over~night 9 revolution Agriculture has gone through some tremendous changes over the past couple of centuries. From hand power to horsepower; from horsepower to mechanical power. From a tune when almost everyone had to farm just to get something to eat, to a time when hardly anyone farms and there’s too much to eat. It’s been a very gradual evolution—m fact there was hardly any evolution at all from the time of the first settlers untd the period surrounding the Civil War when man power became scarce and farmers were pressed into using horses and the many advanced machines available to do their farm work. It may come as a surprise to many that American farmers were slow to change. They had neither the financial ability or the motivation to buy reapers, gang plows, gram drills, threshing machines, and all the rest of the gadgets available to them in the mid-IBoos. Sure, they had horses and oxen, MADE FOR EACH OTHER • Repower your skid-steer loader with a DEUTZ F2L-511 diesel, 31 Hp @ 2500 RPM • Next time your gas powered loader engine breaks dpwn, get a Deutz repower job done by us. Costs much less than new diesel load ers, plus quicker tax write-off too. • This engine is the diesel option used in most of the major brand skid loaders. • Most hydrostatic drive and some belt drive loaders can be economically repowered. Call Harold Stauffer for details. 19 ftaufteur Diesel Inc. Farm Talk Jerry Webb and they were used as beasts of burden. But they were utilized much the same as they had for centuries. They did the really heavy work that men could not do. like pulling a wooden plow, drag ging, heavy stones and logs, or pulling a wagon. But seeds were planted by hand and crops were cultivated with a hoe and most harvesting was a slow, laborious hand process. In the years just prior to the Civil War, it took about 50 manhours to produce an acre of wheat. Typical farming technique of the period involved a walking plow, a bundle of brush used as a harrow, hand broadcasting of the seed, har vesting with- a sickle, and threshing with a flail. For that effort, the farmer reaped about 20 bushels of grain. -With that kind of labor requirement, it’s easy to see why about two-thirds of those gainfully employed in this country during that time were involved in far ming. Advanced farm machinery was available m the pre-Civil War period—it just wasn’t being used by farmers. In the first place it cost money, and that was something farmers didn’t have. They could go for years and never see more than a few dollars as they ate what they produced and bar tered for the'things they couldn’t produce. And so to invest in a grain drill or a threshing machine was out of the question. inventors were spitting out new equipment ideas during the first half of the 19th Century, much faster than farmers were willing to change. Here’s a partial list of farm machinery that was patented during that period: a mowing machine, an iron plow with in terchangeable parts, a revolving hay rake, a gram reaper, even a grain combine was patented in the early 1800 s. There were also major developments in other agricultural techniques during that period. New breeds of livestock, new crops, improved varieties of existing crops, agricultural magazines, advanced technology in food preservation, and transportation. It was a magruficient tune for new technology, and yet farmers were slow to adopts this new in formation. And then, in 1861 a Civil War began and it triggered the first great agricultural revolution. Two factors—a shortage of manpower and a general im provement in farm incomes caused farmers to start looking at new ways to do things. Other developments followed that assured a continuing flow of agricultural technology, and an exodus from agriculture began that has continued to this day. In 1820 there were almost 10 million people in the United States, with 72 percent of those gainfully employed engaged in agriculture. By 1890, the population had in creased to more than 60 billion, but barely a third lived on farms. Of TWO NEW! DEUTZ MODELS DX-120 - 110 HpPTO Today fuel-efficiency is mandatory! No tractor in its class does it better than the DX-120. New larger engine: F6L-913, 375 CID. Plus - EconoCool maximum efficiency cooling system. Exhaust gas temperature controlled- automatic cooling system saves power and fuel. 6- 8% BETTER ECONOMY THAN THE DX -110. DX-120 Stocked In 2-Wheel and 4-Wheei Drive. -Compare Them In Your Own Field. GET THE FEEL OF A NEW DEUTZ TRACTOR - CHECK THE FUEL ECONOMY . ASK FOR A DEMO - even if you are not buying now! Call Harold Stauffer Lancaster Farming, Saturday, August 15,1981—€39 course, that was a time of ex panding agriculture through the westward movement. There were homesteads to be had. land to be cleared, and agriculture was growing. But it was growing with less and less man-hours per acre and per unit of production. A farmer was still growing 20 bushels of wheat to the acre, but he was doing it with-only 10 hours of labor. And he was using a gang plow, 'a mechanical seeder, a harrow, a binder, and a threshing machine all powered with horses. World War I signaled another dramatic shift in farm production as the tractor started to replace , "horsepower. By 1930, the typical If you yearn for the good old days farmer was . still producing 20 of sweaty horses, hand-picked com bushels of wheat per acre, but he * an d 3 walking plow, then you can was doing that with only four hours probably see lots of things wrong of labor. And he was using a with modem agriculture, tractor pulling a three-bottom But when you sit down at the gang plow, a 10-foot tandom disk, dinner table tonight, remember and a grain combine. He also that progress puts food on the table hauled his output to market in a bi unheard of, even unnecessary {Puck, abundance, and still one acre in But consider this: U.S. four produces for the world nnpulation has reached almost 123 market. USDA proposes change in marking meat products WASHINGTON Requirements to delete two shippers’ certificates for the sale, transportation and currently required for the tran marking of certain meat products spoliation of U.S. inspected and would be simplified under a rule passed meat and meat food proposed by the U.S. Department products. of Agriculture. - The proposal also would expedite Donald L. Houston, * ad- the return of alleged adulterated or ministrator of USDA’s Food Safety misbranded meat products by and Inspection Service, said the retail stores to slaughter or proposal is intended to reduce the processing plants by revoking a paperwork requirements imposed special permit now needed to on the meat industry in the tran- accompany the products. In it’s spoliation of edible and inedible place, the proposal would require meat food products. that oral permission be obtained Under the proposal, the food from the federal supervisor of the safety and inspection agency plans --area m which the plant is located. 312 W. MAIN STREET. NEW HOLLAND. PA PH: 717-354-4181 million people while the farm population had increased by only four million, compared with 40 years before. The country was growing, but the farm population had virtually stagnated, even at a time when farm productivity was expanding. Today, a handful of Americans till this great continent from coast to coast, using large machinery, sophisticated technology, and huge amounts of capital. And instead of man-hours per acre, farmers count acres per man hour. If you’re against progress, then you don’t like the story of American agriculture. D 5207 - 52 Hp PTO This is a gutsy, powerful, highly dependable utility tractor based upon the D 5206 which had a phenomenal reliability record. OUTSTANDING FEATURES: 4- Engine: Deutz F3L-912, Most fuel-efficient in its class. + Transmission: Same series as used on 5506, 6206 and 6207. Fully synchro shift on the go, two big shift levers. Transmission, drive line and axles are actually oversized. 4-Independent PTO clutch. - 4- Brakes: Sealed disc brake as used on 5506,6206,^5207. 4- Max. operating weight: 8800 lbs SEE OUR DISPLAY* ’at AG progressl DAYS AUG. 25-27 172 CID
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers