Fact Book on Farm Power
Did you know that…
…Until the 1850’s, American farmers planted corn by hand,
the way the Indians had taught them?
…Peter Gaillard, of Lancaster, Pa., opened a new age for
haying technology when he patented a horse-drawn machine for mowing
grass in 1812?
…As the 20th Century opened, more than 5,000 steam traction
engines were being manufactured in the U.S. each year?
If you know all that, or do not, there’s far more you can
learn in a new book called American Farm Tools…from Hand-Power to
Steam-Power, by R. Douglas Hurt, Ohio farm historian.
The book has a photo of a huge Minneapolis engine in full steam
on its cover. The scene is dated 1909 in North Dakota. While only
the concluding chapter is devoted to steam traction engines as
power sources, the entire book should appeal to any person
interested in all kinds of farm implements.
Chapter headings give you an idea of the well-researched
contents:
The Plowman’s Tools…Seed Time…Weeding the Crop…The
Grain Harvesters…The Corn Harvesters…Threshing Time…The
Combines. ..Making Hay & Fodder…Steam Power…Metallurgy and
Technological Change in American Agriculture.
Author Hurt holds a Ph.D. degree in American history, and
specializes in farm history. He has written extensively. He is
Curator of History at the Ohio Historical Society, and has
obviously obtained a vast amount of knowledge. He assembles this
and puts it forth very ably.
The book, originally in the January 1982 issue of Journal of the
West, is published by Sunflower University Press at Manhattan,
Kan.
Hundreds of illustrations fit in with the informative text. You
can see a drawing of Jethro Wood’s 1814 plow; a Marsh harvester
at work; a horse-drawn Buckeye folding binder with bundle carrier,
and many photos of traction engines.
The Steam Power chapter traces use of steam in the U.S. back to
Oliver Evans at Philadelphia in 1807-8 into the time when steam
traction engines were being phased out of use in the 1920’s.
Case, Huber and Buffalo Pitts are among the engines shown.
The 120 pages include a bibliography and index.
