Ask the Mechanic

Steve Thompson, Contributing Columnist

Driving by old farm-equipment yards, it's easy to see where comfort wasn't. Steel wheels, rotten rubber, old cranks and chains. Today's farming equipment has made a vast transition -- as I like to say -- from mules to marvels. One of my favorite stories is about the farmer who kept crossing the newly paved road in front of his house with his new tractor decked out with iron lugs. The law kept a close watch on farmers crossing roads with lugs, a big ticket for tearing up asphalt. Still, farmers resisted rubber -- flats, lack of traction, shortages, among its modern problems.

WHEN OLD WAS NEW

New technology is amazing, but if you think about it, the old equipment was just as amazing when it was new. One day, I grabbed my camera and went to Leonard, Texas, to visit Lumpkins Farms, an 8,000-acre family-farming and cattle operation that began in the late 1800s, to see its "comfortable" equipment. The line is highly modern. But, just to note, the operation also has one mule, Fred -- a pretty old puller still living off the Lumpkins Farms. Butt comfort was a common piece of the conversation on this day. "I remember the steel seats that burned your behind in the summer and freezes your behind in the winter," Ronnie Lumpkin says. Brad, his son, finds the modern seat to his liking. "The computerized active seat acts before the driver feels the hump or drop in the field."

Some modern technology can teach harsh lessons. Lumpkins Farms sprayer is usually driven by Jose "Cowboy" Munoz. Cowboy told me he loves the technology, but he finds the "artificial intelligence" of the machine is sometimes too smart. "Like the time I folded up the 120-foot boom and forgot to turn off the sprayer -- and because I missed a spot in the field, the sprayer knew that and came on -- I cleaned on the sprayer all afternoon."

Jake Childers likes the Lumpkins' planter. The monitor tells you everything that you ever wanted to know about each row being planted. "Since the tractor drives itself, and the monitor is watching every planting operation, I can run all day and all night, and never spill a drop of coffee. But, don't go to sleep," he says. "There are no stop signs in the field."

I believe three pieces of equipment have advanced the most into the "comfort zone," by their speed of operation and technology -- the tractor, planter and harvester. I'm dipping into my book, "The History of Farm Equipment: Mules to Marvels" for information about the tractor, planter and combine. I wrote the book during my time at Navarro College, at Corsicana, Texas, as part of its Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series.

-- TRACTOR. Horses and mules were popular animals used for farming until around 1900 to 1914, when the gas tractor began to make its way into agriculture. Horses were responsible for providing the word "horsepower," although I don't think a 25-horsepower compact tractor of today would pull the same load of 25 horses. There were 23 million horses and mules working the land in those days. It took "full steam ahead" to get a train moving, but after it was rolling, the amount of steam needed to move the train dropped off dramatically. A steam tractor was always "full steam ahead." Keeping water and fuel available was a chore.

Crude oil (completely raw) was the first fuel used in farm machinery. Gas from crude came about in 1861, when a small refinery that refined kerosene for lamps accidentally found that the waste byproduct burned well. In 1892, John Froelich built the first gas-powered tractor in the United States. In 1895, Rudolf Diesel experimented with an engine that ran with only heat from compression. He invented diesel (a light oil) that performed in his new engine. Diesel fuel remains the dominant fuel today.

-- PLANTER. Centuries of primitive planting techniques passed before the relatively new and modern mechanization of planting. It was Englishman Jethro Tull in about 1701 who developed a horse-drawn implement that planted in uniformly spaced straight rows. In America, the first practical two-horse planter was developed by George W. Brown, of Western Illinois. It appeared in about 1850. Brown's planter required a rider to keep the seed agitated as the planter moved through the field. Charles Deere and Alvah Mansur in 1877 built a corn planter to compete for some of Brown's business. The first Deere and Mansur planter was produced in 1881. It was interesting that the planter held a roll of wire. The farmer would stretch the roll of wire through the field before each pass. When the barb on the wire tripped the planter, it would drop a seed. Planters were built for both horse and tractor applications. The McCormick-Deering planter allowed for both -- the farmer simply had to change the tongue.

-- HARVESTER. What was true about the harvest even many centuries ago is still true today: It must be fast. Weather can quickly destroy a ripe crop. The first significant event to revolutionize grain harvesting took place in 1831, when Cyrus McCormick demonstrated his mechanical reaper on John Steele's farm in Virginia. Although a bit crude, it did the work of six men. There's a good story behind Cyrus McCormick's reaper. Many believe the real inventor was Robert McCormick, Cyrus' father. Robert had been working on the machine for years before giving up. Why? Robert perfected the machine, except for one function: The reciprocating action needed to cut the grain. The back-and-forth motion of the blade took years to engineer. Adding to the controversy of "who invented the reaper" was Obed Hussey, a rugged sailor. Hussey's reaper was patented in 1833 and had been running for several years before that date. McCormick's reaper patented in 1834. Who really won the reaper race? History favors the familiar. So, Cyrus gets the credit. Whoever heard of the Hussey Reaper?

WHAT ARE YOUR MULES TO MARVELS?

Within the few generations of many modern farms, the means of production has evolved from Mules to Marvels -- from burning your butt on steel seats to air-conditioned, computerized seats, some of which actually massage the sitter's, well, the sitter.

We'd like to see photos of your "Mules to Marvels," old equipment that was a wonder in its day compared to equipment that can only be described as a wonder today. Below are some examples.

Send us the pictures -- either old and new together or separate -- and a few words about how they made/make farming life better then and now. We'll choose some of the best and print them during the next few months.

Send your "Mules to Marvels" to Progressive Farmer Mechanic, 2204 Lakeshore Drive, Suite 415, Birmingham, Alabama 35209.

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-- Write Steve Thompson at Ask The Mechanic, 2204 Lakeshore Dr., Suite 415, Birmingham, AL 35209, or email mechanic@progressivefarmer.com, and be sure to include your phone number.

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