The Push to Mechanize

Discusses the effecientcy of gasoline powered sowers and how new macheniery is needed to keep up with the new demand levels 

The new demands for food production during WWI acted as a catalyst for mechanization

Shows the effeicently levels of the Allis Chalmers tractor via statistics.

Up until this point any and all machinery has been horse powered. The important thing to note is that it takes nearly five years to produce a horse capable of fulfilling and keeping up with the demand of laborious farm work.¹ Already not meeting emerging demands, horse power became even less reliable after WWI withdrew over one million horses from American soil. Another drawback of the horse is that one-fifth of all farmed product has to go back into him in the form of food.²  The final drawback that drove many farmers towards gas powered machinery was, because of the scarcity, the cost of a horse has increased %143 over the course of 10 years. Luckily new developments within the automobile and motor industries had taken off and were readily available to relieve farmers of their financial crisis.

Another factor swaying farmers away from horse labor was wartime. WWI was a huge stressor to American farmers, not only did they have to provide for 100 million American citizens but being the only country not hosting battle, they were asked to help feed the millions of allies overseas.³ (picture link) American farmers faced the haunting relaxation that they now had to double, maybe even triple their foodstuffs production. The final stressor that pushed farmers to mechanize was industrialization and subsequent urbanization. After industry was proven to provide better wages, southern individuals flocked to the new urban hubs. No longer able to produce their own food sources, these individuals looked to the farms they left behind and bombarded them with an unprecedented amount of crop demands. Wilson Gee author of THE EFFECTS OF URBANIZATION ON AGRICULTURE writes, “Yet, undoubtedly, the presence of urban aggregations does provide an increased market to the surrounding countryside, not only for its cotton in the textile mills of the South, for tobacco in the tobacco manufacturing plants, for lumber in the furniture factories, but also for fruits and vegetables, fresh and canned, dairy and livestock products”.⁴ ( pg.11) Increased demands left already underproducing farmers frantically searching for any means to stay afloat. 

To completely replace animal labor, increase the quality, and quantity of products, farming machinery had to be extremely complex. The horse was a flexible means of power and was proving difficult to replicate on a mechanized level. The immediate need is for a machine that will complete the same task as a horse and pull farming attachments, thereby increasing the available food source. After the food crisis is down to a more manageable level a more efficient method of power is still needed, this is where the farm tractor comes into play. The farm tractor allows land to be prepped, sowed, and reaped at rates never seen before. Gas powered tractors did not have the same limitations as horses, they did not need breaks nor did they render one-fifth of their product unviable.⁵ After proving themselves worth the investment, the tractor market exploded, dozens of different styles were released, each more efficient than the last creating a vast collection that farmers could hand choose from allowing them to go home with a tractor most suitable for their farm.