The Harvester World: Volume 5, number 9, September 1914

              Elimination of Farm Drudgery

By B. C. Wait, Superintendent Milwaukee Works
Many readers of The Harvester World doubtless saw the picture in a recent issue of a popular farm magazine, of an ideal farm of the future. It was drawn with all the detail characteristic of the work of the artist, Harrison Cady, showing the fields and buildings of a large farm where absolutely all work was done by ma¬ chinery. Operations were supervised from a central tower in which the farmer was comfortably seated within easy reach of push-buttons and control levers. There was no farm drudgery in that picture.
Perhaps no such farm ever will exist, but it is worthy of note that every IHC salesman has at his command today the machines needed for performing all the hard labor and the monotonous routine work of the farm which formerly could be done only by human beings or by animal power.
Members of the IHC organization know that our Company has been foremost in developing machinery and methods to enable the farming community to take one step after another toward ideal conditions. Oue of the more recent steps has been the adoption of the oil engine, acknowledged to be the most adaptable and most economical substitute for animal  power on the
the oil engine is not adaptable, or for which it is not desirable as a source of saving, not only of labor but of money.
Today we offer to the trade the result of long experi¬ ence and careful study, engines of the highest grade, those over 3-H. P. built to run really successfully on kerosene or distillate (39 degrees or over). We empha¬ size the fact that although many engines are advertised to operate on gasoline, kerosene or distillate, our engines are practically alone in running on kerosene, or similar fuels heavier than gasoline, economically and continuously, as satisfactorily as the best gasoline en¬ gines. There is no economy in the use of cheaper fuel, if consumption must be increased so that the total cost of operation is greater than when gasoline is used. But you can be sure of a saving always from the use of Titan engines, properly handled, by burning cheaper fuel, as compared with other engines consuming any kind of liquid fuel.
It would be out of place to repeat here what is written of the Titan line in descriptive cata¬ logs,  but it is worth while to touch upon the importance of the proper
Band playing and games in progress.   Noon scene on Milwaukee Works playground
farm. With the work of an I H C Titan oil engine as a basis for his argument, it should be easy for a sales¬ man to convince any farm operator of the truth of the saying: " It is altogether wrong for a human being to do what a machine can do as well or better."
The addition of the engine and tractor has rounded out the great IHC line and has made it finally possible really to eliminate farm drudgery. We are completing the tenth year of manufacture of engines at Milwaukee works. In that period of ten years we have seen a remarkable expansion of the engine trade.
It will be remembered that at first the engines built at Milwaukee were designed in size from 2-H. P. to IS- H. P. for use of gasoline only, with battery or hot-tube ignition. A small assortment of pulleys and other accessories were sufficient f or'all demands. The whole proposition then was comparatively simple. But beginning with our first year in the business, the line has increased steadily not only in quantity of output but in sizes, and in variety of equipment to meet new conditions as they have been developed and to permit wider application of this ideal farm power. It is diffi¬ cult now to find  any variety of farm work  to  which
care of engines and tractors in the field. Operators should be impressed with the fact that each Titan engine has been carefully tested and properly adjusted before shipment from Milwaukee. They should be informed that a high-grade engine deserves high-grade lubricants, correctly applied, that cleanliness of the engine and its surroundings is necessary, that all nuts must be kept tight. They should study and follow instructions in direction papers and Operator's Guide packed with each engine. The operator should be cautioned particu¬ larly to refrain from altering original settings of ad¬ justable parts of the engine until noticeable wear occurs; changes are rarely necessary, and if made thoughtlessly will result in more harm than good.
A word on compression: There is a story of the writ¬ ten complaint of a customer that his engine lacked compression, and the salesman's reply: " It must surely be in the packing-box, for important features like com¬ pression are never omitted by the packers.'' Sometimes the importance of compression is exaggerated. An engine must hold compression, certainly, but not neces¬ sarily perfectly when cold and without oil on piston and rings.   This is especially true of kerosene engines which