This is the third internal combustion tractor made by Hart-Parr
around 1903, and it is part of ‘The Changing American Farm’
exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American
History until November 1. Photograph courtesy of the National
Museum of American History.
The role of machinery in farm progress is shown very effectively
in an exhibit on The Changing American Farm, on view in Washington,
D.C., through November 1.
Visitors can see very early implements, such as the John Deere
‘singing plow’ of 1837 and a Texas cotton planter of the
1840s, as well as more modern engines which brought one
breakthrough after another in increasing productivity.
The show was made possible by a grant from International
Harvester, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Cyrus
McCormick’s invention of the reaper in 1831.
John T. Schlebecker, well known to many of our readers as an
outstanding authority in this field, served as curator for the
exhibit, which is at the National Museum of American History, part
of the Smithsonian Institution.
Schlebecker, a native of Montana, also wrote the catalog, in
itself a work of art that we think our readers would treasure.
The visitor can find many farm engines in this exhibit, or near
it on the same floor in the permanent collection of the
Smithsonian. One is a full-scale replica of the first successful
model of a tractor made by John Forelich in Iowa in 1892. Another
is a 1903 Hart-Parr, the third internal combustion tractor ever
made, and the second of this firm. A Fordson tractor is also within
easy range.
An innovation is scored with large photographic dioramas of
farming technology in each of the four seasons. One of these shows
wheat being harvested near Mount Joy, Pennsylvania, by an
International Harvester Axial-Flow combine, which can harvest 100
acres of wheat or 50 acres of corn in a day. The 1831 McCormick
reaper could harvest 8 acres a day. In the diorama, Ken Zurin is
the operator, Tim Schoon took the original color transparency.
Deborah Bretzfelder designed the exhibit. We would have liked to
see more space devoted to the show, but we will agree that every
inch has been utilized to the fullest.
Noting the rise in productivity, Schlebecker writes that
‘150 years ago one United States farm worker produced enough
food and goods to supply four people. Today’s farmer produces
enough food for 68 people -a 17-fold increase.’
He discusses animal and steam power, and the way in which the
internal combustion engine brought a new burst of energy in World
War I days.
‘Unlike the horse,’ he comments, ‘the tractor never
grew tired or made itself sick eating poisonous weeds. It would not
bolt or stampede and it never fouled the grain with its
droppings.’
Looking ahead, he predicts that ‘farmers of the future may
largely abandon plowing as minimum tillage farming gains in
popularity.’
To obtain a copy of the liberally illustrated catalog which
traces farm history, send $1.50 to Stemgas Publishing Company, Box
328, Lancaster, PA 17603. We have obtained these for resale from
the Smithsonian.