The New Subject of Agricultural Engineering

The New Subject of Agricultural Engineering HY FRANKLIN S. HARRIS, DIRECTOR SCHOOL OE ENGINEERI N'G, AND PROFESSOR OF AGRONOMY. UTAH AGRICULTURAL COM. FOE

During the last two decades much attention has been given to agricultural education. Special colleges have been established in all the states of the Union to give emphasis to the subjects relating to life in rural communities, and to help in dignifying the common vocations of man. The industrial subjects have spread beyond the confines of these special institutions, till now they are not uncommon as a part of the regular curriculum of secondary and even primary schools. The results have been so gratifying the country over that school boards and the parents of the school children have in many cases demanded that the agricultural and industrial subjects be given just as much attention as possible.It has been clearly shown tint the mind is trained as well when studying things having a practical value in themselves as when compelled to be kept busy entirely with the so-called cultural subjects. There has consequently been, during the last few years, a development of popular sentiment in favor of introducing practical subjects into school and college courses. There was such an insistent need for better methods of farming that the agricultural schools devoted themselves almost entirely, during the early years, to helping the farmer in getting more out of the land. The agricultural student was taught much about the handling of his soil; how to fertilize, cultivate and rotate. He learned many facts about the crops he should raise and how to treat them. He had practice in judging livestock and learned how to feed and care for the animals of the farm to the best advantage. He studied about fruits, vegetables and flowers, and could tell what varieties to grow and how to improve them to suit his needs. In fact, he learned all about making his farm produce to the best advantages. In the anxiety to make the individual farm as high a unit of production as possible, many questions that are important in making a well balanced rural life were neglected. The farmer cannot live his life alone. He has certain relations with those about him. Tt is not enough for his welfare that his land gives big returns. He must consider also the method of his living and his relations with those about him. The buildings on his farm, the machinery he uses, the roads over which he hauls his products, the sanitary

AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING. 1123

conditions of his surroundings, the canal and canning factory in which he owns an interest are all vitally connected with his well being. They are just as important for him as the breed of his livestock or the method of handling his horses. In the agricultural education of the past these things were given only incidental attention. The great need for better methods of production left them, for the time being, in the background but ;

as our rural problems become more complex, these questions cry in louder tones for a proper solution. In the past, if the farmer needed any advice along these lines he was compelled to send to the city for an engineer who charged him a high fee for service that was often performed grudgingly in the haste to return to bigger city jobs. The technical engineer from the city has rarely been able to understand the real needs of the farmer, since he has had no interest in agriculture and has known but little concerning its problems. The training of the engineer may have been the best, but there was a span between him and the farmer that was not often successfully bridged. As a result the farmer has built as best he could without professional advice. This has often caused rural conditions to be anything" but satisfactory, even where the standard of production on the individual farm was high. It is with a view of remedying these evils that many agricultural colleges are just now developing courses in this new subject of agricultural engineering. In some of the larger universities containing colleges of technical engineering, the university authorities, recognizing that their engineering graduates were not solving the problems of the farm, have established departments of agricultural engineering in their agricultural colleges. They have considered this a new department more related to agriculture than to engineering, so it has been placed in the schools of agriculture and not in the schools of engineering. These courses are not designed in any way to interfere with the work of the civil, mining or mechanical engineer, but rather to supplement them by carrying some of the general facts of engineering to the farm where they can be useful in helping to build a better country life. The application of these general facts to the problems of the country should increase instead of decrease the work of the old line engineer, who should be glad to see this new subject develop. Probably the most important work of the agricltural engineer in the West will, for some time, be in connection with irrigation and drainage. The engineer of the past has known how to build the irrigation system, but here his knowledge usually ended. He rarely knew anything about the actual use of the water in crop production. The farmer, on the other hand, had an idea he could tell when crops needed watering, and that is about as far as he

1124 IMPROVEMENT ERA could go. A man is needed who knows something of canal making and water measurement, as well as the best methods of applying water to the land. He need not know all the technical facts of the construction engineer, as he can consult with a technical man during the year or two that actual construction is going on, but he should be well grounded in agricultural facts to serve him during all the years that the water will be used for irrigation^

Similar conditions are encountered with drainage. It does

not take great engineering skill to lay out a drainage system, but information concerning the nature and properties of the soil must be had in order to exercise good judgment regarding what land to drain and the manner of accomplishing it. The phase of agricultural engineering coming nearest the actual operations of the farm is probably that connected with farm machinery. In the past the farmer has had to depend almost entirely on the implement manufacturer. He had to buy what was offered for sale, and if anything went wrong with a complicated machine it was necessary to get an expert from the factory. There is great need for men in every rural community who can act as

local experts on questions that arise in connection with any of the machinery used on the farm. There is also a need for men to design new machinery from the point of view of the man on the land rather than of the factory. In addition to these specially trained experts, every student who is preparing himself to go back to the farm should be able to get the instruction that will enable him to handle properly his own machinery. This condition holds for every other phase of agricultural engineering. There is a need for its subjects being taught in the agricultural colleges in order that prospective farmers may get the information they need, as well as to train experts who can give professional advise to farmers who are in need of help. This is a day of great proficiency in the construction of buildings suited to the modern city. The convenience and the perfection of arrangement testify to the development of a high standard of architectural art. The buildings of the farm, on the other hand, like Topsy of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," are left to "just grow up." Instead of being designed in the light of modern knowledge, they are usually just built without any particular design. Occasionally a farmer wishing to be in style builds his house after some city design. He makes it high and narrow like city houses have to be made, and as a result he has a house that looks out of place on the farm, and is more adapted to entertaining company than being a comfortable home for a farmer's family. There is need for great improvement in the method of constructing and arranging the out-buildings of the farm. The barns, stables, chicken coop, hog pens and fences, are rarely built to the best advantage. The whole question of buildings on the farm

AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING. 1125

needs more study, and is as important to the farmer as knowing how to properly judge his livestock. Notwithstanding the favorable conditions for preserving health in the open country, the death rate of rural communities is often higher than in large cities. This is usually due to ignorance of the elementary principles of sanitation. The preservation of health on the farm is not often given much consideration. The water supply, the disposal of waste, the ventilation of the home, the nature of common diseases, proper food and clqjthing, are all questions that should be better understood by farmers and their wives. If a man in the country is to get his full share of profits from his products he must have means of converting his raw materials into finished products. The beet sugar factory, creamery, milkcondensory, cannery for fruits and vegetables, pickle factory, flour mill, starch factory, and many other similar industries, always improve the conditions of the rurual communities in which they are established. They usually make a good cash market for farm products, as well as furnish winter employment for farm hands. These establishments for the manufacturing of agricultural products must be encouraged, and the agricultural engineer, if properly trained, can do much toward establishing them. An important branch of agriculture engineering is that connected with rural roads. The agricultural engineer should not concern himself with th? making of city pavements nor should his main attention be given to making fine automobile roads for transcontinental tourists. His chief concern is with the road over which the farmer hauls his products to market and over which he travels in going to town for supplies. Millions of dollars are spent unwisely in the country every year, due to the fact that there are not enough men who understand the making of the ordinary country road. Every man who lives in the country should be familiar with the elementary principles of highway construction, and in addition there should be men specially trained to do supervisory work. When the colleges of agriculture have had time to develop more thoroughly their courses in agricultural engineering, and the men who till the land understand better the problems of the rural community as a whole, and when there are men trained in this new subject who are prepared to give expert advice on the many perplexing questions that arise, then we may expect a rural awakening that will cope with the city building tendencies of recent years. LOGAN, UTAH