Science: Boon to Farmers

It is constructed of three pieces of wood, a few bolts, a spring, a piece of aluminum shaped like a huge spoon. It was hailed last week at the Nebraska Agricultural College as a potential revolution in the farming world. It will enable the tiller of the soil to go to the cinema or drink cider or sleep, while his fields are being plowed. It will soon be put on the market at a cost of a few dollars. It is the invention of F. L. Zybach of Grand Island, Neb.

To use this device, a farmer must first attach a plow to his tractor and cut a furrow around the outer rim of his field, making the corners rounded instead of square. Then he fastens Mr. Zybach’s invention to the steering wheel of the tractor, putting the spoon-end in the furrow. He starts the tractor, climbs out. The tractor, guided along the furrow by Mr. Zybach’s invention, continues to make shorter and shorter trips around the field, until it comes to a stop in the middle.

Tests of the device last week produced plowing like clockwork. But when Mr. Zybach was first experimenting with a crude model, his neighbors warned him not to let the tractor get loose and destroy any of their property. Once he set the machines to plough all night. The neighbors came over at midnight and implored him to stop it.