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Alan Mays

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Posted: 20 Jan 2015

Taken: 20 Jan 2015

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covers •
magazines •
exaggerations •
plows •
magazine covers •
plowing •
1920s •
tractors •
ephemera •
green •
1927 •
advertisements •
illustrations •
farming •
insects •
blue •
red •
farrmers •

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Battle the Borer with Hart-Parr Power, Farm Mechanics, May 1927

Battle the Borer with Hart-Parr Power, Farm Mechanics, May 1927
A gigantic corn borer caterpillar that's standing in the way of a farmer plowing his field is the startling illustration on the front cover of this May 1927 issue of Farm Mechanics, "a monthly magazine featuring farm improvements, machinery, equipment, farm buildings--for the farmer and the dealer."

The grotesque caterpillar on the cover serves as the dramatic backdrop for an advertisement extolling the virtues of the tractors manufactured by the Hart-Parr Company, which merged with three other firms in 1929 to form the Oliver Farm Equipment Company. The illustration reminds me of the oversized animals and crops on tall-tale and exaggeration postcards.

Excerpts from the advertisement on the cover:

"Battle the Borer with Hart-Parr Power. Plow deep with Hart-Parr power and 16" Vulcan plows, covering completely all corn stalks and corn borers. Battle the borer with powerful, distillate-burning Hart-Parrs, the only tractors recommended to burn cheap, low grade fuels.... Get the facts on the tremendous power of Hart-Parr tractors, which operate all corn borer control machinery efficiently through belt, drawbar, and power take-off.... Hart-Parr Company, founders of the tractor industry, Charles City, Iowa."

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Comments
 Smiley Derleth
Smiley Derleth club
This is just wonderful, Alan! The illustration feels like a '20s era pulp cover to me too. -- This worm would be right at home fighting John Carter on Mars.
9 years ago.
Alan Mays club has replied to Smiley Derleth club
Thanks, Smiley! I hadn't viewed the borer as a potential extraterrestrial adversary, but after a couple of quick searches for John Carter, I see what you mean! Looks like there are some interesting pulp mags out there.
9 years ago.
 Indycaver (Norm)
Indycaver (Norm) club
Cool find! I suspect the corn borer seemed that large as destructive as it was. They used tillage back then to control it and now they use insecticide with the prevalence of no-till farming.
9 years ago.
Alan Mays club has replied to Indycaver (Norm) club
Thanks! Interesting--if tillage was the main means of control at that time, I can see why Hart-Parr used the borer in its advertising. According to Wikipedia and a USDA Web site, the corn borer was first noticed in the Boston area in 1916 and was spreading throughout New England, the Mid-Atlantic, and into the Midwest by the 1920s and 1930s. I'd imagine that battling a pest like that without insecticides would be a scary proposition if your livelihood depended upon your corn crop.
9 years ago.
Indycaver (Norm) club has replied to Alan Mays club
They also used crop rotation to control it, but with no-till farming they found the corn borer was overwintering in the bean stubble too. Very few people use the moldboard plow now ... mostly just the seed companies and people farming for them.
9 years ago.

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