WITH THE spring planting season now upon us farmers throughout the commonwealth are cranking up their tractors and heading out to the fallow fields, there to inaugurate an ancient ritual that in today's machine-driven world is harshly redolent of diesel fuel, choking exhaust and the constant clangor of mechanization.

But if Bruce Wood of John Deere & Company has his way, springtime in the country could one day be lot less pollutive and noisy.

Wood is director of John Deere & Company's ePower Division, among the leaders in alternative fuels research. These new technologies include fuel cell-powered vehicles, which use hydrogen to create electricity, and gasoline/electric battery hybrids, which alternatively use an efficient internal combustion engine and electricity stored during normal engine operation.

Traditional battery-powered electric vehicles are only capable of storing electricity generated from exterior sources; fuel cells actually generate power themselves, making their operation self-sufficient and far more dependable. To say nothing of cleaner: the only emissions of fuel cell operation are water and heat. And as a means of weaning us off of fossil fuels, fuel cells represent the best hope for national energy independence.

While fuel cells have now been successfully developed and are currently being tested for vehicle use they are not yet widely available. Because they have evolved from existing technology, the gas/electric hybrids will be more immediately accessible and affordable, and Deere has already produced a hybrid farm utility vehicle, called the Gator, in both gas hybrid and fuel cell prototypes.

What's the advantage of alternative energy for the average farmer or lawn owner? Hybrid vehicles are less expensive to operate than vehicles with purely internal combustion engines, as they use less fossil fuel (fuel cell vehicles use none at all), and they will offer more features such as ease of operation, increased productivity and advanced precision farming capabilities. Tax benefits may pertain, as well, as current buyers of the Toyota Prius can take advantage of a $2,000 tax cut for contributing to cleaner air, and similar inducements may soon lure farmers looking to cut overhead. The new technologies are clearly a huge leap forward in bettering air quality, and the electric engines are markedly quieter than those powered by diesel or gasoline—in fact they're practically noiseless.

How does a company known for its tractors and mowers assume to take the lead in developing non-fossil fuel vehicles for mass consumption? The first prototype fuel cell vehicle was actually a particularly ungainly-looking tractor developed by Allis Chalmers back in 1958, and Wood claims that Deere can advance the introduction of substantial numbers of fuel-celled vehicles by five or more years before fuel-celled automobiles will be a significant aspect of the American road. Deere's advantages over the automakers include better long-term customer economics, off-road fleet based opportunities and more ready customer acceptance.

Deere & Company's stated corporate policy is "to conduct its business throughout the world in a manner that protects and sustains the environment," including making "environmental considerations a priority in all business planning and decision-making." By moving forward to harness the limitless power of clean fuels like hydrogen, Deere is making farm and lawn vehicles active players in the global fight to reduce greenhouse gases and our dangerous dependence on fossil fuels. "Over the next decade," says Deere's Bruce Wood, who has been interested in environmental issues since college, "we'll see commercial versions of hybrid and fuel cell vehicles become widely available." And then, like our grandfathers, we will once more be able to enjoy birdsong while tending our fields.