Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1877-04-06
Too Many Farm Implements.

No one will for moment question
the value of the reaper, mower and sim
liar farm implements of comparatively
recent introduction. They have made
it possible to increase the total
product of the country many fold,
have lightened the labor Of the farmer,
and greatly facilitated the gathering of
his crops IN localities where laborers
were scarce. But it is to be feared that
many men could, if they would, trace
their financial ruin to investing toe large
ly in these "helps" in agriculture. In
thousands of instances there has been
strife among neighbors to see who should
have the best farm implements, and
more money has been invested in them
than the original cost of the land upon
which they are used.
The agents for manufacturers are gen.
orally at hand to help along with plausi-
BILE words the spirit of emulation in such
matters, and if the farmer has any credit
he is invited, in fact importuned, to take
whatever he wants and pay after har-
vest" or is even gwen longer time, if
he desires, by simply paying a good
round interest on the cost of the ma
of every agricultural community, and to-
day thousands of farmers of the Western
States are struggling to pay the interest on
mortgaged homes, the legitimate result
of their anxiety to possess the new labor.
saving implements. The first debt was
so small as to scarcely call for mo-
ments consideration, but the interest
must be paid or added to the principal; (;
then the first implements purchased were,
or were supposed to be, inferior to new
kinds, and to keep up with the times the
latter were purchased on favorable terms,
I. e.. credit again, and thus step by step
debts accumulated until the farmer saw
ruin staring him in the face. We are
not so unreasonable as to say that a
farmer should never run in debt, for it
is well known that ninety men out of
every hundred get their start in life by
doing sO but there is great difference
as to the manner in which a man gets in
debt. II it is for land which is constant
ly advancing in value, as is generally the
case in all new countries, then there is
some safety in the transactions; but pur-
chasing on credit what one can, with a
little inconvenience, do without, is always
bad policy.
Now this is just the position that a
vast number of our farmers find them
selves in at this time: they have pur-
chased costly farm implements which
might have been dispensed with, and
might now be comparatively free from
debt had they resisted temptation. 1t
is very comforting to working
farmer to think what convenience a
$500 reaper and mower will be in
harvest-time, and it is an easy thing to
write ones name on promissory note,
and it is quite another thing to meet OBJ
legations of this kind, especially if the
yield per acre and price of products in
market do not cUme up to our expecta-
tions. II there had never been dollar
of credit given to farmers for such
articles there would be fewer in use, but
the farming community would be many
millions of dollars richer and rid of
vast amount of trouble. We have known
more than one instance of farmers pur-
chasing implements, where the interest
on the investment would more than pay
for the extra labor required in gathering
the crops for which the implement was
purchased. Few men look far enough
ahead to cast up the interest on $500 or
a less sum invested in reaper or mower
or the annual depreciation in value of
the implement, for II they did we are
quite certain many would hesitate some
time before giving their orders for
articles which could be quite readily dis
pensed with.
Then, again, men who are so easily