Smyrna times., 1893-07-19
Improved Machinery and Cheaper
Wheat.

DuSnel, zig cents less than the aver
age price during 1892, and the lowest
price since 1857 This remarkable fall
is of course due in the main to the fl
nanclal stringency, which forces bor-
rowers who are holding wheat, to sell
at any price they can get. The pres.
sure upon them is heightened by the
large surplus from last years harvest,
some ninety million bushels, in face of
the new crop about to come in. Apart
from this cause of depression, apart
from the sympathy with the decline in
Silver which has brought down so
much else, wheat has fallen in price
during the past decade for no other
reason than that the cost of it's prOduc-
ton and transportation has fallen.
In 1882 and 1888 the average price of
wheat in New York was 81 %; in 1886
80 cents; in 1887, 80 cents; in 1890,
81 cents; in 1891, when European har-
vests failed, $1.08. Last years quota
tions began at $1.O54, closed at Isl
cents, and averaged 80 cents for the
twelve months. One year with another
wheat farming must pay as well as
other occupations, or it would not be
followed. What influences distinct
from those of the money market, have
been bringing down the value of
wheat?
First and chief among them have
been the railroad extensions, which
have opened up immense stretches of
new wheat lands, especially in the
Northwest, where the length of the
summer day more than cOmpensates
for the shOrtness of the season, and
where Scotch Fyfe, Blue Stem, and
| other sterling varieties thrive as now
where else. The recently completed
| Great Northern Railroad has brought
into the market millions of acres of
land, offered on terms which bring the
cost of raising bushel of wheat to
point which gives pause to the pro-
ducer in the over cropped regions of
the Middle and Southwestern States.
And new railroads, built with steel
rails of new cheapness, are able to
bring grain to market at freights which
grow steadily smaller, while water
transport on whalebacks and other
monster lake craft, completes by its
constantly lowered toll.
Next as cause tor the cheapness of
wheat must be named mechanical ad-
vance along another line in the i'm
prOvement OF farm machinery and in
its more general use. To day on prai-
rie farms, gangs of four plows are not
uncommon. Shoe drills, wider than
ever, harnessed to four horses, sow as
many as twenty-six rows of grain at
once, automatically pressing by chain
or wheel the earth around the seed in
such wise as best to favor termination.
In the West and Southwest the lis
ter does better work than the drill on
irrigated land. Its motion initiates
that of shovel, the machine digging
a shallow trough, dropping in the seed
and covering it up with surprising
neatness. Harvesters and self-binders
have been gradually improved until
in the latest models there is no risk of
upsetting on a hillside or of sinking in
soft or swampy soil. Machines of this
pattern are turned out of a single fac
tory at the rate Of one minute during
every working day. Between dawn
and dusk on a Minnesota farm ma
chine has cut and bound twenty-four
acres of wheat twenty fold quicker
than the farmer could do it without
mechanical aid, the ingenuity of the
process eliminating in the motions OF
the steel finger, which ties the knot in
the twine of each sheaf more simply
than the human hand can do it.
Within ten years, steel has been grad
ually replacing wood in farm machin-
cry; to-day save in its shafts and re-
volving arms, the harvester and self
binder is of steel throughout. But
here, as elsewhere, the inventor finds
it to his advantage to revise his prac-
tice by experience afeld in mowers,
the vibrating pitman, when made OF
hickory, Outlastsa dozen made of steel.
With this one paradox to puzzle over
the manufacturer finds his machines
at all points bettered in design by the
change from wood to steel. Taking
a hint from the grain stalk, he makes
his frames in the strongest form posi-.
BILE, that of hollow tubes but that he
may perfectly secure the angular
: joints, he adopts square instead of cir.
oular tubing. All this means ease in
working machine that has a good
/ form and rigidly keeps it, and it means
fewer adjOurnments to the blacksmith:
shop for repairs. Parts liable to weal
are now sold by manufacturers ut nom
| inal prices, and with wrench aud screw
driver any handy man can replace ole
{ with new in few minutes. Tht
cRnny Scot who invented the chilled
. iron plow, and has made million and
q half such plows, supplies a favorit,
make with new noses at 40 cents {
piece. In perfecting the outlines of al
varieties of his plough he has let tn,
{ wear of the metal show him Just wher,
4 a curve might with advantage be mod.
I, i6ed,
In descending the scale of price
. farm machinery has kept wheat com
: pany. A farmer in Minnesota o.
either Dakota can buy plough, ted
der, a rake, a seeder, a harvester anC
self.binder for from $3.50 to $40O, &C
} cording to size, quality, aud distanc,
from the railroad and he needn't hav,
money to do it with either. If h,
knows his business and is trustworthy
D trust is extended, and at moderate
rates ofinterest. If his farm is no
large enough to warrant his getting {
thresher and cleaner of his own, h,
can join club and share with hi,
| neiQhhOrs the uaa of a tooobino aoa;l,