The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1896-10-31

The Decrlng Harvester company OF
Chicago, quoting from their retail prices
of their various classes of machinery in
1873 and 1896, make the following state
creased efficiency of farm machinery:
"'The Irvine binder was unknown in
1873, but the Marsh harvester, a much
more primitive machine, in which the
binding was done by men riding on the
machine, retailcd ut 5000 to $225. The
Irvine binder retails today at from $500
for cheaper machines to $145 for the
Dccring roller and ball-bearing ma
chimes.
THE sclf-rake reaper, which is now
sold at from $50 to $40, sold for $3.50 to
$21O in 1873.
Mowers sold in 1873 for from 500 to
Sis, according to the make and width
of the cut. Machines of vastly greater
efficiency sell today at from $35 for
cheaper machines to S45 for the Deering
roller and ball bearings.
When the wire binding attachment was
added to the old Marsh harvester from
1876 to 1879 the combined machine sold
for $500, of which $120 was for the at.
tachment and $3.50 for the harvester.
Wire binders are not sold now, having
1878 we introduced the Irvine binder
the machine that now cuts the grain of
the world. Its retail price was then
$40 to 1926. A better and more capable
machine is sold today, as above init
mated, at but little over one-third that
price. Binder Irvine, for use on these
pachincs, sold in 1888 at from Is to %
known in 1873. Today a much better
Irvine retails at from 6h to IL cents per
pound, according to quality.
This steady decrease in price does not
mean a decrease in quality and efficiency.
On the contrary an upward tendency in
the mechanical construction and quality
of material has been as marked as the
downward movement in prices. This
fact-the advance in value c%oincident
possible by the use of economical meth.
oGs in construction, and by labor-saving
machinery. rather than by any decrease
in wages paid. The cost of producing
each machine has also been reduced by
the tremendous number of machines
turned out by n single firm.
The old mower. for which the farmer
paid in the neighborhood of 500, had
but meager means for adjustment, and
were neither as efficient nor as durable
as machines that retail today at $40.
The old self-rake reapers which retailed
at 5000 were primitive and clumsy as
compared with the $65 machines Of to-
day.
The Deering Irvine binder today, run
ming on roller and ball bearings, cost
500 less than the old Marsh harvester
and requires two less men and two less
horses than did that machine. In other
words, one man and two horses can
handle more grain with the Deering roll
er-bearing Irvine binder than three men
and three horses could handle in 1875
with a Marsh harvester that cost the
farmer 500 more money"
These statements of leading manu-
facturers of high-grade farm machinery,
merely emphasizes what any man of or
binary intelligence already knew in a
general way and what every wheat-grow-
er in the country knew by practical ex-
perience, that the last twenty years have
been marked by wonderful improvements
in the efficiency of farming tools accom-
panied by no less marked reduction in
the retail price. When Gov. Altgeld
and the lesser lights of Populism claim
that no part of the decline in wheat is
the result of improved machinery and
methods, they simply run contrary to
facts which are patent to every observer
and put themselves in a false position by
denying truths that are as well known
ns the multiplication table.