The Progress., 1898-12-03
TRADE TN FARM IMPLEMENTS.
20 Other Country Compares with the
United States In This Line.


70 Other Country Compares with ths
United States In This Line.
At the close of the civil war a reap
er now selling for SIS cost s120; steel
pillow, now costirg S12, sold for S26;
a potato digger, aow costing ST, sold
for s25; grain scythes, now costing 50
a dozen, cost S26; shovels, now costing
50 a dozen, cost $40; binders, now cost
ing $3.50, cost $500, and moving ma
chimes, now costing $50, cost $40. AS
this process Of reduction has been 60
Ing on, the product Of American fac
tories in the line of agricultural imple-
ments has been generally extended and
vastly improved, so that the United
States are now not only at the head or
all other countries, but so far at the
head of other countries that there has
practically ceased to be any serious
competition except in respect to the
supplies sold by certain European
countries to their colonies. Through
the free markets of the world, without
restrictions established by govern
ments, the United States are the great
source of supply. The importance OF
the business carried on both at home
and abroad by the United States manu-
facturers Of farming implements Is
shown by the figures Of the last federal
census Of 1890. There were at that
time, approximately, 1000 manufactor-
les of agricultural implements in the
United States, the amount invested in
this line Of manufacture being nearly
S1500O0,0 900, the average number OF
persons employed in it being $4,000, the
materials used averaging in value $30,-
100000 and the output $SO,OO0,OOo.
Since the summer of 1892 the American
trade in agricultural implements has
been subjected to marked prostration.
The export trade Of the country IN
agricultural implements has continued
large and has even increased:
1893 Fiscal YEAR, ,... .$4,657 900
1894 Fiscal year, ............ 5,o27,Ooo
1895 Fiscal year, ............ 5,41o,O0O
1886 Fiscal year, ......... 5,176,OOO
1897 Fiscal year, ......... 5,240, 600
The Argentine republic has been the
chief customer of the United States In
this item of manufacture, and the
South American countries and West
Indies have been customers to small
er extent. But while the foreign mar
ket has continued, the home mar
ket for American agricultural products
has been curtailed greatly, in conse-
quence of the failure of some crops,
the diminished prices for cereals, the
accumulation, west and south, of mort
cages Snd the contraction of credit to
farmer9, who, as rule, buy their agri-
cultural machinery on credit, payment
being aredicated on the success Of the
crops Nnu of paying prices for them.
As result of the agricultural depres-
sion in the west in 1893, 1894, 1895 and
1896, it is hardly too much to say that
the farming implements used during
the past five years in the United States
have been literally wearing out. The
large concerns have been carrying their
customers on credit, and with large
debts outstanding the farmers general
ly speaking, have been awaiting the
return of better times and better prices.
The favorable conditions Of a year ago
were not without their effect on this
branch of business, and those of this
year are being reflected in the enlarged
market for farming machinery, reap
ers, threshers, plows, rakes, binders,
scythes and harrows. At the head OF
the states of the country in the volume
of it's manufacture of agricultural i'm
plements is Illinois, with an invested
capital of nearly $60,000,000. Ohio fol-
lows, then New York and. then Wis
consin. Ohio supplies most Of the
southern market Of demand and New
York the middle and eastern states
OF recent years California has develop.
ed it's manufacture of farming imple-
ments largely.
Would Lend, but Not Pay.
The late w. G. Wills, the playwright
though lavish of money when he had