The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1899-02-11
TRADE IN FARM IMPLEMENTS.

No. Other Country, Compares With the
United States in This Line. iss#5S
At the close Of the civil war reap
er now selling for. SIS cost S12O; a steel
pillow, now costing $12, sold for S26;
potato digger, now costing 81, sold
tort $25; grain scythes, now costing So
dozen, cost $26; shove1s, now costing
49, a dozen, cost $40; binders, now cost
ing $3.50, cost $500, and, moving ma
chimes, now. costing $50, cost S11O. AS
this process Of reduction has been GO
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 of
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-
1acturers Of farming implements is
shown by the figures of the last federal
census Of 1880. 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
$l50,0oO,OOO, the average number of
persons employed in it being $4,000, the,
materials used averaging in value $780,
00O,OOO and the output $4,000, 900.
Since the summer of 1892 the American
trade in agricultural implements has
been subjected to a marked prostration.
The export trade Of the country in.
agricultural implements has continued
large and has even increased:
1893 Fiscal Year, $751; 900
1884 fiscal Year, ........... 5,027,000
1895 Fiscal year, ........ 5,41O,000 .
1896 Fiscal Year, ............ 5,176,0Oo
1o9' \nscal year, ...... 5,24O, 900
The Argentine republic has been the
chief customer of the United States in L
this item of manufacture, and the
South American countries and West
Indies have been customers to email
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 and the contraction of credit to
farmers, who, as rule, buy their agri-
cultural machinery on credit, payment
being predicated on the success of the
crops and of paying prices for them.
AS result of the agricultural depres-
sion in the west in $685. 1894, 1895 and,
1895, 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 year ago
we're 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 s6o,00O,0OO. 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-
,tc To-