Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1905-09-09
IHR[SH|NG PROFITS
Some Statistics and Comment
on the Business Of Thresh-
ing Grain
1T TAKES GOOD MANAGEMENT
Profits Are Fair If the Farm and Crops
Are Not Neglected While Owner Of
the Outfit is Away From Home
Many Lose Money at the Business.
Special to Times-Republlcan.


summer when passing freight trains
were loaded with threshing outfits
have I heard the remark, There goes
a number of farmers broke" meaning
that to own threshing outfit was
certain to break the man who purchas-
ed it. Is this true? I think not, from
the figures I have gathered in talking
with men who own them.
Here are some figures: new outfit
comprising engine, separators and
fixings complete, costs from $4,000 to
$4,000, according to size. With such a
machine a man with two helpers can
go out ana earn from $40 to $40 per
day from sixty to ninety days, ac-
cording to crop and number of ma
chimes in his territory.
Different owners tell different sto-
ries of the life of thresher.
One man said new separator VIII
run six years. while an engine will last
twelve. Another said new outfit
will last about ten years. Another
man told me he never ran over four
years, that at the end Of that time re-
pairs grew too heavy, so he traded n
the old in part payment for new one.
but to Offset this there Is a machine
near Dougherty which has run for
seventeen straight falls and does the
business yet. So it looks as If the
care taken fixed the life Of a machine
more than the wear and tear. But ten
years would be a good strong average
Their earnings are from 5000 to $1.409
season, or an average of about $1,000
for three months work. The expense
of operating, according to owners
(averaged) is about $500 per season
Take the average earnings, $1,000, and
deduct the cost OF operating, $500.
leaves 500. Then, as they must be
replaced every ten years, 10 per cent of
cost from the 500 leaves $3.50 profit
on paper.
This would indicate that every man
it is not true, as too few men really
pay only part down and give notes for
balance at a good interest, so that
they never get 1t paid for before time
to buy a new one. And again, men
who run machines must be away from
home from sixty to ninety days and
their farms are neglected, and what
they make on threshing is lost on the
farm at home. Some men have made
all they own from their machines,
while others have lost, but few grow
rich, and Q few grow poor: most Of
them play about even.
Shock threshing is finished, and stack
ing has not started yet, but will soon
be going. Perhaps but few parts of
the country have as many machines as
are located in this vicinity There are
seven outfits owned in three families.
Competition Is keen and in a few
cases contracts have been taken as
low at 90c hundred. bushels, altho
the price is usually $3.50 per 100 BUSH
els. If this is kept up they may, with
some truth, claim that threshing
outfit will break the man who owns it.
Much has been written about the
benefit to be derived from stacking
grain over shock threshing, but one
thing I think haA been overlooked in
the discussion, that is the difference
in the cost of threshing. Machines in
variably charge from one-half to one
cent bushel more for shock than from
stack. Two men with team can stack
forty acres of oats in from four to five
days. and few men can feed it to the
machine from the stacks, while from
shocks it takes In the neighborhood Of
twelve to sixteen men and teams a day
to put thru forty acres. Take it all
together, the extra work, the extra cost
of from one-half 90 one cent for thresh-
ing, the loss of from one to two cents
at the elevator and it is such a loosing
proposition that / should think not a
single bundle would go to the machine
from the shock. GEO. F. THAYER.