Newell reclamation news. [volume] (Newell, Butte County, S.D.) 1910-19??, 1917-02-08
MACHINERY PRICES
UNFAIR TO FARMER
Production May Be Cut Down
Unless Government Takes
Drastic Action.

Although the price or the farmer
principal product--wheat-i sharply
reduced by law, thus restricting the
farmers income, he continues to
purchase most Of the necessities used
in producing a new crop on a ris-
ing market Nowhere is this injus-
tice clearer than In the prices OF
farm machinery and now that many
of his sons and employees are drafted
into the army the farmer Is more
and more dependent upon farm ma
chinery and must purchase it in great
quantities to Offset the acute shortage
Of farm labor.
Unless this unfair condition Is cor.
rected there is serious danger of
agricultural undeTproduction next
year, for with a crop failure last fall
and their incomes further affected
by the reduction in wheat, many
farmers in the Northwest cannot at
ford to pay the now excessive prices
demanded by machinery manufacture
ers and will find it difficult to re-
spond to the governments request
for bumper crops.
Advance In Last Year.
Quotations obtained from the con-
idential trade catalogs of more than
a half dozen Of the largest manu-
facturers Of farm machinery show
that the wholesale prices of 16 of the
most important machines commonly
used in farm production have in
creased from 6613 to 134 percent
over prices prevailing in 1914. Prices
In 1914 were high enough, but since
then the tendency has been steadily
upwards and the advance has been
particularly rapid in the last six
months. Gang plows and breakers
that sold for 500 and $25 respectively
eight months ago now cost the re.
taller SIP and SAP and he, in turn.
takes another stiff profit. before he
sells them to the actual tiller OF the
soil. Gang plows sold for $50 in
1914 and breakers only cost $l8 the
same year. Here is an advance of
l25 and 134 percent in the prices Of
these machines in three years.
Mowers that sold for $35 in 1914
and $43 last spring now cost tn re-
taller s62. an advance OF So percent
Binders have gone up 81 percent.
most of this rise taking place In the
last year.
Harrows cost from 80 to 10 per-
cent more than they did in 1914 and
here, too, the big advance has taken
liace since the United States EN-.
tered the war
Potato Diggers Much Higher.
Potato diggers cost 661s percent
more than they did three years ago.
Most of this advance came about
since last spring and the manufac-
turers made a cleanup by taking ad-
vantage of the demand caused by the
extraordinary large potato crop.
Wagons and trucks are 81 and 70
percent higher than they were three
years ago; hay rakes have increased
l05 percent; and manure spreaders
have gone up "a percent and rs per-
cent Of this advance was in the last
year alone. Sulky cultivators have
advanced 1877 percent: garden spray
ers So percent; disc drills 70 percent;
tongue trucks 113 percent; and hay
tedders 70 percent
Manufacturers of farm machinery
always have been very careful to
guard their actual costs of manufac-
Lure; although it is known that they
often pay long land hauls. ocean
freights and foreign tariffs and still
sell machinery cheaper abroad than
they do to farmers close to the doors
Of their factories. This alone proves
that their profits were exorbitant and
their prices excessive even before
the war But the war gave them an
other excuse to boost prices which
they were not slow to take advan-
tage of and unless the government
takes speedy action to reduce their
prices farm production may suffer .
serious check.