The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-04-14
Farmer and Tractor Being
 Shoun More Consideration
 As Importance Is Realized
Tractor Companies Urge Farmers to Learn to Repair Own Machines as Tractor Drivers Will Be Hard
 to Secure This Year

Little is known of what the farm ma chine companies were able to do quickly to help secure better organized farming operations to meet the demand for food and supplies The work the farmers do patiently day by day the year round is generally taken pretty much Tor granted by the organized society of town and city dwellers which the farmers sup port. In the same measure the work of the farm machine companies is known little of because it goes on quietly out beyond the routes of news and publicity. There is nothing unusual about what the farmer does. He has been doing it for untold ages. There is considered to be nothing worthy of notice in what the farm machine companies do, for they are simply working along slowly with tho farmers.
 When the recent sudden demand for more food came upon the world, the farm machine companies by means of their organization and experience were able to do great many things quickly, which are most worthy of notice The call for tractors could not have been
 
 companies with well established facto- ries and we'll perfected machines-com- panies which had already been building tractors for a great number of years. Especially in the matter of keeping the tractors already on the farms at work was the experience of the farm machine companies indispensable.
 ALL TRACTORS NEEDED $ The international Harvester company immediately took the stand that it is just as necessary to keep every tractor already on the farms working every day and every night where necessary. as it IS to deliver new tractors to the farms Traffic delays, the need of instructing new men in tractor operation, and many other considerations enter into the prom lem of putting new tractors at work on the farms. That should be accomplished as rapidly as possible, but the inmedi- ate need for 1918 is an increase in farm ing efficiency which could not be se- cured entirely by shipment of new trac- tors to the farms.
 The Harvester company recognized that if every tractor already on the farms was to be kept in prime condition for 24 hours day work during the coming summer tractor owners should improve their me- chanica1 knowledge of the operation. ot tractors An investigation made recently shows that more than 50 per cent of what the farmer calls tractor disadvan- tages or tractor troubles are due en- tirely to the farmers lack of sufficient working knowledge to keep the tractor in good running order. If troubles which are of almost no consequence at all are unintentionally neglected they will develop before long into major diff ficulties, which will cause layup of the tractor for days during critical times in farming operations. Many farmers say they cannot hire competent tractor op- orators and the shortage of farm help, while calling for more tractors, automat- ically makes it harder to keep the trac- tors already sold in good running order. These conditions make it imperative that every tractor owner possible in the United States should, before spring work ,begins, acquire a working knowledge of his machine sufficient to enable him to keep his tractor in perfect running con- dition or to pass that knowledge and ability on to someone else.
 SCHOOLS GREAT AID
 The Harvester company held it's first tractor school in 1910 and since that year has been holding schools in gradu- ally increasing numbers. When all the conditions facing the farming industry this year were considered, the tractor school seemed to be the one best solution for those tractors already on the farms. The company immediately increased it's tractor school programme and at this time has already held the greater num- Der of it's schools, between 800 and 1000 in number, from one end of the country to the other. More careful preparation was made for the schools than ever be- fore, training schools for the instruc- tors being held in Chicago for more than 10O men selected from all over the coun- try. The instructors were put through most rigid course of study and given a written examination at the end of the course to make sure they were equipped properly to conduct a tractor school this year.
 The average enrollment at these I. H. c, tractor schools may be conservatively estimated at 100 farmers, dealers and others directly concerned with keeping every tractor going this yeaf. That is to say, between 5000 and 100000 men directly connected up with tractors al- ready on American farms have been in structed this year by the Harvester com