Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1918-07-25
ON TO SALINA
The Ss,lina Demonstration May ID
The Last Ever Held In The
United States

The tractor demonstration ha
become a national institution in ans
wer to certain well defined demands
II was to bring the news of the tract
or. and its ability 10 do farm worl
directly to the farmers. that tn
tractor demonstration began and de
veloped. The great series OF dem
onstrations in 1916 developed ii
various parts of the county greai
zones of tractor enthusiasm. Tract
or sales increased rapidly in many
places following the national dem
onstration of that year.
This primitive sales and adver-
Using need for the tractor demon
stration has practically disappeared.
II is hard now to find any good
farming section in the United States
in which the tractor is not used ex-
tensiyely AS the farmer drives along
the highways in his own township
and county. he has plenty of oppor-
tunity to Sc farm tractors at work
to produce crops more rapidly and
economically Field tests and dem
onstrations were at one time held
in the United States to introduce
haying and harvesting machines but
any group of manufacturers would
likely have their sanity seriously
questioned who should announce
national demonstrations of mowers
and binders. The tractor has almost
reached the condition of universally
recognized necessity which the bind
er has reached, and ii does seem that
there is no longer and serious need
for the national tractor demonstra-
ton.
From the days of the Winnipeg
tractor contest in 1908 to the var
ious Fremont demonstrations and
the Big Eight tractor DEMONSTRATORS
and exhibits of the tractors at work
have been limited to blowing and
other drawbar machines. The work
first was limited entirely to blowing,
which gave rise to a wide belief
among farmers that the tractor was
blowing machine alone. Eventual,
ly other exhibits were added until
at the Big Eight demonstrations in
1915 the International Harvester
company was permitted to install a
complete series of drawbar work
from blowing, fertilizing and har-
rowing, to drilling and seeding. For
the first time in history, belt ma
chimes will be permitted
This is an exceedingly important
departure because almost half of
the need for the tractor on the av-
erage farm is for belt work. Only
two belt machines will be permitted |
on the grounds, and for these the
Harvester company expects to exhib-
it a small thresher and an ensilage
cutter, illustrating two of the most
important belt machines needle for
final stages in the care of corn and
wheat crops This will enable the on
lockers to visualize the whole pro-
cess of raising and handling the
crops of grain Threshing and cut
ting ensilage will probably not ac-
tually be done, although the ma
chimes will be on the ground and in
action at the belt end of tractors
Motor cultiyators and binders also
will be on the field. and the har-
machines will be the most
exhibit of tractor farming
the Harvester company has ever
made and will insure by far the most
tractor demonstration ever
held.
The Salina Tractor show will be a
demonstration of patriotic farming
the type which enables the Amer
can farmer, with his American
made farm machines, to feed the
world 1t will be full of lessons on
how to speed up the big American