The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1920-05-08

MANY IOWA FARMERS
ARE BEGGING HARD
FOR WORK HORSES
Wet Spring Makes Work
With Machinery Almost
Impossible

Maybe LnoIe dIo Aoso -
Illinois who don't know OF Dan aug
stin, but If so, most OF them aren
on farms. He's one OF the Leading
farmers of Mclean county, and
breeder of pure bred stock.
Talking to him at the headquar-
ters Of the Horse association OF Am
erica. at the Chicago Stock Yards. he
told the story Of his neighbor Staley,
who moved to Iowa, last February.
Before going,, Staley bought two
mush needed teams at }4O0 per pair
But Iowa, being solid agricultur-
al state, Is feeling the present horse
shortage, and many offers were made
to Staley for his two teams of geld
ings. Staley needed and wanted them
himself, but finally, in March, after
much persuasion, he placed price on
one pair which he thought would
hold them for a while. He asked
$500 for it. To his chagrin, his
offer was Immediately accepted.
"Four and four make eight"-says
staley, after his lesson in addition.
He knows now that price doesn t
bar a sale, but that most Of the farm
ers simply haven't got the horses to
sell.
And the next day it showed.
But here's a problem in slbstrac-
ton, Another neighbor, Dan says,
within gun shot Of him, has 100
acres, 8 horses, tractor with ploW
and disc attachments, a truck, an
automobile, a Ford, and an Itch In
his skin for tinkering with engines.
"Why the horses?" Dan was asked.
"Well, you see, his horses are there
to do the work. At least, they would
If Bill could get around to drive
them. But the other morning, the
first Monday in April 1t was, Bill had
sewn 40 acres of oats broadcast and
took his tractor and disc into the field
to turn it under. But the tractor
wouldn't tract He worked on 1t all
day, and finally appealed to the man
who sold it to him, local mechanic
Tuesday I saw them both working
at it when l went out with my horses
and to disc in the 80 acres of my
land along side which l had sown to
oats.
"That night, two tired men, ex-
hausted of ideas, profanity, ETC.. tele-
graphed for an expert, but the expert
didn't arrive on the scene until
Thursday.
Ill say this much for the local me-
chanic-the expert toiled al day be-
fore getting getting results. l saw
him ON Thursday afternoon when he
finally got the thing running, and l
was Just taking my teams home, hav-
ing finished up my oat field. Every
thing was set to run pretty the next
morning, but-on Thursday night 1t
showed.
Nice little crop started.
Anyway, they were good oats he
had sown, for when the snow melted
off and it was possible to get into
the field, the were nice little green
sprouts from them as they lay on top
of the ground.
HE called me up, being an old
timers, asked me what to do. Are
any of them disced in" I asked.
Yes he said, 4 estimate five to ten
acres are, but not all in one place.
I go around little on the high
ground with the tractor, but these
few acres are just the high spots.
"'Guess you'll have to put it into
corn 1 told him. Got more corn
acreage now than I want" he an
swered. Then you'll have to sow the
whole thing over again. l answered,
but did feel sorry for the boy as
hung up the receiver.