The Mankato free press., 1921-09-30
STATE FARM SURVEY
Report On Minnesota In
vestigation Made
REVIEW OF CONDITIONS
Returns Sent In From Sixty
Nine County Bureaus;
The Results

!. Associated Press lpiSpatcn.l
St Paul, September 23.-Sales Of
FAM machinery in Minnesota have
failed fifty 10 ninety five per cent
oelow lol nal this year, and improve
nents OF farm homes have decreased
10 almost nothing" the Minnesota
Farm Bureau Federation declared to-
dag in announcing the results Of a
statewide investigation into the ef-
fects Of defiation on agricultural pro-
gross. :.
The federation's reviey of ccndi-
TONS as reflected in machinery pur-
chases and improvements on Mimi
esota farms is based on reports from
sixty nine county farm bureaus. The
reports of the county bureaus, fed
Grafton officers said, were based IN
inspections Of a majority OF the
farms in the counties reporting. and
dealers in lumber, tile, fencing and
farm machinery.
Three of the sixty nine counties
reporting placed purchases or farm
machinery at fifty percent OF nor.
nal; the other sixty six declared
that decreased buying power had
compelled farmers to reduce their
machinery purchases to twenty tve
or even FIVE percent OF normal On
ties estimated farm machinery sales
as large as in normal times.
Report Thirty-Eisht Counties
In thirty eight counties. the farm
bureau report predicted, inability to
buy equipment will be a serious
handicap in the planting and har-
vesting of next years crop. In many
of the other counties, farmers SAID
the lack of new machinery would
not hamper them, because they are
exchanging both machinery and 1ap-
or, and repairing every serviceable
bit of equipment with parts taken
from castoff implements.
While five counties reported sales
Of farm machinery normal or at
least fifty percent of normal, not one
county reported it's farmers making
the usual amount Of repairs and Inn
provements on their land and build
ings. Reports from eleven counties
estimate unkeep expenditures at
more than half of normal; fifty eight
reports such expenditures are from
ffty to ninety five percent less than
normal.
Decreases and increases in the
purchase of the equipment necessary
to produce crops and in the upkeep
OF farm homes and farm buildings
reject the agricultural progress OF
the state as nothing else can, the fed
Grafton said in announcing the re-
suits of its Investigation. The tact
that half the counties of the state
purchases of machinery have fallen
of to a point where the efficiency of
production is seriously threatened,
is due solely to the absolute inability
of the farmer to buy. The farmer
will not deliberately curtail produc-
tion. Reduced production, except In
rare instances, means reduced in
comes for the individual farmer.
brought the farmers product to- pre-
war prices operates as effectively on
the supplies the farmer must buy, he
will be forced by economic process
ses over which he has no control, to
produce less and less. That even
tually means much higher prices for
the consumer"
Summary of Survey
The federation, in its summary OF
the survey made by its county farm
bureau, quoted typical reports as fol-
lows:
demand for farm machinery, but the
farmers have no money with which
TO buy. Improvements are not forty
percent Oh Normal. Freight IdlcS
are eating up all possible income
from the little grain, potatoes and
livestock we have to sell. A car of
potatoes shipped from Avon, Mimi,
to Illinois sold at ST. As hundred !;
the freight was $1.05 a hundred
leaving the farmer forty cents.
'Itasca County-This is new coun-
ty, and improvements must be made,
but If they cannot be paid for. For the
time being they must be financed by
lumbermeh and real estate men,"
Rock County-One new house in
Lnverne; three new houses, four or
five new barns in the entire county;
little or no repairing, no new fences,
no new floors, no tiling"
Mower County-Inability to buy
machinery will not handicap farm
ers next year because less land will be
titled. Four retail dealers give machin- :
ery sales at 75, 70, 80 and IS percent
less than in normal years; almost no
improvements at all"
"Mahnomen County-Very little
farm machinery can be bought by the
farmers. Upkeep is sixty percent be-
low normal. Many families being for
ced to leave their farms altogether.