Evening star., 1923-09-08
FARMING KEPT Up
/ :24HOURS PER DAY
Flowing Done by Tractors
With Searchlights in Order
/ to Increase Acreage.
BY j. G. ROfLE.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, September Sine
farmers day is no longer conHheo "
the period from dawn to opsk'
extends at least sixteen hours IN
some localities and many are utlh1-
, ing every hour of the twenty-tour.
Farmers in the northwest and In
the grain states of tho middle west
are plowing at night. using tractor
searchlights and automobile head
lights to guide the gang plows in
the burrows This added activity Is
due to urging by agricultural author
tiles that the stubble OF the neids pc
turned in August and SEPTEMBER IN
order that the ground might produce
the greatest possible yield.
Picwing Is Continuous.
As result the bark of the tractor
is heard from dawn to dawn. In the
Kansas wheat belt and in Minnesota
and the Dakotas hands are working
in three shifts of eight hours each.
The twenty-four-hour day on the
farms was inaugurated during war
time to increase food production and
has been resumed this year. not so
much to increase acreage as to IN
sure added yield. The necessary
blowing could not be done on many
unless men, and machines worked
throughout the twenty-four hours;
A similar procedure is being toi-
lowed where weather conditions nave
made rapid harvesting necessary.
There is more night work on the
farms than since the war, because
labor has been in scant supply for
extended periods and owners nave
had to use the men to the utmost
while they were available. Implement
dan ~, ~ h
1T will be many years before the three
eight-hour shifts become established
on American farms
Harvesting Also mt Height.
The working day of the farmers of
Montana. Idaho and Washington.
where the light fingers long. is now
close to fifteen hours. With harvest
J ing and threshing going on. the ship
ment of the grain to side tracks on
the railroads by trucks Is being done
, at night. Shipments of wheat to
t1dewater points on the Columbia
: river and Puget sound are gradually
increasing in consequence. Little fall
blowing has yet been done in that
vicinity where there will be a de-
crease of about Is per cent in winter
wheat.
There has been a further advance
of cents a barrel in the price of
-four for export at Portland. Ore. to
Heved even higher prices would be
available for quick delivery. as
millers are so heavily booked that
prompt shipment in most cases is
impossible.
Hongkong buyers who had secured
much of the new crop flour of the
northwest a. low prices are reported
to be reselling at handsome profits
ana Japanese speculation also is re-
! ported by Chinese cables.
Higher Coal Prices Imminent.
Satisfaction over the agreement by
operators and miners on the main
points of a new wage agreement
which indicates the speedy termina-
ton of suspension of mining was
tempered today by virtual certainty
of higher coal prices. Many users,
however. have laid in their winters
supply at the old prices.
Gov. Pinchot estimated the in
creast in cost at 60 cents a ton at the
mine. but other experts maintained
today that the increase in the deliv-
cred price would reach 81 a ton, il
not more.
Outside of the consumers. however.
the other interested parties found
something of advantage in the agree
ment on the main points at issue.
crease of 10 per cent and the eight
hour day, which will mean approxi-
Pinchot to an advance in prices.
each year. The operators say they
have beat the check-off," the most
Objectionable of the miners demands,
and have secured q sponsor in Gov.
pinchot to an advance in prices.