Evening star., 1926-05-19
FARM MACHINERY
DEMAND IS GOOD
Sales of Agricultural Equip
ment Bid Fair to Ap-
proach Record.
BY j. {. ROYLE.

epeHal DlSpatcn 10 Inc Staf.
NEW YORK, May 10. - Sales o
agricultural machinery have reached
the highest point in years and tn,
Volume of business done by manu-
facturers and distributors of farm
equipment for the second quarter i:
expected to exceed any previous three
months since the war. These sale:
represent the great new Tabor swing
in agriculture.
The pressure on farm labor exerteC
by other industries which wish to at
tract the workers to their own pay
rolls has caused the farmers to rur
TO machinery. Heads of the farm
equipment industry now are gather
ing at Kansas City and Hutchinson
Kan, to study this trend as the first
streams of new wheat begin to tricllle
from the harvester threshers into
the tank wagons.
Demand for the "combinerS, as
the harvester threSherS are called
have kept the factories busy filling
orders, according to the research de
partment of the National Association
of Farm Equipment Manufacturers
one manufacturer says orders so lal
this year have been 100 per cent
above any previous year.
Big Cut i'm Costs.
The fact that the new agricultural
equipment cuts IS cents bushel on
the cost of harvesting wheat ac
counts for the farmers purchases OF
such machines said Vice President
\. r. jackson Of the Emerson Brant-
ingham Co. today. Farmers without
the new labor saving farm machinery
are handicapped in competing with
those who farm the new way ana
who are less dependent on the
armies of itinerant workers that eat
mountains of high priced food and
require large outlays in shelter and
bedding while they are on the job.
Women as we'll as men are fore
ing the change toward labor saving
machinery. They have ceased TO
feel that it is necessary for them to
labor over hot stoves to feed an
army of men"
Tractor Sales Mount.
Sales of tractors continue to mount
steadily. They are being called on
TO take up the slack in both dlmln-
ishing man and animal power. Ma
chimes are being bought as fast as
they can be turned out. Manufac-
turers predict that within IL
wears every farm of 40 acres or over
will have a tractor, while fleets rang
ing from to II machines will be op-
Grated on the big acreages.
The tractors are being worked day
and night in the Middle West at
present. In the corn belt the late
Spring has put the work behlnd. AS
result tractors with headlights
blazing are running back across the
fields at night and occasionally one
is seen on Sunday. Women are TAX
ing their turns on the tractor seats.
Boys in school are rushed nome IN
order to get in a seven or eight hour
run between the time school closes
and midnight.
More than 100000 people in this
country have been transferred from
the farm to cities in the last two
wears, according to the Department
of Agriculture. These workers have
not been replaced, because immi-
grafton has been sharply curtailed
and other industries could offer
workers high inducements. But the
work Is still being pushed forward
by means of new machinery.
For IS consecutive months aggre-
gate sales of farm machinery have
Increased as compared with the cor
responding month of the previous
year.
Despite poor incomes from crops
In some sections in 1925. large VOL
ume of debts was discharged and
farmers now are in better financial
situation to replace old equipment
than for years. Despite the heavy
buying the accumulated lack of new
machinery has not yet been over
come. The filling of. this demand is
being aided, however. by attractive
payment methods offered by many
manufacturers.