The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1928-10-23
LAND YIELD IS
INCREASED BY
! new METHODS
Carload Sales of Agricultural
Machinery Are Unprece-
denied
COCIAL CHANGES S ZEN
hundreds of Combines Added
to Those Already in
Operation

Winnipeg, Man., Oct. 23.-EchOes
bf bad times for the farmer fade out
Lcfore they get to western Canada.
For here, especially in the prairie
provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan
end Manitoba. farming has become a
last industry.
. In no territory have the people
Witnessed so revolutionary change
n their life as here. Electricity has
been brought in and is spreading
rapidly through the land. Machin-
Try of oil sorts is taking the place Of
The farm hand and the horse. and is
Increasing the yield of the land.
During the past winter and early
lpring, according to recent bulletin
issued by the Canadian Pacific Rail-
way, the movement of solid train
loads of agricultural machinery ex-
Ieeded any previously made, and
purchases by farmers in this terri
tory have been unprecedented. The
sale of tractors, for instance, has in
Creased from 100 to 800 per cent
pver last years sale.
Easier Work in Field
At the same time, in fact, as a
result of this change toward the
Electrical and mechanical era in
EARNING, there has been steady
Improvement in social, recreational
and cultural conditions for the farm
families.
1.-THE western Canadian farmer
today is a different individual from
what he is pictured abroad" reads
The railways report. ITO an in
ereasing extent he but guides ma
thinery that performs his multifar-
tous tasks and gamers and harvests
bis crops.
Instead of long, tardy journeys
Into town with cumbersome horse
drawn loads over rough primitive
trails, he takes his grain direct from
The field where it is cut and threshed
IN one operation and transports it
BY truck over good roads to railroad
shipping points.
"His house and buildings may be
electrically lighted, barn and house
hold tasks accomplished by gasoline
engine. The radio brings him grain
quotations and the diversion of dis
tant cities, while the car is con-
slant recreational facility"
Electricity still has far to go to
be found in every farm home. But
it is spreading rapidly. As yet only
81 per cent of the farms in western
Canada are electrically equipped.
But the tractor and the gasoline
engine is more widespread. Last
year Fl per cent of the prairie prov
inces' farms had tractors and 25.5
per cent had gasoline engines. The
further purchase Of these machines
i'm recent months has been greater
than ever in the history of this area.
Similarly the era Of the combine
has been ushered in in western Can
ada, with hundreds in operation in
the past few years and more hun
dreds added this year. The COM
bination Of the reaper with the
thresher eliminates the elevator,
the knotter and sheaf carrier on the
binder and the feeder and blower
equipment on the thresher.
From rs to As acres day can be
harvested with = machine cutting
is or 16-foot swath, the cost is
I4VWCI 0llu klACAC 10 uO willy AOVUt
harvest help and threshing gangs.
Crops Saved From Frost
Another device which has extend
ed the usefulness of the combine and
has been adopted in this territory
Iis the windrow- header and windrow
pickup equipment. With the new
apparatus crops can be safely har-
vested regardless of local maturing
and unsettled weather conditions.
This equipment was subjected to
severe conditions in Saskatchewan
and Alberta 1T last years harvest
and again this year, with satisfac-
tory results. It's use has afforded
m earlier and quicker harvest. thus
avoiding weather and insect losses.
besides danger from heating of un-
evenly ripened and weedy grain.
Horses still are far in the majority
here, but the mechanical age is fast
approaching more threateningly. Re-
cent figures show there 6.0 horses
ii Manitoba to every farm. while
there is only one tractor to every
- farms. The proportion in the
other two provinces in favor Of the
horse 10 even higher, but government
farms authorities see the gradual
decline Of the horse in favor Of the
tractor In . few years.