Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-24

Paalfed B
hard 10 meet such e0mpetition. He has to BAY
taxes en high priced land and msst make
more than the eheap-lAnd farmer, or he goes
deeply in the red
Meanwhile the sale Of wheat-harvesting ma
chineTy gees steadily en- In nearly every little
town Inn the wheat belt vacant eorners which
are mot taken up by "midget' gulf courses are
used for the display Of combines and TRACTORS.
A tractor and combine win cost in tire neigh
borha0a Of $3,0aQ-0 heavy initial expense
which is supposed 10 be made M Inn several
ways chiefly i'm the lessening Of tAe eest of In
bor And Ii ID apparent that the combine has
greatly Fedneed employment In the harvest
helds The itinerant workers who used to drift
westward In sWarms, confident Of getting jobs
through the harvest season. NOW have NO such
fe6akag to buoy them up.
A T Omaha, once q center of harvest hand
employment, I was met with the statement
that the local labor supply was sufacient to
meet the demand nowadays. Yet few years
ago farmers in the wheat region even resorted
to kidnapping prospective harvest hands. No
hobo "wohbly" travelling through the country
was safe from work.
Another notable thing has been the steady
decrease In the number and value Of work
horses. At the recent Frontier Days festival at
Cheyenne a parade of ancient vehicles was .
feature The countryside for $50 mikes around
Cheyenne had TO be secured to find enough
horses s'hroke to harness. to draw the We
hcles through the streets.
This decline in the number Of horses has
not been without some retaliatOFy effect. There
is no doubt that 1t has affected the price Of
corn, though alfalfa has remained at a good
average figure. Apparently, however, there IL
Immediate prospect of a. "c0mehaek' by the
I,I.,,
together. The tractor and combine are doing
all the work that was done by the horse. The
combine and other machines have cut down
the human element in the farm problem, until
now it is estimated that two men can now do
the work that was done by six or eight
Furthermore, the tractor and combine win
work without cessation. Big searchlignts now
play across the prairie ahead Of the harvesting
machinery, which works day and night. The
night trick which used to be associated with
city life alone, Is now common on an up-to-
cate farm In the wheat region.
The farmer lis constantly learning new
things about the wheat harvesting problem
Where the combine was not used this year It
was quite common to cut high, leaving a long
stubble and not shocking the wheat. BY leay-
ing the wheat in long windrows on this high
stuhble it was held well away from the ground
thus giving the green stalks a chance to ripen
with the rest. Then came the thrasher, "strad-
ding" the windrows and thrashing the wheat.
BY leaving the wheat in wtndrows In this fash
ion ii is claimed that there is not such heavy
loss IN case of visitation Of hail.
The hailstorms In the wheat regions are
particularly violent. 1t is easy to believe that
modern harvesting, through its very quickness,
saves the farmer annual losses of millions of
dollars owing to hail. Last year such losses
were particularly large Many of the farmers,
who waited too late for the combines, let their
wheat get too Tipe-and the hail finished it.
That is one reason why fewer and fewer COM
Dimes bought a community basis. The
farmer feels that he cannot afford to wait his
tHFn in using Better stand the initial
pense of buying his own rather than run the
risk of having his wheat get too ripe or be
"hailed out"
New wheat kings" in the West have grown
as common as princes in Russia since the ap-
pEcation of expensive machinery to inexpensive
land gave the shrewd-minded operator a
chance Every town in the wheat belt has its
stories of success. The corner druggist in lit
tie town In Western Nebraska grew eloquent
as he traced the sudden fortune of the commu-
nity's most successful suitcase farmer"
Hes Just young felIer," said the druggist
SEde came here few years ago and dabbled o
little in real estate and such things and didn't
do very well. Then he rot a chance 10 lease n
~9A2 saeSts SAsI