Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 54, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 October 1917 — REPAIR ALL WORN MACHINERY [ARTICLE]

REPAIR ALL WORN MACHINERY

Scarcity of Tools Must Be Met by Putting the Old Ones in Shape. The great outcry for farm production and the scarcity of machinery points to the need of some way to repair a great many implements that are now useless largely because of the neglect with which they have been treated, says the United States Department of Agriculture, which adds that the machinery manufacturers and their local sales agents should help to perform this repair 'service. Throughout the country there are thousands of binders, mowers, and other farm machines rusting in the fence corners, and many of these might be made available for further valuable service. The manufacturers of farm machinery are admittedly unable to furnish all the new machines required and are paying for full-page advertisements to influence governmental authorities to insure them necessary raw materials and transportation in competition with the demand for machines of war.

The railroads of the country, according to one of their officials, are being compelled in the present emergency to rescue practically every scrap locomotive from the old-iron graveyards and rebuild them for active service. A similar plan should be adopted, says the ..department, for the reclamation of this cast-off farm equipment through the agency of central repair shops where the work could be done. Many of the machines might be made available for further service with repairs of comparatively small cost. , . Addfed to the almost sinful carelessness of some farmers there has been the attitude on the part of farm machinery manufacturers in years past to favor the abandonment of worn dhd disabled machines in order to sell new ones; but now the time has arrived when it is difficult to supply the market with the necessary new machinery. The department suggests that representatives of the manufacturers, on the one hand, and of the farmers —such as farm bureau agents or county agents—on the other hand, should gfet together to establish the necessary farm machinery repair stations in convenient localities.