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machinery problem is a steel problem, the nation must keep 

 a watchful eye on the allocation of manpower and steel. If 

 steel is withheld from food production, increasing amounts 

 of manpower must be made available for food production 

 if it is to be maintained. The armed forces cannot have both 

 unless the war is of short duration. 



More Tractors Needed 



In view of the shortage of young, vigorous, male farm 

 workers and the high average age of present farm operators, 

 restrictions on tractor production should be relaxed. 



Power is needed for farm work. Within narrow limits, 

 horsepower and tractor power may be substituted for one an- 

 other. With the drafting of manpower and the declining horse 

 population, tractors become more important and more neces- 

 sary. 



During the past thirty years old dobbin has given way to 

 the tractor. In 1910 horses and mules furnished all the farm 

 drawbar power. The tractor made little headway during the 

 next ten years, but thereafter the expansion was rapid. The 

 number of horses declined and the number of tractors rose. 

 Tractors now furnish 44 per cent of the drawbar power. The 

 power furnished by the horses has declined about as fast as 

 that of tractors expanded. In 1920 one unit plowed, planted, 

 cultivated, and harvested about 85 acres of crops (table 5). 

 In 1943 the acreage will be about the same, 82. 



If the nation pushes its crop area to 360 million acres in 

 1944, a total of about 4,400,000 tractor equivalents will be 

 needed. Work animals on farms are aging rapidly. It would 

 not be surprising if there should be a decline during 1943 

 of 300,000 or more horses and mules on farms. In that event 

 two million tractors will be needed. This is 100,000 more 

 than there were on farms on January 1, 1943. If 100,000 of 

 the present farm tractors are unfit for use by 1944, a min- 



