100 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



economy when other forms of equipment are concerned or 

 reducing the machine to an inefficient size in order to make the 

 machine fit the farm, the practical solution has been to have 

 one farmer own a machine with which he does the work for a 

 whole neighborhood. For six weeks in the fall the dairy farmer 

 of southern Wisconsin works in cooperation with his neighbors 

 threshing grain and filling silos. 



For some farms the self-binder is a burden because it is kept 

 a year for two days' work. Where there is but little machine 

 work to do the economy of making one binder do the work on 

 several farms is obvious. 



The tractor is the most expensive piece of farm machinery 

 which the farmer has contemplated buying for his own use. 

 It would appear that some plan whereby the plowing of a neigh- 

 borhood might be done by one tractor would be more in keep- 

 ing with good farm economy than to put a tractor on each farm 

 where it will stand in the shed most of the time. Furthermore, 

 before buying an expensive machine, like a tractor, the farmer 

 should consider very carefully the annual cost of its use including 

 interest, depreciation, repairs, and supplies. This should be 

 balanced over against the reduction of other costs and the in- 

 creased income. The danger is that the farmer will underesti- 

 mate the cost of using a tractor and overestimate the amount it 

 will reduce other costs, such as horse labor costs and human 

 labor costs. The fact that machinery has done so much for the 

 farmer in the past leaves him open to exploitation, and the 

 danger is that the agricultural papers will join hands with the 

 manufacturers in carrying on this exploitation. 



Equipments are very different from land with regard to the 

 possibility of increasing the supply. The increase in the supply 

 of animal equipment is limited only by scarcity of land on which 

 to produce herds. The supply of tools and machinery may also 

 be increased indefinitely, the limit being set only by the amount 

 wh ifh the farmers can use with profit on the available land 

 area. In general, it may be said that the equipments may be 

 expected to increase more rapidly than the land supply. 

 k The contrast between land and equipments is greatest, how- 



