J . People of every nation on the globe' i»ip8||SS?^WP^pi>*'^Wiihep probably use^~ P the beautiful thoroughfares of San Diego, California, and no doubt a percentage I of them, noting the municipal efficiency apparent there, broadcast the part §f talten in cleanliness operations by several units, liite this one, of the Industrial tractor and refuse dump trailer. ''Implement Houses of the Future' COMMENTING UPON A NEW SPIRIT IN THE FARM EQUIPMENT BUSINESS, OF WHICH THE ROBERTS IMPLEMENT CO., HAYWARD, CALIFORNIA, IS TYPICAL, THE Imf)Iement Record SAYS, "OUT OF THE DOLDRUMS, THE INDIFFERENCE, THE UNREST AND THE SHIRKING THAT THE RETAIL IMPLEMENT TRADE HAS PASSED THROUGH IN THE LAST THREE •" ' " - OR FOUR YEARS, HERE AND THERE ARE EMERGING RETAIL IMPLEMENT HOUSES OF THE FUTURE, CUT TO A NEW MEASURE, DEMONSTRATING NEW POSSIBILITIES, SEIZ­ ING NEW OPPORTUNITIES. A DOZEN OR MORE INSTITUTIONS COME TO MIND A? EXEMPLIFYING THE NEW STANDARD IN IMPLEMENT RETAILING, BUT WE MAY WELL TAKE THE ROBERTS IMPLEMEN T CO. AS AN EXAMPLE, SINCE THIS FIRM HAS JUST MOVED INTO A NEW BUILDING (AT LEFT) AND IS GROWING AND DEVELOPING WITH CONSISTENT REGULARITY." PROGRESSIVE IS WRITTEN ALL 0\l!R rill'SI! VIEWS OP THE McCORMICK- DEERING HOME CONDUCTED BY RUTLHDGE &• CO., FLOYDADA, TEXAS. AN INVITING STORE FRONT, AND AN INTERIOR IMPRESSIVE OF EFFICIENCY, SERVICE AND COMPETENT MANAGEMENT ARE'SOME OF THE OUTSTANDING PHYSICAL QUALITIES APPARENT TO THE READER AS THEY UNDOUBTEDLY ARE TO THE CUSTOMERS WHO PUT THEIR MONEY WHERE THEY FIND THESE QUALITIES. MR. RUTLEDGE 13 A FORMER MAYOR. SECRETARY OF THE COMMERCIAL CLUB AND HAS HEl I> ill 111 i' I IKI I' OFFICES. THE OTHER MEMBERS OF THE FIRM ARE MR. MARTIN, IN CHARGE OF SALES AND SERVICE. AND MR. ZIMMERMAN, WHO HAS CHARGE OF THB OFFICE, BESIDES HAVING LARGE CATTLE INTERESTS. AMARILLO BRANCH CALLS THE THREE, "GO-GETTERS," AND IF WE HAD ONLY THESE PICTURES TO GO ON, WE'D SAY THEY CERTAINLY MUST BE. ANOTHER MCCORMICK-DEERING DEALER WHO EXHIBITS PLENTY OF THE NEW SPIRIT IN FARM EQUIPMENT SELLING IS J. E. CARSON W SONS, MACOMB, ILLINOIS, THE FIRST FLOOR INTERIOR OF WHOSE NEW BUILDING IS PICTURED AT LEFT AND BELOW. THB BUILDING IS SO FEET BY 161 FEET, HAS OVER 100 FEET OF GLASS, AND IS CONSTRUCTED OF FIRE-PROOF MATERIAL, EX­ CEPT THE FLOORS. THE BASEMENT IS REACHED BY THREE RAMPS, ONE AT THE FRONT AND TWO IN THE REAR AND IS EQUIPPED FOR TRACTOR AND AUTO MOBILE SERVICEING. THE MAIN FLOOR CONTAINS THE IMPLEMENT DISPLAY SPACE AND STOCKS OF OTHER LINES, AS SHOWN. A LADIEs' REST ROOM AND CONFERENCE ROOM ARE ON A ROOMY BALCONY AND THERE ARE NUMEROUS OTHER DESIRABLE FITMENTS. THIRTY-EIGHT YEARS IN BUSINESS HAS NOT TAKEN THE EDGE OFF THE FIRM'S ENTERPRISE AND INI­ TIATIVE. ON THE CONTRARY THAT LONG EXPERIENCE HAS GIVEN IT UN8HAKE- ABLE CONFIDENCE IN THE FUTURE. IT BELIEVES IN ITS OWN MISSION TO GROW AND EXPAND UNDER THE FRUITFUL INFLUENCE OF THE POWER FARM­ ING ERA THAT IS SO DECIDEDLY REVAMP­ ING AGRICULTURAL METHODS. Page 2 HARVES WORLD The Outloo\ For Our Industry Excerpts from an Address by VICE PRESIDENT A. E. McKINSTRY Before the ThirtyFirst Annual Convention of the Iowa Implement Dealers' Association, Ames, Iowa, January 5, 1927 N our side of the industry, and on your side too, one of the things on which we necessarily spend much time and thought is exactly expressed in the title assigned to me for these remarks— O The Outlook for our Industry. For a moment let us consider the broad conditions of national business that bear a distinct relation to the welfare of agriculture and hence to our own business. I am happy to say that, from all I have observed, tl^e foremost thinkers and students of American finance, commerce, and industry seem to be agreed that a sound and reasonable period of general prosperity lies ahead of us. How long it will last they are not so willing to prophesy, but they do tell us that conditions are going to be fair throughout this year. There are no signs on the horizon of approaching trouble for the nation's business as a whole. Usually a period of general depression is immediately preceded by rising prices and tightening credit. No such conditions now exist or can be foreseen. Prices in general are stable, and money and credit are easy. The country appears to be going ahead soberly, prudently, energetically, and confidently ^r'u M j^ ^°^ °^ wiping out the last traces of the disaster of 1921, and with the still more important job of building for a new and solid prosperity. What, then, of agriculture? What is going to be the Income situation of the farmer when this year s crops are made and sold? How far will he be able to go this year toward replacing the worn- out and out-of-date equipment that eats up or eats into profits with the new and more elificient machines that make his labor more productive and more profitable? Now you men are probably as distrustful as I am when it comes to general averages, general in­ dications, and per capita statistics. The trouble with these generalizations is that they ordinarily fail to fit when we try to match them up against individual experience and conditions. At heart, if not all the way through, most of us are individualists. What each of us wants most to know is how this or that general condition or trend is going to affect him personally. Nevertheless, these generalizations may be made helpful if we apply them to local and specific problems as well as we can without trusting them too far. For that purpose and to that extent I cite here what appears to be the judgment of the private and public sources of opinion about the agricul­ tural outlook. These authorities seem to be agreed that the farmer's situation, on the whole, con­ tinues slowly to improve and that we may look for a year of reasonable agricultural prosperity. We have seen various declarations to the effect that "the farmer has come back"—that agriculture has fully recovered from the terrible depression that began about the middle of 1920; that we need not worry for the present about this great basic industry which underlies and supports the whole structure of our national prosperity. Is that true? Is the farmer at or near an equality with the men of other industries as to the net return from his labor and his investment? ; , Page 3 Page 4 HARVESTER WORLD ••! You men who live as neighbors tion. From 1920 to 1925, inclu­ for national action that will and friends with the farmers of sive, the population of the furnish some relief to agriculture; Iowa know that it is not true United States increased about for the development of organized here; and if the agriculture of 10,300,000. In other words, cooperative marketing, and for this banner farming state does during that six-year period our the busy stork to bring us so not yield the men engaged in it population increased nearly as many more hungry mouths to a just and fair return, how about much as the total population of feed that we can get rid of our the other sections of the country Australia and Canada. surplus crops by eating them? .some of which are less favored Translating these increased Well, one thing we can do is in soil, in climate, in the diver­ population figures into terms of what we have been trying to do sity of their farm products, and food consumption, it now takes ever since there was a farm in their proximity to market? forty million bushels more of implement industry, that is, for It is perfectly clear to the wheat a year to feed our own the last seventy-five years. farmer and to us that agriculture people than it did in 1920, and That one thing is to go on help­ has a considerable way to go each year, if our population ing the farmer to cut down his before it will be on an equality keeps on growing at the present costs of production by the use basis with the rest of our indus­ rate, eight million bushels more of more and more efificient labor- tries and the rest of the country. will be required. We now re­ saving machinery. It has often But there are some strongly quire from thirty-five million been remarked, but it is true hopeful signs of betterment for to forty million bushels more enough and important enough agriculture. One of the most potatoes a year for domestic to bear repetition here, that our important of these is the fact consumption than in 1920, and country's agriculture, for all of that the country is at last thor­ each year hereafter we must its supremacy in production per oughly aroused to the real situ­ have about eight million bushels man, is far from being com­ ation of the farmer; at last it more. In 1925 our country con­ pletely modernized. has become clear to the national sumed 168 pounds per capita of Power and labor represent the consciousness that agriculture is meat and lard. This means principal items of cost in farm less prosperous than it must be 1,700 million pounds more of operation, yet there are probably to keep up with the demands these products per year than in not more than six hundred upon it in the future; at last the 1920, and as large a proportion­ thousand tractors.