Another thought, about how the Farmall changed farming. This tractor and others of the same type were meant to replace horses. This meant that fewer workers might be needed, and that feed crops that previously had gone to the horses could either be sold for money, or fed to more cattle. When World War II came along (1941 for the U.S.), many men who might have been available for farm work were drafted or enlisted in the military services. Farmers bought machines like combines, cornpickers and forage harvesters to replace the hired men. These machines are expensive, however, and no doubt a fair amount of the income from the farm had to go toward the purchase and maintenance of the machines. I see this as a kind of spiral which has led to the large farms of today, which are operated by very few people driving very big machines. My grandfather made a good living with 30 milk cows. Today, I am told by accountants, it takes 300 cows to make a profitable dairy--largely mechanized both in the barn and out. My father tried to make a living by growing corn and beans on about 150 acres, and found the income to be pretty sparse. The same accountant told me that it requires 2 or 3 thousand acres to make a good living with crop farming. Very expensive, however, because of the huge tractors, plows, harvesters, etc., needed to make the thing go. This may be primitive economics, but it seems to me, at least, that replacing horses--and lots of cheap manual labor--with machines has led to a totally different kind of farming, most unlike the "family farms" of 100-200 acres that I grew up with in the 1930s and 1940s. Now, it's a real business, needing, you guessed it, an accountant, as well as all the land and machinery I've just talked about. I'd be interested in the comments of active or recently-retired farmers about this. I did not go into farming for a living, even though I continued to help my father on his farm whenever I could right up to the time of his death in the late 1980s. My views are more of the armchair expert kind of thing--maybe just a puff of wind.
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Today's Featured Article - Ford Super Dexta - by Anthony West. The rusty blue tractor caught my eye as my truck zipped by the farm implement business. It looked so fornlorn amongst the lineup of newer equipment. But it was just the right size for my small farm. I stopped in and asked the proprietor for further information. "It's a 64 Ford Super Dexta", he said. "It's a tough little tractor, although it's a hard starter being a diesel and all." He did manage to get it running, compliments of a can of ether. Once started it putted along pretty good. It
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