Farming De Luxe

The war, which has compelled U.S. farmers to look for manpower substitutes, is mothering some amazing new farm machines. So says FORTUNE for September in a survey of new farm machinery that may revolutionize U.S. postwar agriculture. Some of FORTUNE'S findings: > An enclosed tractor cab with self-starter, heater, cigar lighter, windshield wiper and radio. The manufacturer now plans to air-condition the cab, so that a farmer may "spread manure on frozen January fields while listening to the Aladdin Lamp program in a cab set at a steady 72DEG, or ride through 130DEG Kansas heat without raising a drop of sweat."

> A rotary tiller which, avoiding the ruinous, soil-destroying effects of the moldboard plow (TIME, July 26), chops, harrows and disks the ground.

> A small, hand-steered garden tractor, behind which the operator walks, lawn-mower-style, for intensive cultivation.

> A sugar-beet harvester that tops the beets, lifts them, shakes the dirt off, drops the beets in a hopper and tosses the tops in a windrow. It makes beet-picking so much cheaper that it may end the long fight over the sugar-beet tariff.

> A new, versatile small combine ("most useful war tool in the U.S.") that can harvest more than 100 different crops. With this and other new cheap machinery, FORTUNE believes the small farmer will be able to hold his own with the big farmer after the war.

> Equipment companies are not yet making what farmers consider the most essential postwar unit of all: a farm passenger car. What farmers want is "a decent-looking vehicle" that can double as a "sparking" place for the young folks and a light truck for transporting eggs, milk, etc.

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