The Harvester World: Volume 9, number 3, March 1918

              THE FOREIGN FIELD

H. L. Cowan sends us this picture from Paris with the following description by Mr. Hyndraan of the Nantes territory: "Chateau de la Roche de Bran par Montamise (Vienne), one of the finest chateaux of the Vienne depart¬ ment. The proprietors are the Comte de Murard, mobilized in the aviation service, French Army and Comtesse de Murard. This lady is very intelli¬ gent and very much interested in the question of motorculture. She is oc¬ cupying herself actively with this ques¬ tion at the present time and she fully believes that every proprietor should do the same because it is for the nation¬ al interest."

Former IHC Tractor Expert
Now Bosses German
Prisoners

Deering pulverizers. They are well trained men and several of them drive tractors to the station for me. That helps a whole lot, as I take five tractors and five plows at a time.

"Last Thursday afternoon (Thanksgiving) I spent with a bunch of American soldiers at camp near here and had a regular American dinner with pie. Think of it, pie, the first I have had since I left New York! I tell you, it tasted good.

"After Christmas I expect to have considerable work up in the war zone where our tractors are plowing up the old battlefields. So far I am the only one of the men who has not been up there. Many of the boys have been close enough to see the shells exploding at night. Two of the boys returned to America on Novem¬ ber first and the rest of us will remain here until spring, as we can run tractors practically all winter, as it freezes but little. As I finish this letter it is snowing hard." —J. R. Bradley, care of H. L. Cowan, 99 Rue des Petit Champs, Paris, France.

THE Princeton (Illinois) Republican publishes an interesting letter from John R. Bradley, who it seems has been in France since last March representing the Harvester Company as a tractor demonstrator. "I am still in Havre," writes Bradley, "and will be for three weeks more, as my boss promised to transfer me to Paris at Christmas time and send another man here to take my place. When I asked him recently when I would be permitted to go back to the United States, he said the Company did not intend for me to return, as they wanted me here in France. They are treating me fine. It makes a fellow feel good to know that what he does is appreciated.
"My work here is to oversee a bunch of German pris¬ oners who are assembling our tractors, Oliver plows and
20-H. P. tractor which you sold me," writes the Comtesse de Murard, "works quite regularly in the worst kind of ground even in wet weather and when oper¬ ated by a novice. I am moreover persuaded that motor- culture will become a general necessity, especially in France, where there is a lack of labor, and the urgency of increasing the productivity of the land by gaining time is daily felt more keenly. It is the duty of proprietors to have recourse to the means offered to them by progressive machinery, and I am certain that all those who use your instruments will be satisfied with them. I add that I have found your staff and your agents very kind and courteous, which facilitates business relations very much and enables me to entrust the machines to people who are quite unused to this kind of farming." The Comtesse has full charge of the farm since the proprietor, Comte de Murard is mo¬ bilized in the aviation service of the French army. The Comtesse is standing at the levers of the plow. Comte de Murard is at the wheel of the tractor, Mr. Hyndman is the man in the fedora.