The Rural Voice, 2000-12, Page 10GREAT XMAS GIFT IDEAS
BOOKS, CALENDARS & DECALS
New Releases For 2001
Minneapolis • Moline Farm Tractors
- by Chester Peterson Jr. & Rod Beemer $31.25
Illustrated Buyer's Guide • Minneapolis
- Moline Tractors • by Brian Rukes $22.50
Farm Tractor Milestones - by Randy Leffingwell $37.50
Allis Chalmers • Farm Tractors & Crawlers
Data Book - by Terry Dean . $14.95
Caterpillar Pocket Guide - The Track -Type
Tractors 1925-1957 by Bob LaVoie $24.95
100 Years of Vintage Farm Tractors
by Robert Welsh $37.50
Love, Sex and Tractors by Robert Welsh 518.75
Standard Catalogue of Farm Tractors
1890-1960 by C H. Wendel 537.50
John Deere • Two Cylinder Collectibles •
Collectors Reference Guide by Greg Stephen.. .518.75
The Ford Tractor Story • Part Two • 1964-1999
by Stuart Gibbon 556.25
Farmall Tractors In the 1950's - Enthusiast
Color Series by Guy Fay $17.50
International Harvester Tractors 1955.1985
by Ken Updyke 531.25
How to Rebuild & Restore Farm Tractor
Engines by Spencer Yost $24.95
The Proud Heritage of Agco Tractors
by Norm Swinford. 549.95
2001 Intertec - Used Tractor Price Guides 516.95
Big Book of Caterpillar by Robert Pnpps 549.95
Caterpillar Chronicle • The History of the
World's Greatest Earthmovers by Enc Colemann.$37.50
American Farm Tractors In the 1960's
by Chesser Peterson Jr. & Rod Beemer 537.50
The Advertising of Massey -Harris, Ferguson
& Massey Ferguson by John Famworth $49.95
Wendel's Notebook - A Compendium of Useful
Information for Gas Engines & Tractor
Collectors - 2000 Edition by C.H. Wendel 514.00
BEST SELLERS
Cockshutt - The Compete Story • compiled by
the International Cockshutt Club Inc $24.95
Big Book of John Deere by Don MacMillan $49.95
Massey Legacy - Vol. 1 by John Famworth 549.95
Massey Legacy - Vol. 11 by John Farnworth $49.95
Massey Tractor Data Book by Keith Oltroge 514.95
Harley Davidson Collectibles by Michael Dregni543.75
American Gasoline Engines Since 1872 $62.50
The Legendary Model A Ford by Peer Winne Weser $43.75
Farmall Letter Series by Guy Fay & Andy Kraushaar$31.25
Farm Tractor Collectibles 537.50
Inside John Deere - A Factory History by Rod
Beemer & Chester Peterson Jr. $31.25
Illustrated Buyer's Guide - John Deere
Two Cylinder Tractor 19141960 by Robert Pripps$22.50
Oliver Farm Tractors
by T. Herbert Morrell & Jeff Hackett $37.50
Allis Chalmers Construction Machinery &
Industrial Equipment by Norm Svnnford $56.20
Allis Chalmers Tractors Enthusiast Color Series517.50
Encyclopedia of American Farm Implements
& Antiques by C.H. Wendel 531.25
This Old Farm - A Treasury of Vintage Tractors
& Family Farm Memories by Michael Dregni 537.50
Busted Tractors & Rusty Knuckles
by Roger Welsh 518.75
2001CALENDARS FROM MOTORBOOKS INTERNATIONAL
American Farm Tractors (2001) $9.95
John Deere Farm Tractors (2001) $12.95
Farmall Tractors (2001) 512.95
From Voyageur Press - Historic Farm
Tractors (2001) $10.95
From Reiman Publications - Old Iron (2001) $9.95
- Cluckendar (2001) 59.95
• 2001 Pig Calendar 59.95
Classic (Dupont) 2001 $11.95
Video 2001 539.95
MANY DECAL SETS & MANUALS AVALABLE FOR OLDER TRACTORS &
WAS ENGBIES. WE ALSO CARRY MANY 115 51615 FOR TRACTORS THAT
MAKE A GREAT CHRISTMAS PRESENT.
HAUGHOLM BOOKS
R.R. 1, 40372 Mill Rd.,
Brucefield, Ont. NOM 1J0
Ph. 519-522-0248 Fax 519-522-0138
Will Mall Direct to You for 55.00 Shipping & Handling + GST
Visit our Showroom at 40372 Mill Rd.
Hours: 9.12 & 1-S Weekdays.
Other Times By Appointment - Please Call First
6 THE RURAL VOICE
Keith Roulston
Farmers made consumer luxuries possible
It's Christmas shopping season
and for anyone in the retail business,
it's a selling bonanza that will make
or break a year. I wonder how many
of the clothing manufacturers, the
electronics retailers or the recipients
of the latest gizmo on Christmas
morning stop to
think of the role
farmers played in
the Christmas
orgy of consum-
erism.
Things have
come a long way
in the past 50
years. Take a
look at what
people can expect
to get for gifts
today compared
to back then. I
remember being
thrilled on
Christmas to get a oy tractor trailer
truck filled with farm animals. My
uncle supplemented this with a
homemade barn. Can you see any
eight year old boy being happy with
such a gift today? He'll be expecting
something flashy and expensive, not
simple and homemade. And in most
cases he'll get it.
While many would credit the
invention of the transistor and the
integrated circuit for the proliferation
of stereos, cellphones, computers,
and other electronic gadgets under
the Christmas tree, a case can be
made that all the inventiveness of all
the electronic engineers wouldn't
have meant a thing if farmers hadn't
been so efficient that consumers had
extra money left over after they
bought their weekly groceries.
Look back at prices of things in
1950 and today's prices seem huge.
A grocery advertisement in a local
newspaper back then advertised
sliced bacon (with the rind on) for 67
cents per pound. A five pound bag of
Robin Hood Quick Cooking Oats was
47 cents. Both prices seem pretty low
until you look at what people earned
back then. The average family
income in Canada in 1951 was
$3,535, according to Statistics
Canada. Today you buy convenient,
vacuum-packed, sliced bacon with no
rind for $2.99 for 500 grams and oats
for $2.19 for 1 kg. at my store. That's
about four times as much for the
bacon over nearly 50 years and 10
times as much for the oats (I wonder
what oat growers think about that?)
But the average Canadian family of
two or more people, again according
to Stats Canada, had a total income
in 1998 of $62,116, 17.6 times as
much as in 1951.
You don't even have to go so far
back to see the impact reducing food
costs means to the average family.
Back in 1976, according to Stats
Canada, the average family income
was $18,565 a year, or $357 a week.
The average family spent $55.18 on
food, or 15.4 per cent of their weekly
income. In 1998, the average family
spent just $112 out of a weekly
income of $ 1195, or 9.4 per cent.
That's six per cent of a family's
income that would have been spent
on food 22 years earlier that isn't
now. On the average family annual
income of $62,116, that's $3,727 a
year that can be spent on big screen
TVs, computers, vacations in Florida,
lavish Christmas gifts and larger
houses.
What's more, of the $112 average
weekly food bill, $31.12 is spent on
food purchased in restaurants. Take
that out of the mix, and the cost of
feeding a family at home drops even
lower: to 6.8 per cent.
All of which makes the current
situation for farmers struggling to pay
the bills even more frustrating.
Enormous fortunes are being made
these days by people providing
services consumers can buy because
they have that extra disposable
income. If, for instance, people were
spending so much on food they
couldn't afford to buy computers and
subscribe to internes services, those
hot -shot dot.com billionaires might
still be flipping hamburgers.
There's supposedly a "new
economy" out there that renders the
old economy obsolete but it's built on
the basis of old economy producers
being so efficient they put themselves
out of business.0
Keith Roulston is editor and
publisher of The Rural Voice. He
lives near Blyth, ON.