A Promising Tractor Market—RUMANIA.
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IT is considered that Rumania offers a promising market for the sale of tractors, tractor attachments and implements, the country being well adapted for their use from the points of view of topography, climate, and the nature of the crops.
Official figures of the number of tractors in use in Rumania are not available, but local traders estimate that about 5,000 are at Present in operation, about SO per cent, of them being of American origin, with the remainder of German, Czechoslovakian, Austrian and Italian makes. Wheel tracters are most used for ordinary ploughing, mowing, harvesting and threshing work, it being considered more economical to employ draft animals for the less urgent tasks on the farm. The state and municipal authorities employ tir actors for road construction and repair work, and for the removal of snow and rubbish.
Recently several of the more important oil companies introduced a number of track-laying tractors for haulage purposes. It is believed that, with the revival of industry as a result of the stabilization of the currency, an active market May be developed for this type of tractor in the lumber and oil industries, which are rated next in importance to agriculture in Rumania. At present, a preference is being shown for medium-sized tractors, most of those in use being of 20 hp. to 30 h.p.
Amongst the factors which act as a deterrent to the increased use of treetors are, first, that the peasants, not accustomed to modern methods of cul
tivation, -.comprise more than threefourths of the population, and, secondly, that outside the principal urban centres of the country trained mechanics are few, and of even greater scarcity are service stations for the repair and overhauling of mechanical equipment.
The Rumanian Government has shown a disposition to encourage the use of tractors, as it realizes the pessibilities of an increase in .production by the use of motive power in agriculture.
The purchase of tractors is, however, being encouraged by the agricultural. associations in Rumania, of which the most important are the agricultural syndicates and the peasant co-operative organizations.
Approximately 1,000 tractors were imported into the country in the first ten months of 1928, as compared with approximately the same number in 1927, this relative limitation of the market being brought about by a poor crop and by adverse economic conditions in general. However, with the return to normal of the economic situation it is considered that, in the near future, there should be a rapid increase in sales.
Manufacturers desirous of entering the Rumanian market are advised to communicate with the central offices of the agricultural syndicates and peasant co-operative organizations. The addresses of these are as follow :— Sindicatul Agricol, Ilfov, Bucharest, and Centrala Co-operativelor Statesti, 17, Strada BrezoIanu, Bucharest. Rumania.