Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/518

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��HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY.

��in nearl}' every State in the Union, Avhile dozens stand at railroad stations exposed to the weather. This is overproduction, and intending buyers can draw their own conclusions, as to whether it will pay them to buy machines for which the demand is steadily and surely falling off. But it was not only in 1878 that The Ault- man & Taylor Company could not fill its orders for Aultman-Taylor goods — in onl}^ one j-ear of its entire histor}- has this Company been able to fully supply the demand for its goods, and though each year straining every effort to turn out goods enough, and though it has, by new buildings and new machinery and increased mechanical force, enlarged its production, yet the supply of Aultman-Tajdor goods has ever been below the demand. In other words, while other builders have failed to sell what the}' built, this Company has not been able to build enough. Comment is hardly necessary, such facts are eloquent, the}' speak louder than words, and in a language which all can understand ; and while the Company have, by the erection of new works, and by ever}' other means in their power, arranged to build heavier than ever be- fore for the season of 1880, they must warn all parties intending to buy either threshers, horse- powers, clover-hullers or engines, that the only way to make sure of getting the best is to order early, for while the stock of Aultman-Taylor threshing machinery may last until the season's demand is o^-er, yet it is quite likely that the}' will be unable to fill late orders.

Although, in 1868, they started out with large works and occupying over seven acres of land, the increasing volume of the business of The Aultman & Taylor Company has compelled extension after extension, here a little, there a little, until they now occupy, with their shops, warehouses, offices, lural)er-yards, etc., between thirty and forty acres of land ; and while they employed, in 1868, only $150,000, they have been compelled to put in fresh capital and add to and increase their means from time to time.

��in order to accommodate the demand for their goods, until, in 1878, they employed over $1,400,000 ; and as a little index of what such a business as theirs is, they would say that from using less than $200 worth of postage stamps in 1868, their expenses for postage alone, in 1880, will be over $5,000.

The warehouse was built in 1869, and is probably the largest frame building having three or more floors in America. It is 252 feet long, 90 feet broad and 4 stories high, and con- tains 90,720 square feet of storage capacity — but this enormous warehouse is insufficient to accommodate their business, and it bursts out into sheds and other improvised storage, in every direction. Travelers will probably re- member this huge warehouse, with its '' starved rooster " painted on each end, but will hardly be prepared to suppose that a line drawn from the head of said rooster to his farthest extrem- ity would not be far from one hundred feet in length. It will repay a visit to Mansfield to. look through this warehouse and see its giant elevator, which hoists a threshing machine from the gi-ound to the top floor as easily as a man would lift a baby.

From what insurance men, other manufactur- ers, and reporters for the great city papei-s write, the Company must have an unusual lum- ber-yard, as its size and what every one calls their stupendous stock of lumber, seems to ex- cite wonder among all who visit it. Undoul^t- edly they do carry an unusually large stock of lumber, and it has always been known that their qualities are very much better and more costly than most manufacturers think it worth while to work up into threshing machines ; but the Com- pany l^elieve they have made money by their course in this I'espect, as to-day their reputation as the builders of the moSt durable threshing machines on the continent is largely due to their using such grades of lumber as are usually only found in furniture and other fine work. By carrying the enormous stock they secure the

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