MACHINE METHODS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 45, 4 November 1946, Page 6

MACHINE METHODS

USE ON THE FARM

Y.F.C. DEMONSTRATION

At the request of the Young Farmers' CluD at Thornton, a large and most comprehensive demonstration was arranged by Mr W. Ross, of Gough, Gough and Harrier's Matata Demonstration Area. This was in the form of giving the members of the club the opportunity of seeing a unique way in which unproductive swamp lands are being brought into fertile pastures by use of various types of machines. All are operating on this vast wilderness of swamp approximately 1400 acres in extent.

A large gathering of members of the Young Farmers' Club assembled at the area at 10 a.m. on October 23 when the demonstration was held. The tour commenced with a most instructive and illuminating demonstration on the modern machine method of sheep shearing under the able direction of Mr Martin. For those who had not seen this in actual practice many excellent points were shown including . the art of preserving a good fleece not damaging the sheep in the operation. From the shearing shed the members were conducted to a nearby swamp paddock where the capabilities of the Clough Massive Swamp plough were shown. The machine was powered by a modern crawler tractor." The ground here had previously received a cut with the giant Bush and Bog Discs to show the effect of cutting the rushes and reeds before ploughing. Nearby, where another strip of ploughing was performed on virgin rough ground and rush the furrow measured 18" deep by 3(3" wide leaving- an even surface of broken, easily-discable, clean ground. The reason put forward for the depth of ploughing was that the soured, water-logged ground, from about nine inches downwards is brought up to the air and the sweetening effect of the sun and weather. This process takes very little time providing that the ground in the area is efficiently drained. To date all pastures put down in this manner have shown no failures and in some cases the seed was sown only two weeks after the initial ploughing of the swamp land. From this stage the party was shown the use of Giant Bush and Bog Discs, used directly on rushes which grew to a height of up to four feet. Extreme interest was shown in the way these rushes were carved up and rooted out without any apparent effort on the part of the machine.

At this stage a short period of time was given over to the inspection of a Gigantic Land Leveller constructed in the form of a bridge with a bulldozer blade mounted in the centre. There is not much in the way of levelling new land that this machine cannot, handle speedily and efficiently. At the same time the members inspected a Rome Plough which is very similar to the Bush and Bog type of implement. From this portion of the farm all the members moved over to inspect the Speeder Dragline machine ably operated by Mr Tapley, showing the maintenance and cutting of drains in swampy areas. A machine of this type is capable of cutting a drain 10ft. deep by 15 inches wide two chains long in a day. It was amazing to watch the smooth operation of the shifting of yards of silt and muddy sand in a matter of a few minutes compared to the previously long labouring back block method of manpower and a long handled shovel. From here all the members of the party returned once more to the starting point and were given a com-' prehensive talk on the care and maintenance of the crawler tractor. This was carried out by Mr D. D. Morgan, the Branch Manager at Rotorua. He chose for his lecture one of the new Caterpillar D 4 Diesel Tractors. When he had concluded a number of the members tried their hand at driving the tractor before an adjournment was made for lunch.

In the afternoon the party was transported to the far end. of the farm to witness the clearing of land by heavy machinery. At this stage the members were shown how by a few pulls with a winch of twentysix and a half short tons capacity mounted on the tray of a large tractor the largest of willows with their formidable rooting system were quickly and cleanly removed, leaving the ground ready for cultivation. After the trees. were winched out they were then pushed into piles by the Angle Dozer blade mounted on the same machine leaving them in a neat pile to dry before burning. All this operation took only a matter of minutes and required only the operator of the machine to do the job, against many hours of man

labour which would have been required to do the same wok.

The demonstration closed at 3.30 p.m. the members of the Young Farmers' Club feeling that their day spent in the viewing of these modern means of machine operation were one well spent.