TRACTORS AND FARM LABOUR
/Some weeks ago wc directed attention lo certain details of the very important plans outlined by the lnmo Minister of Great Britain for tlio revival of the agricultural industry in the Motherland. Incidentally it was pointed out that in addition to lixing a standard of prices which would afford a direct incentive to farmers to grow wheat, the British Government had decided to provide tractors for tho use of wheat-growers. Tho tractors, it was considered, would not only assist to minimise the labour difficulty clue to the shortage of skilled ploughmen, but also, by reason of tho increased speed with which they would enable tho work to be done, would permit of a much larger area of land being- cultivated within the time available. It being vitally necessary that the country should bo made self-supporting in'the- matter of foodstuffs, the Government took a definite step, which from all accounts _to hand seems certain to result in tho desired end being attained. A writer in the Westminster Gazelle, discussing tbo situation, mentioned that many thousands of those farm tractors were in use, many being supplied by the Government. According to an authority quoted tho horso is a. very bad second to tho tractor for "ploughing work. Roughly, it was staled, one man with two horses will take a day to plough one. acre, whereas a comparatively small tractor and ono man will get through six to ten acres, according to tho nature of soil and depth of ploughing. It is somewhat curious, in view of the shortage of skilled farm labour here and the urgent appeals mado to .the farmers to grow wheat, that more attention has not been given to the question of using tractors to meet the emergency in Sew Zealand. Certainly that emergency is not so great or so serious as in Great Britain, but the. need for increased wheat-growing exists hero as there, and skilled plougbmon are said to be short here as they are in tho Motherland. The areas in cultivation in many eases would not warrant farmers purchasing their own tractors, but somo such plan' as that followed in England might'be devised by which farmers could secure the temporary uso of tractors with skilled men in charge to do the ploughing. By this means many farmers might be induced to grow wheat who would not otherwise do so. Possibly the Board of Agriculture has given tho matter its consideration, but tho idea certainly has points to commend it, assuming that tho tractors. arc, as has beeii stated, procurable here.
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Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3111, 15 June 1917, Page 4
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428TRACTORS AND FARM LABOUR Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3111, 15 June 1917, Page 4
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