MOTORS IN AGRICULTURE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 246, 11 July 1919, Page 10

MOTORS IN AGRICULTURE

Since last we were at peace, says H Massac Buist, in the London "Observer," a vast industry has arisen in connection with tho design and production of agrimotors, chiefly of , the tractor variety. Theso are of alii sizes, for it is not in the country alone that the motor is supplanting the horse on the farm. On the contrary, once tho automobile engineers realised that the operations of ploughing and reaping occupy a portion only of each season, thoy designed machinery that could also do the general hauling work oh the land, including timber, therefore tlio practical stage was arrived nt 'wherein agricultural work is done year in and year out more promptly and cheaply than by horse haulage. Wo can scarcely judge world development in this connection by the relatively little we havo learnt of agricultural motoring in this country during the war. The (ypes "of machine's more especially encouraged by the Government 'havo not. necessarily been the best. Tractors falling back on their drivers and killing them aro not unknown here. Our small fields and uneven terrain do not proyido such ideal conditions for motor farming us (Main either on the Continent or in our Lominions ovorseas. Again, though there have been motor-tractor trials in these islands during the war, they have not been conducted scientifically. The rules have not laid down that, for a given field, a given 6hear must bo used according: as the local authorities, who obviously know best, determine. Until by such regulations wo place all competing tractors under common conditions we cannot arrive at any accurate measure of their respective merits. Those, however, are mero matters of experience. . . . Tho motor has also been successfully applied to the proposition, of supplying domestic lighting and power. In America these machines wo called farm lighting, sets. Each consists of one or more cylinders in combination with, a dynamo, whereby thero is economically generated current to light the residence and all the form outbuildings; and which is available, besides, for such operations as warming the housewife's irons, working tho butter churn, looking the cradle, milking the cows, heating the establishment by means of electric radiators, cooking by electricity, and so forth. In faco of the economy of theso srts, spd of the ability nnd intention of the Hrttis.h motor industry to make them, we 6liall hear qhuch of development in this direction in near futuro