FARMING BY MACHINERY

Hokitika Guardian, 18 May 1917, Page 4

FARMING BY MACHINERY

A Great Speediug up ” Scheme.

(By H. Bais‘, the Engineering Expert in Djily Mail/

Obstnvir.g that a depirtmeot has been ea'abliahed by the M uitry of Munitions to control the minufacture and distubiuioa of agricultural machinery in these ibe majority of town dwellers wonder why such a develops nr is Deeded. R-fl c iur, coupled wi’h inquiry among tbe agricul urol machinery mektn and agents, as well as among farmers, speedily reveals what work Bnch a department could and indeed mußt do. Tiro-vh.rds of snob essential machines as reapers, binders, and mowers come from abroad, the remaining third alone be ng produced in this o entry.

Therefore, if onr demand for them continued to be normal, as from the point of view of traospoit they oocnpy relatively great balk for their weight, they present a very greit problem because of the multifarious other demands on shipping at a period when this nation is makiug its greatest effort to win the war. In face of tha Government’s speeding up of agr’cu’tnral enterprise, it is necessary, besides, for farmers to have'greater supplies of machinery than in normal times, hence many contending interests have to be weighed and-the necessity for centralisation of enterprise be-

comes paramount. Even on tbe assumption that there were no labor difficulties in Canada or tee United States, the demand for home-manufactured agricultural machinery mast become more and mpVe insistent in facs of the submarine campaign. Yet the home manufacturer asks how h 9 oan be expected to supply enormously increasing quantities when most of his men have *brei taken for the Army ; have been drafted into the more oruina r y munitions factories ; or have been moved into the munitions department of the given agricultural motor machinery manufacturer, whose normal activities have been practically suspended in consequence. Such manufacturers further ask how they can be expected suddenly to meet an abnormal demand for agricultural implements at the eleventh hour when iu some cases there are only a few weeks, and ia others a few months, before such machinery is needed for immediate ose by British farmers.

GREAT REFORMS N3EDED Such, then, are a few of the many problems that erise in connection with supplying tbe farming community with the necessary machinery for enormously ertending its. enterprhrffth 1917. It will be agreed that scope ; s here presented for a super-man among captains of industry, la selecting Mr Selwyn Francis Edge to take charge of its Agricultural Machinery Department, the Ministry of Munitiors secures the services of a bnsmess man wko in (he past has won a world-wide repntatioh for enterprise ; of a practical farmer who studied that probl-m alike in tbe New Worll, the Od World, and iu Australia aid South Africa, and of a man whose reord in the annals of Bforr, as of business, reveals him to be master of tbe time factor. He ’S the bead of a vast new organisation which has to co-ordinate the manufacturing of agricultural implements at factories to secure tha most satisfactory article in the least time, and so to arrange matters as to minimise the variety of training needed to make each wotker master of bis task. The whole .trade is in urgent need of reorganisation. All essential parts must be standardised and variety reduced to the minimum. This concerns not only agricultural machinery wdrked by manaal or horse power but the motor varieties too. Under the powers it possesses the □eyv Agricultural Maobinery Department will issue licenses on such terms that manufacturers most make agricultural implements, moior traoto s, and so forth, with certain degrees oF standardisation as between one maker’s products and another’s, Me Elge thinks that amalgamation of tha principal firms in the trade would prove tha best solution in' the present and the salvation of the British agricultural implement industry -af er the

f} Best medicine for children

war. To go on as in the past can lead

— 1 _ . Restarting agricultural machinery manufacturing in these islands really resolves itself into a problem of standardisation of design, of obtaining and training labour, and of getting sufficient raw material- A renewal of this enterprise will nit interfere vv th ordinary munitions work, bso»nse in most cases agricultural imoLmsai) makers who have .had to uaJsr'ake that have laid down new and speoitl plant for that pnrposp. HO WASTE EFFORT But under the d rector of agricultural machinery proluotioi and distribution there will bi no b ind mtoufactnriag whereby the prodacer has no ex lot nation OE a season s requirements because the Lrunrs or their •gents will no: stite their Deads fcuffioiently farahudv" Farmers tironghonr the country are being required to specify their need# a* onooand to give definite orders for machinery for immediate delivery. There is to be no working at random, becaoss that leads to waste effort. Instead, all eaterprise is to be bared on known facts.

Co-ordh. a‘ion will also enable certain agricultural machinery to be nsed with economy. Thus Mr EJge holds that at the harvesting season it will be necessary to move from the south northwards, there being snffiomnt time to allow of that beiog done to an appreciable extert. Of course tbe necessary men woald m'V3 with the machines. He ‘is of opinion that tractors wilt have to run iu squads ia different parts of the country, too, to reader {the maximum assistance to farmers in bringing new land into onitivation.

Not ths least important, work will be arranging for the supply of men trained in the handing ef special types of raaohinery. for spare parts, and for fuel and lubricating oils for the motor '-varieties. It is tbe big new demand under this last head that in part diotat.s the necessity for reviewing the whole scheme of petrol allowances to private motorists against the expiry of the current licenses.