INCREASED PRODUCTION OF FOODSTUFFS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1711, 12 May 1917, Page 4

INCREASED PRODUCTION OF FOODSTUFFS.

One result of the measures that are being taken in the United Kingdom to increase the production of foodstuffs is the development of the farm tractor. Tens of thousands of acres of British park and common land are being broken up for cropping with the aid of light and handy tractors. An Agricultural Machinery Branch of the Bi'itish Munitions Department has co-operated with the Board of Agriculture and the Food Controller in the promotion of the manufacture of agricultural implements in the United Kingdom, and reports that have reached His Majesty’s Trade Commissioner (Mr R, W. Dalton) indicate that there is likely to be a demand for the new tractors in New Zealand. They are light and handy machines, with great pulling capacity, and they can be used for hauling ploughs, harrows, reapers, etc., with economy and ease. One small tractor has ploughed 25 acres in 20 hours, and this without expert handling. The demand for the new machines is great in Britain at the present time, but it appears that the manufacturers will be able to supply orders from abroad presently. The fault of most of the existing tractors is that they are too big, too complicated, and too costly. Britain’s own needs, at a lime when all the available land hud to be brought under cultivation quickly with a minimum demand for skilled labour, have produced the sort of machine that should suit the Yew Zealand farmer.