How Road Transport has Established South African Agriculture
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Efficient Motor Services have Enabled the Farmers to Find Profitable Markets for Their Dairy Produce
A ORRAT deal of criticism has been Isilevelled at the road-motor services of the South African railways, but they have, in many ways, assisted the dairying and other agricultural development of the country. Before May, 1926, the cream producers in the VryburgKuruman area could not sell their products, owing to the absence of rapid transport facilities. Now, however, the cream traffic from this section of the Union represents about 44 per cent. of the total gallonage carried. Farmers did not know how to dispose of the butter that they produced, and often it was converted into soap.
The road-motor services have been the means for converting the 'Vrybrirg creamery from one of the smallest to the biggest in the Union, and, in three years, the butter output rose from 212,000 lb. to 750,000. lb. per annum. it is no longer necessary for farmers to barter their butter for household needs, because they have a regular and remunerative market for it.
According to the figures published by the Government, the gallons of cream conveyed in each financial year have been: — 1927-28, 90,487; 1928-29, 155,389; 1929-30, 273,594; 1930-31, 265,131; 1931-32, 330,972; 1932-33, 377,296. Many of these services operate towards the Kalahari, and their termini are far from the railhead. The Vryburg-Kuruman-Sonnestraal service covers 190 miles; there are several other services from _Vrybnrg that extend over 100 miles, and a few with smaller mileages. The tariffs on these sections have tended to encourage agricultural development, and, for the past six years, considerable reductions have been in force. Special rates are also allowed on boring mateTial for the various irrigation schemes in this region.
Deterioration of cream through travelling long distances first gave the authorities much food for thought, but this difficulty has been overcome by the provision of trailers with water tanks and material like hessian, which is maintained in a moist condition .by the water 'dripping from the tanks and by the employment of ventilated lorries.
In the hottest season the services are run during the night, but at other timea of the year the heat of the day is escaped by operating during the early morning or the evening. The Depart ment of Agriculture has investigated these services, and has declared itself satisfied that they are efficiently managed. The average increase in.the tern-, perature of cream during transit by road is about 4 degrees, and often the cream is cooler at the time of delivery than it -was when loading—a remarkable testimony to the refrigeration arrangements. Every motor vehicle now used in South Africa for the, private delivery of goods must carry the certificate of the Transportation Board, which lieensea these vehicles for the conveyance of definite classes of 'goods. In spite of the restrictions under which it labours, road transport is still flourishing.
The Central Transportation Board had to report that, "with regard to the transport of goods by merchants in their awn vehicles, the restrictions plaCeel upon lorry owners plying for reward have resulted in up-country traders and industrialists acquiring their own motor vehicles for conveying their own goods to and from the coast. Almost without exception, these vehicles are being used for the conveyance of goods classified in the higher railway rates, such as petrel, paraffin and groceries, and their operations are, consequently, hating the effect of diverting the lucrative classes of traffic itt increasing quantities from the railway to the road."