SUGAR ; BEET TRAN I SP s ORT.
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A New Industry Benefiting the Farmer and Reducing Imports.
By Our Agricultural Correspondent.
gest that no. part of the potential agricultural market for Motor vehicles has been reckoned with to the extent that it might have been.
Great progress is being made with sugar-beet grewing, which is, of courSe, a new branch of British farming developed since the war and distributed throughout the• major part of the British Isles. Officially, there . have, so far, been three seasons of growing, and figures of progress are interesting as indicating the scope offered for those who are prepared to provide transport.
It is expected that thefl estimate of 260,000 tons of sugar for 1927 will be fully realized, and it will represent (1) a payment to farmers of upwards of £6,000,000 in the year, and (2) two months' supplyof sugar for the nation. As the sugar beet crops can be grown as easily here as in other European countries, there is every reason to believe that the industry will not only remain but will extend. These facts are mentioned merely to draw attention to the value of the trade that is offering in motor, vehicles.
The ordinary motor lorries serve quite well up to a certain point. Difficulties, however, always arise . when it comes to hauling direct
from the field. Lorries are used extensively for hauling the beet to the factories, or to the railway, as the ease may be, but they have to be loaded up at the roadside from horsed Vehicles which bring the roots from off The field.
With a view to demonstrating the advance made in the production of suitable transport arrangements to meet this exigency, the Lau' new light TL-type agricultural and road tractor took part in the programme for the trials of sugar-heat lifting and harvesting machinery held on Tuesday and Wednesday (October 25th and 26th), the demonstration being held under the auspices of the Oxford University Institute of Agricultural Engineering at Lady VD-2gerald's Home Farm, Buekland, near Faringdon, Berks.
The Object of the demonstration, so far as it applied to the tractor, was to show that loads of four to five tons of beet -could be. hauled direct from the field as the roots were lifted, and they were then conveyed to the destination for which they were intended. In this the tractor completely succeeded, and everybody was thoroughly well
pleased with what had been accomplished.
With its trailer, the tractor was taken on the soft ground up the ploughed field where the roots had grown and were being lifted, and loaded up with four tons. This load was hauled off with perfect ease . and without damage to the soil. The field where the trials took place was surrounded by . other fieldsand there was no road to it except-. across soft earth. Hence, after getting its load on to the headland the tractor had to go with it over ordinary field roads for a good quarter of a mile. In doing this it encountered soft ground like shifting sand, and although this proved a good test there was never a falter.
The secret of the problem of beet hauling, then, is the provision of a -vehicle that will fetch the load off the ground without the expense of .using . horses and carts and of double loading. Another point is the ability to get the job done quickly, that is to say, good loads must be carried at a good speed. The Lathi tractor will haul a four to five ton load off the field.' It will haul 10
tons on the road at 1.6 miles per flour.
• It runs or giant pneumatics, but •
its wheels are ingeniouslyfitted with strakea or adhesive blades
which can be brought into operation
for field work in two minutes and turned back from the .tyre in the
same amount of time for road work.
There is no need to give an actual description of this appliance here, as it has already appeared in
our columns, but it should. be inenI jotted that driving and steering are
on nil four wheels and there are six
speeds. In appearance this traetor is not unlike a -short lorry 'chassis.
It -represents a .distinct advance in
this type of machine, the -combined use of the giant pneumatic and the iron. strake being -quite a successful departure. Needless to say, besides being a proper road vehicle and not
a makeshift, it can perform every farm 'operation that can be mentioned, and at less than £704) is a good proposition. --No big grower can afford to be without one," a farmer said to me, "but rubber tyres and not steel ones should be used on all farm trailers."
AGRIMOT.