Progress of the Motor in Agriculture.
Page 49
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
MHE introduction of sugar-beet growl_ ing on a large scale into this country has done much still further to popularize the motor among farmers. Motor power is being largely used on the roads for conveying roots to the factories, and, IV special attachments, for hauling the loads off the laud. Agrimotors and specially equipped lorries are mostly used for the latter purpose, but the rubber-tyred agrimotor is also used for hauling roots to the factory. The employment of the motor in the sugar-beet industry is its newest agricultural development. There is an increase in 1926 of 70,000 acres in the area of sugar beet or 128.5 per cent. over 1925.
There are many other directions in which the motor is being more extensively used in the agricultural world.Auctioneers are making strides in the use of motor transport for the conveyance of live-stock in connection with stock markets. Messrs. Boulton and Cooper, the auctioneers at Learner and Melton, Yorkshire, have a large motor lorry for transporting sheep in connection with their markets. The lorry used is a double-decker, carrying 60 sheep, and the charges correspond with the railway rates for the distance traversed, so that, considering the extra convenience, this must be a great boon to farmers and breeders, affording as it does door-to-door transportation at moderate costs.
At Hull market there has been a change over from rail to mechanical road transport of stock to the market, and the corporation has had to facilitate entrances. In many parts of the country the lorry has come into prominent uss for live-stock carrying purposes. In the isolated parts of East Yorkshire a solitary animal such as a pig, sheep, or calf can be seen being conveyed to market in the farmer's private motorcar, the lorry being reserved for larger loads.
Another important development is the carrying by road of milk in bulk. The largest vehicles built for this purpose are those owned by Messrs. Viner and Long, of Frome, Somerset, and 8, Southwark Street, London Bridge. The.two new lorries recently built for the firm by Scammell Lorries, Ltd., were fully described in our issue of August 24th: They have proved highly successful on the road, for the load of 2,620 gallons of milk suffers little change in temperature in the long journey from F'rome to London. The distance is 100 miles, and while the one vehicle is on its way loaded the second is returning empty. This is a much more hygienic mode of carrying milk
than that generally in vogue elsewhere.
Mention has been made of the extensive use that is made of the motor in the sugar-beet industry. Some weeks ago there was a public demonstration at Cloot House, near Peterborough, of a tractor specially constructed for lifting sugar beet. The appliance can be operated by one man. It is known as the Greyhofind sugar-beet harvester, and is made by the Bunting Manufacturing Co., of Toledo, Ohio. The cost of the outfit is 1595, and the cost of working, including wages, is stated to be 5s. per acre, as against 12 to 15 when the roots are lifted and topped by hand. The machine lifts every beet, cleans and takes off the tops, and conducts the roots to a hopper at the rear to be unloaded at will by pressing a lever placed in front of the driver's seat. Other demonstrations are to be held.
These are some of the most recent developments that have taken place in the motorization of agriculture. Everything points to the motor playing a very great part in every phase of farming in the near future.
There is no doubt that the great increase in the employment of motor vehicles and appliances in every other branch of industry is exercising a considerable and beneficial influence on agriculturists all over the country.