The Unprogressive Farmer and the Agrimotor.
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THE ROYAL Agricultural Show has the effect, every year. of drawing the attention of farmers and others engaged in the agricultural industry to the use and value of mechanism. The conversion of the farmer to the use of power in place of manual and horse labour is, and evidently must be, a very slow process, whereas war-time expedients and experience had led Many to think that it could be quickly effected.
The use of power has, if anything, fallen off since labour has returned to the land, and it is evident that progress is not generally being sought by the average type of farmer. The well-educated farmer,
e12 or the man farming on a large scale, is, of course, a different being, and it is on farms of men of this type that one will find the agrimotor in use, well tended and profitably employed. But where the oldtime methods prevail of entrusting any implement to the mercies of the unqualified• and unmechanical farm labourer, who expects to leave it under a hedge or in a corner of the field for weeks on end, it, is obvious that only failure can result from any effort to introduce new devices and new ways of doing the work.
Some part of the difficulty arises from a substantial lack of service stations. The agrimotor should he safeguarded from the moment it leaves the hands of the retailer, who should make it his duty to see that it has a chance of doing its work well and under favourable or suitable conditions. But we do not yet understand " service "'in this country, so it is hardly fair to blame the 'farmer and the farm labourer for their neglect. The dealer and retailer should be the _schoolmaster who should 'teach the farmer, but that is not possible until we have educated our tutors.
We deal with the subject in a special article in t'hiS issue, and we feel sure that those who read the article will agree with us that much more in the way of propaganda on behalf of mechanism could be done by the Machinery Committee of the Ministry of • Agriculture.