Night Ploughing Will Increase Wheat 'Production
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THE bead of the Machinery Division of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries has recently returned flop. the U.S.A. At a meeting this 'week he expressed tremendous enthusiasm concerning the production drive in that country. It is doing even more there to conservesalvable materials than we are in Britain. It is cutting down enormously the production of all non-essential articles, and reducing the number of models of essential equipment or " stream-lining" as it is termed there; thus tractor models are being reduced from some 60 to 16. The supply of spare parts will, however, be greater than pre-war.
This cutting down means that British farmers will have to rely largely upon the equipment already ' in this country; and to help in this direction night ploughing is to be permitted, the Minister of Home Security having sanctioned the use of two head lamps, masked as on motor vehicles, whilst torches may be employed, these concessions being subject to certain geographical limitations.
The drivers obviously 'cannot work both shifts, and the training of others should be started immediately, the less experienced being employed by day.
The " head " lamps may point fore and aft, whilst the torches may have semiscircular hoods projecting pot less than 3 ins., and the power must not exceed one watt. Masks must be easily cleanable from outside. Many head lamps may be obtained from scrap dumps—which may even yield dynamos, but if the latter prove unobtainable, batteries can be employed.