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Where the .Agrimo tor Scores.
Page 65
Page 66
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-T" great. decline in the arable acreage of this country has restricted the demand for ploughing and cultivating implements of all sorts, and even for horses. The arable decline, however, appears to have reached zero, and, although corn growing alone may not be responsible for a large arable acreage, this and fruit and vegetable growing together help to place a substantial area under crops of one kind and another. Generally Speaking,' this Work demands " close attention to detail and requires that all cultivating jobs shall be done precisely at. the right time.. Under the old. methods it was impossible even to approximate working operations to the requirements of the moment. Since the introduction Of the agrimotor, however, the intensive cultivation necessary has been made possible. Fruit and vegetable growers could not to-day carry on without the appliance.
At the moment the agrhuotor is proving its worth in every direCtion. By its use a dry spring has enabled farmers to complete all their cultivating and fallowing before haymaking and without anxiety as to whether some upsetting of plans later will occur to prevent the work being completed. Following a dry spring conies what is, apparently, a wet period for haymaking: But the man with the tractor can get ,along when a day or two of fine weather is vouchsafed him. He has the advantage of being able to make the best use of every moment of sunshine and of dry weather. Then, again, the tractor is equally valuable in the harvest field for cutting and carting the grain, and later it can be employed as a source of power in threshing, etc.
The agrimotor has many advantages as a labour saver and as a means towards keeping down the labour bill. Especially is this merit displayed in respect of the checking of weed growth on arable land, whilst the saving • it affords at seed-sowing time is appreciable. Many operations are necessary in the efforts to keep down weeds and to get the seed into the ground in the autumn and spring. Both jobs are expensive when performed undet the old methods of hand and horse. The agrimotor makes light of both, and, being able to get through the work so much more rapidly, a spell of bad weatheris. not so detrimental as used to be the case when the farmer. was dependent upon the horse for the haulage of his irripleMents. •
The Government's Reply to the Objections of Motorists.
OPPOSITION to the proposals of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, organized on behalf of the motor movement, has been concentrated upon (1) the abolition of the Ministry of Transport and (2) the possibility of further raids on the Road Fund. It has culminated in a series of resolutions submitted to the Prime Minister and a deputation to him representative of the various interested bodies, which include the Royal Automobile Club, the Standing Joint Committee of Mechanical Road Transport Associations, the Federation of BritTsh Industries, the County Councils Association and the Societyof Motor Manufacturers and Traders. The Prime Minister, in his reply to the arguments, made it clear that the Ministry of Transport would eventually be abolished, but he could give no definite undertaking as to how its functions would afterwards be carried on. With regard to the Road Fund, Mr. Churchill, who dealt with that portion of the arguments of the deputation, said that the Fund would not be absorbed into the general exchequer, add it had now been decided to expend from Road Fund receipts a sum of 120,000,000 on the roads during the current year. Unfortunately, this will not get rid of the difficulties now confronting the various highway authorities, checking their enterprise in road improvement and in contracting for new works.
Licensing Coaches on the Horsepower Basis.
ONE of the questions recently put to us by readers concerning the legal position of the owner of a motor hackney vehicle and his liability to display a hackney carriage plate may with advantage be answered here for the benefit of other owners who may also be in doubt. A passenger-carrying vehicle which is licensed as a hackney carriage need not carry a hackney carriage plate unless the duty paid is less than the duty which would be payable if the vehicle were licensed as a private car on the horse-power basis.
Before January 1st, 1925, a hackney carriage plate had to be carried in every case unless the vehicle was licensed to ply for hire and carried the mark provided by the local authority. This was altered by the Road Vehicles (Registration and Licensing) Regulations, 1924, which came into force on January 1st, 1925, and replaced the 1921 Regulations. Paragraph 31 of the 1924 Regulations provided that "Any vehicle licensed under the provisions of paragraph 3 of the 2nd Schedule to the Finance Act, 1920" (which contains the rates of duty for hackney carriages) "In respect of which the rate of duty paid is less than the rate of duty which would have been payable had the vehicle been licensed under paragraph 6 of the said Schedule" (which provides that all vehicles not within paragraphs 1-5 shall pay 11 per horsepower) "shall display the hackney carriage plate." The duty on a hackney carriage seating not more than 20 persons is 145 under the most recent Finance Act—that of 1926—and, therefore, a hackney carriage plate need not be affixed unless the horse-power exceeds 45. There is no doubt but that it would be illegal to run a 20-seater, in respect of which a tax of /30 only had been paid, even though the horsepower of the engine did not exceed that figure. Formerly, attempts were made to license motor lorries or hackney carriages as private cars on the ground that they were sometimes used for private purposes, but a stop was put to this practice by Section 14 of the Finance Act, 1922, which provided that, where a licence has been taken out for a motor vehicle and the vehicle is at any time while the licence is in force used in an altered condition or in a manner or for a purpose which brings it within, or which if it was used solely in that condition or in that manner or for that purpose would bring it within, a class or description of vehicle to which a higher rate of duty is applicable, duty at such higher rate shall become chargeable in respect of the licence for that vehicle
The Progress of Light-van Transport.
ONE of the most important spheres of activity in road transport is the delivery of comparatively light loads up to, and including, 30 cwt., and in actual numbers approximately two-thirds of the total number of vehicles employed in this country come into this category. Until comparatively recently the bulk of these vehicles consisted of 8-cwt. and 1-ton vehicles of one well-known make, ' but although this make still predominates, others have come forward and are rapidly gaining important positions, and it is Practically certain that the progress which is now being made with entirely British-designed and British-built models will not only continue, but will proceed at a more rapid rate.