TRANSPORT IN AGRICULTURE
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An Authoritative Review Thai Should Assist Farmers in Making Their Choice of Motor Vehicles for All Classes of Work
By Our Agricultural Corresponden t ROUGHLY, agricultural transport can be divided into two categories, namely, that carried on by the farmer himself, and that done
by contractors. On the farmer's side of the business it must be confussed that motor vehicles are not handled nearly as carefully as they might be, nor are they treated with the respect they deserve.
If the agriculturist would only take his lorry more seriously and devote as much attention to it as he used to do in the case of horses and traps, he would obtain a good -deal more service from it than he does anewould find. his transport. costs reduced.
The Best Type of Vehicle.
The Commercial Motor is ,con;tautly being asked what is the best type of vehicle.for a farmer to buy ? Naturally, the answer depends upon what Class of farming is being carried out and for what particular purposes the lorry is required. For general use the 1-ton vehicle was considered to be the best, and, probably, in the case of the small farmer and where the work consists more of general running about than of hauling big loads, that is still true.
During the past year or so, howaver, the 3G-cwt. vehicle has come snore into favour for general work and, in many cases, the two-tonner is used. On anything like a fairsized holding, when two lorries are necessary, they usually take the form of4a tonner and a two-tonner. Everything depends, of course, on the nature of the farm, the crops that are grown and the amount of hauling to be done. In mixed farming these vehicles can be employed for carting a large amount of produce to and from the farm, and if they be equipped with rack sides or other livestock-carrying equipment, so much the better.
On the big arable farms a heavier type of vehicle with a larger carrying capacity is needed, lighter vehicles being useful only for general jebs. Sugar-beet and potato growers in Lincolnshire and other counties where these crops are produced on a large scale, find a 4-ton lorry, or even a 10-ton steamer, useful. In addition to this, the small boxyan or light lorry is largely, operated by farmers who retail their own produce, as many do throughout the country. The tendency in the agricultural industry is more and more in the direction of delivering produce direct, especially poultry, eggs, etc., to the consumer.
In market gardening and fruit growing a big business is being developed by people who deliver direct by motor, either to the consumer or to the shopkeeper, this work sometimes being done by the producer himself, or, as more often happens, by an intermediary, who buys from the producer and gells to the retailer and, occasionally, to the consumer.
The milk producer requires a light lorry for conveying his churns to the station and collecting empties, or for retailing, when this is done by the producer. In many cases the milk producer has a large amount of haulage in feeding stuffs to do. He also has to undertake a considerable amount of work in connection with the removal of cattle and, on that account, if his business be on an extensive stale, he requires more than one lorry, because whilst only a light vehicle is necessary for transporting milk, it will be of little use for other work.
Phases of Milk Transport.
So much, then, for the farming side of the haulage business; now we come to the part that is played by the contractor. Hauliers do a great deal more work in connection with agriculture than many people think. I spoke a moment ago about the part played by the farmer himself in transporting his milk. His part in this goes only to a certain point, after which the wOrk all in one way or another, falls to the contractor.
We are all aware, to some extent, of the huge amount of milk that is conveyed daily from the country to the towns and of the long distances it is carried.
As I have said, the light truck, of up to 30-cwt. capacity, is the best vehicle for the farmer, but the contractor will need a 5-ton or 0-ton vehicle. Points required in the large vehicle for the milk contractor are reliability; a powerful engine and sound suspension. Pneumatic tyres are essential. ' Another factor to observe in connection with the vehicle to be used for this class of -work is that of noise, it now being necessary to obviate the noise usuallyscreated by the bumping together of churns. This matter is receiving the attention of bodybuilders Contractors find plenty of scope for their energies in hauling sugar. beet to the factory and potatoes to the market, for which purpose a heavier type of vehicle is, again, used..
The Contractor's Value.
In the market-gardening business there seems to be but limited scope for the contractor, the grower finding it more convenient to have his own lorry ready at hand when re
quired. In the fruit-growing industry, the contractor has more opportunities and performs quite a useful amount of ....ransport work for producers or their buyers. Then, again, in the vegetable and soft-fruit trade another type of business has arisen, whereby the owner of motor lorries buys produce from the grower and at wholesale rates delivers it to shops in towns.
The contractor performs an increasingly important service for agriculture in connection with livestock transport, especially in the north of England, Scotland and in some of theeather large stock-raising areas. Not only is the contractor often able to employ a type of vehicle that it would not pay the individual farmer to own for the conveyance of commercial stock to and from market, but he is also able to provide that more elaborate type of vehicle for the conveyance of valuable stock to shows.
Thus, we see how important the motor vehicle—and I should include the motor tractorqor haulage work on the land and the road—has become in agriculture, but it is not yet being employed to anything like its full limits: There is still plenty of room for the farmer to speed up his business by the employment of more up-to-date transport methods, and there is scope for the contractors to come in and to organize that business which, for quite obvious reasons, farmers cannot profitably undertake themselves.