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AGRIMOTOR NOTES.

11th April 1918, Page 17
11th April 1918
Page 17
Page 18
Page 17, 11th April 1918 — AGRIMOTOR NOTES.
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

IFORESEE A VERY keen rivalry between the motorcar agent and the agricultural implement agent as to who is going to handle the agrirnotor business, and in my opinion the former class of tradesman is badly handicapped for the struggle. In present circumstances and except for a few eases which are so exceptional as to emphasize the rule, the farmer naturally turns to the implement dealer. As a class the British farmer is not a motor user. He is generally unacquainted with the motorcar agent,

except, perhaps, casually, and ia personal sense. The result of this condition of affairs is made manifest to the concessionnaire for any particular type of agrimotor when he compares the sales effected by the one agent or the other. The implement dealer scares every time.

The implement dealer may know little of the petrol engine, and therefore, when he encounters that type of tractor which embodies a high-speed engine as its power unit, he is confronted with new problems. This, however, constitutes the main if not the only dis

advantage under which he labours ao an agrimotor salesman, and it must be borne in mind that a not inconsiderable number of tractors embody a slow-running engine, with which the said implement dealer is already . acquainted owing to its use in considerable quantities throughout the country for driving stationary farm machinery, such as threshing machines, milking machines; and the like. On the other hand, and to his advantage, he has quite a sound knowledge of mechanics, and is able to do running repairs. He can talk to the farmerde terms which that individual understands, and, niost important of all, perhaps, he is acquainted with the farmer's idiosynoracles, his habits of buying, his methods of payment, and so on. The motorcar agent, on the other hand, has not., until lately, devoted much thought either to the farmer or to farming. Only here and there, in the case of large landed proprietors, does the farmer deem a car an essential' investment. He has already, in his stable, means of locomotion sufficient to meet his demands. He has not, as a rule, any time for week-end touring The car salesman, in consequence, finds himself handicapped in a double sense. However, he is Yearning fast. He is in a far different case, generally, than he was a matter of a little more than twelve months ago, about which time I recollect one man who, when demonstrating to me the capabilities of a new tractor, conceived it to be his best policy to exhibit its ground devouring capabilities, which he did by tearing tin and down a 30-acre field at. the rate of eight or nine miles an hour, with a plough behind it, •the implement only just scraping the soil. He ex plained to me that he had never coesidered the necessity for adjust ing the plough, and did not really know how to do it. He thought it was not worth while, as it was the tractor he was selling ! The Food Production Department's scheme of last spring and the employment of the principal c41 motorcar agents in each district to supervise the working of tractors was of value in directing the agents' efforts into proper channels. The goodwill which has in many cases been created as a result of that scheme will prove, undoubtedly, an immense asset to the motorcar agent who is endeavouring to open up this most modern branch of the industry. It may not be out of place, however, to lay down what may be regarded as essentials if he is to maintain that goodwill.

He has already, as a result of the above scheme, got the ear of the farmer. Very little of what I may term business interest is required as a rule to cause the average healthy man to take a personal and practical interest in the land. To his personal acquaintance with the farmer he will by now, therefore, have added much useful knowledge of the conditions under which the tractor must work. He has another point in his favour : Tractor-drawn farm implements are, in the main, as new in detail, if not in principle, to the implement agent as they are to him. The multishare, self-acting plough, the tandem disc harrow, and similar machines which have come into use with the tractor, are novelties to both traders.

They have, moreover, an important feature in common with the tractor, and one to which the motor agent in particular is well accustomed : They require service." This is one department, wherein the would-be tractor agent should develop a maximum of efficiency. A tractor or tractor implement which is standing idle is the equivalent of half-a-dozen sick horses at one time—a catastrophe greater than that which the farmer, in his wildest dreams, has never envisaged. That man who provides spares and effects repairs with the minimum possible delay will obtain the confidence of the farmer, and his business. A department in which lack of experience on the part of the motor agent makesAtself felt'is that of demonstrating. Undoubtedly the best procedure is to obtain the services of a thoroughly practical and intelligent ploughman, one who understands the fundamentals of ploughing, and who realizes the importance of the correct adjustment of plough shares to suit the pace and ,conditions of tractor work. Such a man will have no difficulty whatever in mastering the details of tractor driving and management. It is an undoubted fact that the farmer is far more impressed by the fact that a tractor and plough do good work on his land than he is by the fact that he is presumably going tto be able to till ten acres during the time which he customarily allotted for the cultivation of one.

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