Agricultural Motors for Use in the United Kingdom.
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Our initial references to the current tests ol agricultural motors, which began, on Tuesday last, under the auspices of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, will be found elsewhere in this issue. We much regret that there has not been a wider response to the Society's invitation to participate in this competition, but we are constrained to remark that the rather-ambiguous terms of the published conditions, coupled with a measure of uncertainty about the circumstances af the actual tests, probably account in part for this meagre support, which compares most unfavourably with results achieved in Canada. It must be admitted, however, that the regulations for the ploughing tests shut out certain large tractors, but this has only served to accentuate the paucity of regard which English manufacturers are paying to the problem of the small agricultural motor. We have frequently urged that this branch of production deserves
more notice, and we again direct attention to it. Representations have lately been made to us, to the effect that would-be buyers are deterred by two considerations: the heaviness of the engines which are constructed by certain old-established manufacturers with big financial resources; the lack of facilities for economical manufacture, and the lack of real warranty, in the case of certain machines which are attractive by reason of their comparative handiness and light weight. It has been pointed out to us, and we concur in the view, that a man who is inclined to expend £300 or £400 on an agricultural motor must have a full measure of confidence in both the machine and its vendors before he decides to spend the money. In these circumstances, it seems to us that some of our largest traction-engine, agricultural-motor and commercial-motor manufacturers might well give heed to a potential demand of undoubted importance and extent. There must be thousands of orders, in England alone, which are not placed at the moment for the reasons indicated.