• THE AGRICULTURAL SHOWS OF 1926.
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The Attitude of the Farmer Towards Machinery Sections at Local Agricultural and Other Shows. The Position as Viewed by Our Agricultural Correspondent
(PHE editorial, reference to the subject of the forth.1-coming agricultural shows which appeared in The Commercial Motor for December 29th has been referred to as Being most opportune. The many agricultural societies and clubs existing in this country have been of untold benefit to agriculture and have aided its development to a degree not often realized. There are many of them with as many varying activities. Fat stock shows are held by them in every important market centre in the country, culminating in the great Smithfield annual show, the Dairy Show and, at the beginning of each year, the various horse shows. Each of these societies and clubs exists generally for a single purpose, usually signified by its name, the horse and cattle societies to foster each a particular breed of horse and cattle, or sheep and pigs ; the Dairy Association to encourage dairying ; fat stock societies the production of the best quality meat, and so on.
In the month of April, or thereabouts, the public activities of the more general agricultural societies commence, usually with the Devon and Oxford county shows. These societies differ from the single-purpose organization. Their activities are many and varied, and, although the part which comes within the ken of the public consists of the annual show, the work continues all the year round. The annual show, however, is the most important part of the work of the majority of agricultural societies. As it happens, also, it is this show function of the societies that mostly concerns us in these pages.
The main purpose of the agricultural' show, from the farmer's point of view, is educational. It provides an opportunity for the farmer to pick up new ideas and to learn much from what he sees at the show in the • sections devoted to livestock and machinery. There is the social side, too, for an opportunity for intercourse and the exchange of notes among farmers themselves is provided, and there is very little doubt that these two parts played by the agricultural shows have been largely responsible for the great development of agriculture during recent years. It has enabled farmers the more rapidly to become conversant with new methods and to adopt them with much greater confidence than would otherwise be the case.
The agricultural show is promoted by a society composed of agriculturists and others interested, and is supported extensively in the area which it covers. In other words, it is an institution promoted by agriculturists for their own benefit, and farmers have very great faith in a society or a show promoted by themselves for themselves and every confidence in what is included in the programme of either.
When considering the educational benefits of a show, it must be remembered that everything educational Is more or less slow in progress, and that the educational influence of an agricultural show is gradual, but none the less sure. So far as implements and machinery are concerned, the farmer looks upon the annual show as providing an opportunity for examining, and even for testing, the efficiency of new appliances and of viewing and obtaining information about the various types and makes of any particular machine or implement and of selecting that most suitable to his individual requirements.
The main object of an agricultural society and its show is to foster the best methods of husbandry by educational means, such as practical object-lessons, and at the same time to protect the interests of the farmers. The farmer attending a show knows that he is under no obligation to purchase anything, and if he requires a machine he has ample means for testing the genuineness of the claims advanced for it.
The Editor, in the article referred to, thinks that it would be impossible for a dozen salesmen, in the course of a year, to induce a farmer to change his transport methods. That is going a little too far. Farmers are gradually changing to the motor, but it would be true to say that those poor twelve would not get much of a Christmas-box from their respective firms at the close of the 12 months. And why? Simply because the motor vehicle has not been part and parcel of the farmer's educational programme, as have other accessories to his skill.
A prominent farmer once gave expression to his mind on the subject of not being able to find motor exhibits at the shows, and said that it was nothing short of downright cheek on the part of the motor trades associations to attempt to lay down the law in the way they did and to prevent farmers from examining such necessary exhibits at the only show where farmers would be likely to see them. He was, of course, unaware of the desire of the motor trade to conserve the interests of their own shows.
The farmer is not conservative in the accepted sense of that word. His conservatism in business is a natural safeguard against exploitation, and that is why travellers and salesmen with new wares do not make much progress with him.
It is to be hoped that the S.M.M. and T. will remove Its ban on agricultural shows this year for the sake of agricultural transport, to say nothing of the results to the motor industry. And the ban ought not only to be lifted in the ease of the principal shows, but of all of them. Each show serves its own well-defined area, and the farmers who cannot see a particular exhibit at his own local show may not see it at all, as he usually attends no others. The Royal and some of the bigger shows are rather different, as there is always a representative attendance from all parts of the country. What has to be considered with regard to the minor or county shows is the large attendance of practical men who do not often attend the bigger events.
That the farmer can see commercial motors (at long intervals!) at Olympia is no answer. He does not go there because he cannot, with sufficient assurance, pick out the vehicle he would be willing to purchase from the huge collections of every sort of vehicle assembled there. At the agricultural show he finds what he wants and at that show he expects to find motor vehicles designed for agricultural purposes. The S3L111. and T. might at least allow agricultural vehicles to be exhibited at the minor shows and any others manufacturers would like to exhibit at the bigger events. It would
be a great blessing if they did. AGRLMOT.