AGRIMOTOR NOTES.
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Suitable Implements Desirable. New Import and Sale Regulations.
• One of the needs of the farmer who owns a tractor is a drawbar suitable for attachment to any sort of vehicle or implement which he may at any time desire to draw, such as a wagon or two-wheeled cart fitted with shafts. One large manufacturing firm in the Midlands is already 'experimenting with such device, and has attained a fair measure of success. This device is intended to remain with the tractor. With it, 'a plough or a. cart may be attached with 'equal facility. This accessory will be a most welcome addition, and the price is said not to exceed La.
While it is understood that makeshifts -must he resorted to in emergencies,it is well to emphasize the importance of much stronger and heavier implements for use with tractors than with horses. And although' horse-drawn implements. such as rollers, cultivators, etc., may be used with tractors, it will be found much better in the lang'run to get suitable implements as soon as possible. It has been found by experience that much 'more. adequate .provision should be made for lubrication of bearings when implements ave" drawn by tractors, and the men in charge must be thoroughly impressed with the need of careful attention. I have often seen the bearings of cultivators, disc harrows and rollers quite dry, the men in charge of them being perfectly indifferent to the rapid destruction that was going on. The extra speed of tractors compared with horses makes .it necessary that all implements should be construe • ted much move strongly than was previously thought necessary.
Two matters which are very commonly overlooked by the purchasers of tractofS are insurance and registration. It is perhaps, not generally known that agricultural tractors must be -registered with a County Council. The fee it, only 2s. 6d., which includes an enamelled plate bearing the allotted number. Owners may be saved the .annoyance of having to attend a police court in answer to a sitn.imens by attending to this at once. Insurance policies may be obtained for agricultural tractors for .E4 17s. 6d. per annum, covering the tractor and two-trailers, against loss or . damage, claims for injury to persons or 'damage to property and theft, or £2 7s. 6d. for public liability
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only if road visks are excluded, a reduction of 25 per cent. is usually made.
I am told also that another yoke face -ha& been made in the fact that the Government purchase of required goods—which was the cause of endleSs delay and of much expense to the Government—is to be dropped, and the importers are to be once room left free to make their own financial arrangements for dealing with then]; In -connection with this it may further be noted that permissionhas now been given for certain legitimate charges attendant upon this to be reckoned in when calculating first cost, so that altogether it looks as if the Powers that Be have at last come round to the importers views, and have seen how •impossible their regulations were.
Talking of the manufacture of hitherto imported goods, it may be of interest to record that Messrs. Burford and Co. have .received a permit, and are now preparing to manufacture here, 250 of their wellknown Burford-Cleveland chain track tractors, as they have been, like the rest, very badly let dovhi., over importations. They are expected to be re idy by the autumn.
I hear with pleasure that the Government, through representations made to it by the Agricultural MachineryCommittee of the Society of-Motor 1Vlartufacturers and Traders, as:well as by the Agent S Section, who are also interested in the matter, has 'at last seen the iniuStice of its --action in imposing the imPossitile 20 per cent, price margin On importers of tractors. Although -no public announcement has yet been made, the-margin of 25 per cent., which the importers asked for, is now toile allowed, so far as tractors are concerned, and,further than this, the shipments of tractors from the States, which have beenentirely suspendedduring the past two months, are again to be resumed. Indeed, on this latter point, the Government has already notified the trade. officially, and in doing so has asked importers to arrange to spread their shipments over a number of months as evenly as possible, though this is a somewhat absurd and illogical request to make so long as the present reqUirement of prior sale is adhered to.
Naturally, when any of the very few
orders. which are placed under such conditions are taken, it is in the national interest that they should be got into the hands of the customers as speedily as possible. Where importations in anticipation of general trade are concerned, such a request is but fair and reasonable,and on thissubject I hear that there is quite a possibility of a concession in respect thereof.
Still more new Orders have now been issued, and the latest is one which affects the dealers, and many of them are very much perturbed in consequence to know just where they are. This new Order prohibits anyone—" no persons," it saysselling, offering• for sale,or delivering, any agricultural imple • ment or dairy utensil not purchased by him direct from the manufacturer, which, seeing that farmers buS, from dealers, Would appear to proh7bit any farmer selling a surplus implement he does not want :without. a nermit,.unless he bought it direct from the maker, and by requiring diiect purchase by the dealer it would appear to be intended to cut out the
distributer, or district agent, altogether. The new Order further limits the maximum profit the dealer can.make to 11 Per cent, and 25 per eent, of his purchase price—which is roughly 15 per cent..aafd 20 per cent, of the selling price—for goods saleable at over and under £40 respectively. Besides this, it prohibits the manufacturer giving any less discount, so that discounts are fired on all implements throughout the , trade. Manufactureia are also prohibited from advancing their prices without permission, and it is. further forFrialen to make the purchase of any other article a condition of sale. a in considering this Order, it will be noticed that the discounts, or profit margins,. allowed are larger than it is possible for the importers
to give under the present regulations, and I understand that it is admitted by the Government that this is intended to encourage the sale of British made implements, which would be quite all right in one way were it not for the fact that the Governmeat will not allow some of the implerilents best knowa in America to be made here at all, although the importers are prepared to do this where importation has been refased. So the British farmer is to be deprived altogether of the use of some of the most. modern labour-saving devices. At the same time— and this is important—I have seen a letter givingofficial assurance that this new Order does not apply to imported goads. AGRIMOT.