Wheels on the land
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Smithfield Show exhibits
RESEMBLING a fascinating blend of the Mechanical Handling exhibition with the Public Works show the trade section at this year's Royal Smithfield Show formed a worthy climax to the events which have celebrated the centenary of the world's oldest society of farm machinery and implement manufacturers.
The Agricultural Engineers' Association, one of the three partners in Smithfield show management since 1949, was founded in 1875 by the great mid-Victorian pioneers of farming mechanisation including famous names like Ransome, Fowler, Aveling and Hornsby. Today the use of sophisticated machinery and purpose-built vehicles is symptomatic of the vigorous change which has overtaken farming.
Although most of the exhibits a Earls Court were of, tractors and trailers designed for agricultural use their versatility makes many of them suitable for wider applications in the industrial, works or commercial transport sphere. With legis lation governing hgv licences, for instance, affecting drivers in agricultural or horticultural employment more users are now turning to tractor-hauled, unsprung, trailers of up to 12 tons rather than normal commercial vehicles for short journeys such as inter-farm work or between farms and food processing plants.