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1st July 1915, Page 1
1st July 1915
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Page 1, 1st July 1915 — COMMERCIAL MOTOR
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County Councils and Improved Methods in Agriculture.

We publish elsewhere (page 386) an official memorandum which we have received from Mr. J. H. Burton, M.Sc., the Secretary for Agriculture. to the Somerset County Council. The scheme explains the initial stages of the arrangements, which are sanctioned by the Somerset County Council, to secure demonstrations of labour-saving machinery. This document is dated the 7th inst., and it has been put into circulation at a most-opportune time, although we feel that the programme which is outlined cannot reach its full development for a year or two. Many of the agrimotor works of this country are in part absorbed upon war-service output; others, of course, are in a position to avail themselves of the valuable co-operation under notice.

There have, in the past, been many unofficial de/nonstratione. of modern agrimotors, tractors, and mechanical plant of other types which should appeal, with increasing force, to farmers who wish to move with the times. When every possible concession is made to the claims of those who believe in the continued superiority of steam-ploughing sets, people whb are strongest in their advocacy of the use of the larger and heavier ploughing Bets, with winding gear and cable-hauled plough, do not attempt to deny that there are extensive, if in their judgment incidental, outlets for the use of tractors which travel over the land. No greater proof of the demand can be found than the continuance in the business of makers who gave attention to it 10 and more years ago, coupled with the regular accession of new makers in all parts of the world, and not least of all in those lands of great areas--Canada, and the United States. Surely, if the agrimotor, which itself traverses the lend, hauling a plough or other agricultural implement, can " make good " in the huge cornfields which are found across the Atlantic, it cannot be condemned in this country of relatively-small farming areas.

We hope that the intentions of the Somerset County Council, which are officially announced to include demonstrations of motor-tractors, will receive the utmost measure of support that is practicable at the hands of implement makers generally, and that this lead by an important agricultural county will be followed by many others. It is a significant indication of extended recognition for the claims of mechanical power to. the end that animal and manual labour shall be economized, and thereby the utmost yield obtained from the land.

Horses or Motors ?

The Royal Show, at Nottingham, as on all occasions for many years past, y.resente a happy combination of the interests of horse-owners and motor-owners. The inter-dependence of the Show upon these two reputedly-rival, interests is a fat which cannot be denied, but we fear that in these days of mechanical progress the places which 'itis still open to the horse to fill must be. admitted to become fewerand fewer.

The comparative uselessness of cavalry in the present great European war is in many senses a lamentable fact, but it is one which deprives the horse and horse interests of one of their greatest incentives to continued breeding. The armoured car is already taking the place of the charge by squadrons of cavalry, and we believe it will do so to a much greater extent than heretofore during the next few months. The general epeeding-up of armies is but the counterpart of experiences in the worlds of agriculture, commerce and shipping. We cannot write to the same effect of our railways, because point-topoint railway speeds have not increased as they might have done: during the past 70 years. It is too often forgotten that Prince Albert, the late Queen Victoria's consort., was taken by railway from London to Liverpool, in the year 1846, in precisely four hours, on the occasion of the opening of the Albert dock and warehouses, whereas the best express on the same line to-day requires 'S hrs. 50 mins.

It is the inevitable speeding-up—the demand for work to be done at a greater rate—that puts the horse at marked disadvantage in all matters of competitive service on a commercial basis. The motorcar has already cut into certain sections of pleasure and recreation which thejlorse at one time virtually monopolized. Horse-breeding remains, therefore, a highly-specialized branch of agriculture, in which only the fittest will survive, but which fittest will, of course, obtain the: highest returns. Commercial-motor owners and prospective owners have to consider the relative claimsof horse and mechanical power 0.11 matter-of-fact grounds. They have, too, to consider them in relation to war effects. It is true, as thousands of our readers know, that delivery dates for commercial motors are well-nigh nebulous. They are, in the case of the great bulk of British makers, expressed in the indefinite and intangible words " after the war." Prices for commercial motors have also been advanced, and necessarily so, by anything between 10 per cent. and 15 per cent. on pre-war figures. The only chances of relief are those which can be offered. by American manufacturers and by the now over-pressed British makers Of steam wagons. Are there any chances, in these .circumStances, of a reversion to the use of draught horses on the large scale to replace impressed commercial motors, and to make good deficiences which are attributable to late deliveries? We can hold out none.

We see no signs of any readiness on the part of breeders of horses to fill the gaps, and we will credit them with sound judgment in deciding not to essay the impossible. The commercial world will no more go back to horses than will the shipping world to sailing vessels. It may take time for commercialmotor manufacturers to put their houses in order again, and to resume supplies for ordinary 'commercial buyers, but AO must point out that a horse is of no practical value for heavy haulage until it is five years old. it will be possible, after the war is over, and in a limited measure before then, to obtain quick delivery of completed motor chassis. They are a product of human brains and machine tools. klorses are the product of. processes of Nature which require time. Were the risks to be accepted, by breeders, of attempting to prepare to enter the market on a new and unforeseen scale, we unhesitatingly record our considered conclusion that they would at the finish be left in the cold. The age in which we live is above all a mechanical one.

Tags

Organisations: Somerset County Council
People: Albert, J. H. Burton
Locations: Liverpool, Nottingham, London

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