Mechanical Power and the Farmer.
Page 5
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
An Interview with a Member of Council of the R.A.S.E.
By the Editor.
We had the pleasure of meeting Mr. J. Falconer, of Northbrook Farm, Micheldever station, Hants. one of the best-known agriculturists.in the 14....outh of 'Engand a _Member of Council of the ..RoYal.Agricultura! Society; a-Shorf time before the opening of the Show at Nottingham. There were many matters, connected with the use of heavy locomotives and heavy motorcars, upon which we exchanged opinions with Mr. FalcOner, and some of these are included in the text of the interview which follows.
Mr. Falooner's interest, in and ownership of agricultural engines goes back to the year 1885, when he farmed in Scotland. He has long been convinced that only by the extensive use of engines and other mechanical appliances can agriculture keep its own in competition with the newer parts of the world. Besides farming 4000 acres (mostly arable land), he uses half-a-dozen engines and tractors baling and hauling straw and hauling to stations. • "What do you think of the legal and legislative position ?" was our first question. "I am not afraid of it, in any sense," cheerily answered one of the men who will play .a leading part in putting the case for agriculturists before the L.G.B. Committee. " Farmers must have mechanical facilities for ploughing, threshing, and hauling, especially with the war on. The work cannot be done any other way : it is impossible to get enough of either horses or men, and if anything were done by legislation to interfere with the use of agricultural engines the outcry would be so extensive that 'the just claims of the farming community would Make themselves heard through every member of Parliament who represents a county constituency." " Why should the case for the farmers be any stronger than the case for commercial owners of heavy motors ? "
"T do not know how strong the latter can make their case, but I do know that any taxation of farmers; or any interference by fresh restrictions upon the movements of their agricultural engines and threshing machines, will cause a most-serious addition to the cost of producing food, and proposals of the kind must be rejected for economic reasons, and not because of particular effects upon particular farmers."
"Why should it cost. the farmers more, and how will any such additional cost re-act upon prices, in the general. market?"
"The reasons are dear. Under one per cent. of the farmers of Great Britain own their own steamploughing and threshing plants. Even a smaller percentage owns independent tractors of the internalcombustion type. The work is done by contractors, and their charges to the 'farmers, which have been reasonable for many years by reason of severe competition, will be put up to make good any taxation, by charging a much higher fee for work done, which means a further severe tax on agriculture. The tax is being put on at the wrong place, if it is applied to agricultural engines, first of all because the machines work only in their localities, within a radius of, say, 40 er 50 miles of their depots, their daily mileage being very small indeed on the average, and, secondly, because they are an essential part of national production. The _tax _would,. be. nothing short ..of—a, tax-on labour and food, antra very heavy tax, too, because a pair of ploughing engines is the equivalent of an untold number .of men and horses."
"And as to road damage?" "These slow-moving engines do no damage, and the units which they haul behind them are comparatively light. Their designs have been settled as the outcome
of nearly 70 years of constructional experience, and a large portion of this experience has been directed towards the lessening of road-damage effects. The engines do. not move much in the winter, when the roads are frost-bound or in a state of thaw."
"You, perhaps, take the view that heavy motorcars do more damage ? "
" Well, I am afraid I may, in certain cases. It is not the weight of the machines that does the damage, but the speeds, and I am convinced that local authorities have been lax in not taking the steps within their power to .control speeds. Of course, there are case's of excessive loading, and here again the authorities have been lax in not turning to account the powers which they possess. The remedies are really within their own hands already, if they would but utilize them. I consider that new legislation is superfluous, speaking generally, and that the road surveyors of the country are taking a selfish, narrow and wicked course,in so far as they appear to wish to curry favour with owners of pleasure motorcars, instead of strengthening their roads to suit the traffic of the day, which is increasingly commercial-motor traffic. Just as the roads were successively improved from the days of the pack horse to the palmy days of the stage coach, after which there was a long period of .desuetude, so we must strive for continued progress."
" Who is to pay? " "I think it is folly to put the charge on the traffic itself. It is unsound economically, in the broadest and truest sense of the word, to restrict freedom of transport by the imposition of low speed limits or low axle-weights. The saving to the road authorities will be very much less than the economic loss to the country. I mean, for example, that if reductions in working capacities were to save 22,000,000 per annum on the roads, the loss to the country, due to the higher charges that would necessarily be distributed over the community as a whole, by reason of the lessened' efficiency of the means of internal communication, might well prove to be 25,000,000 per annum." " Do you think that the agricultural and farming communities have any ill-feelings towards motor traffic which originates in the towns ? "
" Yes ; I know they have. The feeling is not one of aversion to the traffic as such, but one of aversion to what is regarded as an unfair call upon their pockets to meet the wear and tear which this relatively-fast traffic undoubtedly engenders. I believe that. the remedy is not to cut down traffic developments, but to press for a larger share of help from the National Exchequer. The difficulties are great, and they are not lessened by the consequences of the war. On the other hand, there has been a great deal of trial and error during the past ten years in the matter of making roads suitable for the new traffic conditions, and I sincerely believe that the maximum annual cost has been reached. We shall now get better roads, and more durable roads, for less money, which facts will reduce the acuteness of the crisis that undoubtedly has existed. If that change comes about, and if the intentions of the Government can be carried out, farmers .will -notabeauazfriendly..taaheav.Y, motor traffic, and especially in my judgment will they welcome developments in connection with tractors.
"I may conclude by saying that practically the whole of the products of my farms are railed, and the sepnlies to nay farms taken off rail by tractors. This could not possible be done at the same cost with horses"