LEAVES FROM THE INSPECTOR'S NOTEBOOK.
Page 9
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Showmanship and Saleimanship. Maintenance of Agricultural Machinery.
IT HAS BEEN my good fortune recently to have the opportunity to visit the various Shows— mostly of an agricultural nature, at which commercial vehicles have formed an important part of the display. I refer particularly to the Cardiff Show and to the smaller, • but quite important, ones at Dublin arid Belfast. These are in reality the first opportunities that have occurred since the cessation ot hostilities, for the resumption of showmanship. as part of the regular propaganda work for the disposal of commercial motor vehicles and, although coe condition of the order 'books and delivery sheets, Of the more prominent makers, at any rate, prechlde anything like giant business from being concluded at these displays, they have undoubtedly been important as fl:-,cussing the attention of proballle buyers upon the industry as a whole, which has now emerged from
such stupendous trials an war service.
After this opportunity of inspecting the varied conimercial-vehicie displays at these various shows, I must admit that I was impressed with what at any rate appears to me to 'be the undesirable 'practice of staging machines of more or less identical type by competing makers on one stand. At one show I noticed in particular a very active and prominent agent displaying, alongside each other, no fewer than three competing models. While, of course, every allowance must be made for the difficulties in which agents are finding themselves at the present time, and particularly at a time in most cases corresponding to their entry and initiation into industrialvehicle sales, it does not appear to be in the interests of makers that alternative types should be offered in this way by one agent. It is a different matter entirely 'wh'en the models that are shown are not in corn-petition with regard to their capacities or types, but it would seem to be an almost impossible task to differentiate between models that are truly competitive without doing some sort of injustice to one or other of them.
It may be different when it is a case of the disposal of a touring ear ;. of that I know very little, except that it is a frequent occurrence to see a list of touring_ 4r models as tieing amongst the agencies secured by important provincial firms. So far as commercial vehicles are concerned, however, if a man came to me (Lbeing the agent) and wanted a three-tonner or a fourto.nner, as the case might be, I should feel it a
little difficult if I could not definitely go for him and explain finally and effectually that there was only one possible machine to fulfil his requirements—that particular machine, of course, being the one for which
field the agency from the manufacturers. Anything else than that I should feel would be doing less than justice to my principals.
Maintenance of Agricultural Machinery.
At the present time, with the Cardiff Show just over, and with other displays of agricultural machinery imminent, people's minds are being continu ally tuned to the question of the future and furthez employment of agricultural machinery of all kinds. And, of course, there is a very increasing tendency all round, as is. 'natural, to consider the possibility of substituting mechanical power for methods hitherto carried on by animal means, at what is virtually the close of the great national effort tc increase our agricultural productive power in these islands by means of intensive mechanical culture. The result of this extraordinary propaganda work is seen everywhere in the-increased interest that is being taken by those who are directly or indirectly interested in the employment on the land of Agricultural tractors and similar machinery. At this time, therefore, it is a little pertinent to consider whethei the farmers do not unnecessarily neglect the maintenance of their mechanical equipment.
Most of us have; in the course of our rambles through the country, noticed what appears to be the exceptional carelessness with which agriculturists leave valuable machinery lying about in the open, in all weathers, almost always unsheeted and without any of the protection that grease and, perhaps, a new coat of paint so easily gives. This may be all very well for cultivators and ploughs and the more ordinary implements, but, surely it is a condition that need not be made to apply to more expensive and certainly more easily deranged machinery that, is now being used in place of animal haulage. The agricultural tractor has a task big enough in itself in connection with beating animal haulage on performance. It should not be asked to put up with conditions of neglect and exposure which can with a little thought be easily avoided. On the question of 2 s. d. only, farmers and other purchasers of agricultural tractors should take these facts into mind.