How Road Motors Are Affecting Land Utilization
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IN the days when reliance for market transport was placed upon horse-drawn vehicles and the railways, the purposes to which our agricultural land were put turned largely upon the distance from a market at which any particular farm was situated. The value of farms was, in consequence, determined much more by their location than by the intrinsic worth of the soil.
Much land acquired the reputation of being second or third class and was believed to be incapable of growing crops because, in the days of difficult transport, no one had found it worth while to make the fullest use of it.
Hauling Crops to Market To-day in many districts this state of affairs has been changed because of the development of road transport. We now find that farms in what were once isolated districts are being taken up for the production of crops which have to be hauled to market, in contrast with the former procedure of such farms.
The location of market gardelis in former times offers a good illustration of the changes that are taking place, if contrasted with what is being done to-day. When it was necessary to haul this perishable produce to market with horses the gardens were cultivated in a ring around the bigger centres of population at a distance of not more than lt7 miles.
The manure from stables in the cities was employed as a leading fertilizer on the land. The spread of building robbed many growers of their land and they were forced to n2 move farther out. Luckily for them, mechanical transport was being developed and they were early users of the motor lorry.
With the coming of the modern examples of road vehicles, the growers were offered a much bigger radius of operation than that forced upon them by building expansion. Accordingly, when they moved they often shifted out 30 or 40 miles, or more. At the present time many growers from well out in Cambridgeshire, for example, can, and regularly do, place their fresh produce on the London market in as good time as the few who still work in Middlesex or Surrey.
Another factor in which the facilities of modern transport are concerned is that of labour. Market gardening entails, at certain times, quite a lot of hand labour and one requisite used to be that of having a source of supply living within walking distance of the gardens. Even this factor need no longer worry the grower who employs road motors, because he is in a position to pick up a gang of town workers and run them out to a farm well in the country in, perhaps, less time than
activity, unless the trade should be allowed to revert to the foreigner. With the help of fast road vehicles the grower may seek for land on which to develop almost anywhere in this country without cutting himself off from the markets.
At present, with obvious difficulties in the way of the ready purchase of new vehicles, the farmer is among those unusually interested in second-hand vehicles, suitably reconditioned and fitted with a body which will give him all-round service.
He is also making use, to a greater extent than ever before, of the trailer hauled behind his private car. In pre-war days this practice aroused a great deal of criticism among hauliers, who, very naturally, saw in it competition with regular roadhaulage services, which might place them at a disadvantage.
As matters stand now, there could hardly be any question of interfering with this form of transport, because the farmer has, in many cases, no alternative, and the car trailer, is recognized as a leading method of getting fat stock to the collecting centres.
Whatever may be the .outcome after the war there is no doubt that this and any other means for road transport is fixing more and more firmly in the farmer's mind the advantages of direct haulage from door-to-door, as against any other form, railway transport included.
It is extremely probable that
certain practices, adopted more or less as an emergency measure, will be retained in some form or other as a permanent policy. One of these is likely to be the centralized slaughter
of our fat stock, and this, in itself, is certain to bring a great increase in the demand for hired road haulage.
Apart from the use of the car trailer for road transport, farmers are also having to depend more on their tractors for this job. Especially is this so where the heavier loads are concerned, and if the lorry position becomes more difficult this trend may become more evident.
It is a matter for congratulation that the advent of the pneumatictyred tractor was in good time for it to become firmly established before the war, as it is the only type of practical value for road work.
Concessions made—largely on account of representations of the Tractor Users Association—by the Government in respect of the road usage of tractors on agricultural licences have rendered the position much. easier for the owner who has
occasional loads to transport which would not warrant taking out a general-haulage licence. It is now possible to use the tractor, on a 5s. annual licence, to haul produce or requisites for the farm to and from the railway station and from one part of the farm to another.
Bigger Tonnages to Transport
The campaign to increase the output of the land will, naturally, mean that a bigger tonnage of produce has to be transported on and oft the land. In 1939-40 the arable acreage is said to have been increased by 2,000,000. It is true that if left in grass possibly threequarters of a ton of hay might have been made per acre on some of that land.
But under the plough the average produce of grain and straw should be in the region of double that tonnage, so that it may be said, with some confidence, that probably an extra 1,000,000 tons of produce have to be carried home and to market as a result of the first year's expansion. Plans already adopted contemplate a ' considerable advance on this figure, • and it is to be hoped that • inside another 12 months they will have been achieved.