AGRIMOTOR NOTES.
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The Motor Vehicle for Farm Transport. Can the Pneumatic Tyre be of Help ?
SOME TIME AGO there appeared an article in The Commercial Motor which expressed the view that pneumatics should help to solve the difficulties met with in connection with the transportation of farm produce. I agree that the pneu-. matie tyre may, eventually, be of value to farming, as it will be to other industries, and I also agree with the writer that there may be need for some special design in motor lorries for use on a farm. At the moment, however, neither of these paints are of any very great importance. It may seem a strange thing to say, but it' is a fact, nevertheless. I have no desire, at the moment, 'to enter into a discussion regarding the advantages or disadvantages a the pneumatic tyre on the farm, -except to say tliat, -roughly, any advantages which may accrue from its use would -be outweighed by its disadvantages. .
It will not be possible to establish the pneumatic tyre in the farming industry before it has obtained a more extended and permanent footing in other industries. I am glad the writer of the article has been good enough to inform us that he is not ts farmer, because—well--I admit having read the article with much interest and being able to note the ideas which it contains. These ideas are all good, so far as they go, birt.the writer's thought was not quite on the right lines. In the first place, the Success of the motor lorry on the farm does not depend on its ability to negotiate soft ground. Such a quality is an advantage, but by no means an essential.
In the second place, the work of -the farm lorry is not mainly the transportation of produce from the _fields to the farm or even to the market. As a good,hard road usually leads to market, I need not discuss that point here..
The true position is that good • farm roads are essential to the success . of the motor on the farm.. It is not a question of making a lorry that will traverse wet and soft grounds ; it is a problem of making the roads on the farm suitable for the motor: A point that needs clearing up is the misapprehension that mud and slush and bad roads go hand in hand with farming. It used to do in the Olden days but. is not the case with modern farming. Road making, I know, is an expensive business, that is if one setsout to make goad, hard roads all over the farm, but such an elaborate scheme of roadimaking is not necessary on most farms. All that is necessary is that there. should be main roads to the main fields on the farm—roads that are fairly substantial; they need not be like a public highway. In many case, on most farms, it is only necessary to repair and to put in order roads that already exist.
In the past, too many farmers have been content with had roadways and with mud a yard deep in the gateways, but such a condition of road is not only impossible for successful farming by motor, but it is also impossible for successful farming by horses and carts.
The Motor Vehicle Can Go where the Horse and Cart Go.
The wise farmer will never take a vehicle acrossa, muddy field; he will never have his horses and carts working in the fields when the land is wet, so that, speaking generally, where it is possible to take a horse and cart on a farm, it is possible now to take
an ordinary solid-tyred motor vehicle. The question is asked whether the solid-tyred lorry can transport farming produce from the fields to the -farm or to the market. The answer is "Yes," under ordinary and general conditions.
On the question of conveying produce to market, there is no point arising, as, in that case, nearly all roads leading from a farm to market or from a farm en to the main public road, are capable of carrying ordinary traffic and, therefore, the commercial vehicle also.
The matter of hauling produce from the fields to the farm is different, but I ask what produce does a farmer desire to have hauled to the farmstead when weather conditions are such that a motor vehicle could not pass along the ordinary farm roads or even across the land? The farmer would not be hauling hay in wet weather or corn from the stook when the grain was soddetied, neither would he haul swedes or turnips. That work would be done in the winter time when. frost prevailed, or when the ground was otherwise dry.
There is just the chance that, on light, arable land, o solid-tyred motor lorry may sink into the soil even in dry weather, but this would be a very rare occurrence. There is a further suggestion, which is that, where a farmer had advanced sufficiently in modern farming methods to have a lorry, he would also have an agrimotor. Now, an agrimotor on the farm can do anything that can be done by horse. and cart. It would not be taken to work on the land when it was wet, neither would a -horse and cart. Under'. unfavourable -conditions, it may be possible that the lorry could not work, but then that holds true of every, vehicle and every form 'of. farm 'locomotion, and assuming that the farmer employing a motor lorry also employed an agrimotor, it does not require much stretch of imagination to see that the agrimotor, being fitted for transport work, might do that hauling work on the land which could not be done by the lorry.
Good Roads Required on Farms as Elsewhere.
In actual practice, these are the lines upon which farm transportation is developing. That it is partly 'a question of pressure per square inch on the area of tyre contact is true, but, then, you miglat have the best contact, but no vehicle would.raove if it were up to its hubs in mud. _ No, what the farmer has to do, before introducing motor transport on to his farm, is to make good roads through the gateways of hisfields and along all main roates to the most important points on the farm.
The similarity assumed for the limitations of the lorry in war service and on the farms is an unsound argument. If you like to take the worst conditiorts that •could be found on a farm in England, a parallel case might be found, but the number of farms that would approach a condition anything like that prevailing on a battle-field are few indeed. The limitations in War service do not exist in agriculture. Where, I ask, will the use of the lorry, in peace, approach anything like the conditions of the use of the lorry in war There is another reason for insisting that decent. roads on a farm must bc the first consideration. Any person, understanding the least of agriculturalconditions, will know that a farmer cannot afford to cut up his fields, not even by allowing horse vehicles to pass over them promiscuously. No, a set road is always kept on up-tg-date farms, arid along that road, I maintain, any ordinary lorry could move with ease. I will go further, and say that it would do the work easier and better than it can be done by horses and carts and with less damage to the road. The soft ground idea, is all nonsense, Farm lands must be soft to an extent, and it is undesirable in the extreme that anything should be done to that land which will consolidate it in any way. Therefore, the transport on the farm, even that leading from the fields to the farm house or farm building, must keep to a track, and the farmer will find it one of the greatest pieces of economy that he can effect on the farm to make and maintain good roads and keep his vehicles to one track, thereby converging the whole of his farm traffic on to one road, instead of it being scattered over the farm.
In the hay field and harvest field, when the weather is dry, the lorry can be taken to any part, and will work quite easily, but it keeps to the road until it gets to the particular field in which it is to pick up the load, coming back on to the road again when the load has been secured, and, if it is not passible for an ordinary lorry to do that, then the tractor can, and does.
No Special Lorry Design Needed.
Ai. for special design for the farm lorry, that, again; is quite unnecessary, except in the construction of the body or coach work. A lorry on a farm has to be put to a number of jobs ; sometimes it is necessary to use it as a box van, at another time' as an open vehicle with special sides for the conveyance of live stock to market, and yet another it has to convey workers from the station to the fields, or from one part of the farm to the other ; milk has to be conveyed to the station, and so on. By this, it will be understood that a convertible body design 'would be -welcomed by the farmer ; apart from that, very little more is needed. Possibly, a special gear with a more powerful engine may be necessary. But under ordinary conditions, this should not be needed when the vehicle is fitted with a variable gear, because it could run on, second or low when passing over the fields, for, even in dry weather it is not wise to travel fast across fields, the same being true of farm roads.
The Transport of Perishable Produce.
I conclude by making a reference to the transport of perishable produce. First in regard to live stock, It is an advantage to reduce shook to a minimum, but I know from experience that less shock is sustained in conveying a load of pigs or sheep 10 miles by motor than is the ease when these animals are transported the same distance by drays and lorries drawn by horses. In the first place, there is, in most instances less shock, and in the second place the atiimals are only on the road about one-eighth or one-quarter of the time. Of course, there are degrees in perishable produce, and, while the shack sustained on the ordinary solid-tyred lorry would ra;t hurt a load of green peas, cabbages, potatoaa, or, turnips, for a distance of 20 or 30 miles, it would injure produce like strawberries, raspberries, or other soft fruit.
I-remember, some years ago, growers transporting their strawberries 22 miles away by Motor. When they arrived at the market, the vibration had so shaken them together and damaged them that they were almost unsaleable. In short, the fruit arrived in better condition when sent by rail. Of course, that was in the days long before the war. There are solidtyred vehicles now that carry such produce without any damage in tha least, but I will say this, that, if the pneumatic tyre can be of assistance in any branch of farming, it is in connection with the transpoit of soft fruits and such like goods. AGRIMOT.