The Economics of Mechanized Farming
Page 57
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AN important conference on the tkvelopment of mechauical aids to farming was recently held at Rothamsted, engineers, farmers and scientists taking part, under the chairmanship of the Earl of Radnor. Amongst -those problems discussed from, every point a view were the technical improvement of tractors and implements and the economic possibilities of mechanized farming.
Mr. J. E. Newman, of the Institute of Agricultural Engineering, University of Oxford, in his paper entitled "Engineering Developments and Possibilities," said that the tractor has -made big • advances in the past 10 years, but the improvement in general reliability is much greater.
Operating with the latest implements, a tractor can plough an acre or more In an hour, cultivate 50 acres a day and harrow 700 acres in a week, all being carried out by one man. • With another to help to fill the seed box, a man can drill seven acres in an hour and distribute fertilizers at the rate of six acres an hour. The cost of equipping a 1,000-acre or 1,200-acre mechanized farm 8hould not exceed £3,000.
Mr. G. H. Neville, Lincoln, in discussing mechanized equipment, said that the most efficient size of tractor for this country appeared to him to be the 20-25 hp. medium-weight pattern. The daily cost, in round figures, of running a 20 h.p. parafliu tractor might be put at £1 10s. The ploughing output might be 10-12 acres a day in light land and four acres a day in tough soils, so that the cost would vary between 2s. 6d. and 7s. 6d. per acre, with 4s. or 5s. as a fair mean. .rotal cultivation costa might be covered by£1 5s. to £1 10s. an acre, except for handling straw. Professor J. A. Scott Watson, of the School of Rural Economy, Oxford, said that for ha3making the tractor is not only faster but more powerful than the horse. The hay crop, Professor Watson said, could be completely mechanized, from sowing to chaff-cutting, with the most satisfactory results, from all points
of view. .