Demonstration by 70 Fordson Tractors
Page 45
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Visitors from 14 Countries Came to Essex Recently To See the Latest Mechanical Aids to Farming DURING the first six months of this year, farm tractors and implements to the value of over £4,800,000 were manufactured by the Ford Motor Co., Ltd., Dagenham, Essex, and 145,643 Fordson Major tractors, or roughly three times the pre-war total of tractors in Great Britain, have been made since the war, writes our agricultural correspondent.
These figures were disclosed by Lord Airedale, chairman of the company, on welcoming a large gathering of British and foreign visitors to what must have been the largest demonstration of farm mechanization ever staged by a single company in England.
World Representation The demonstration, which was opened at Cranham, Essex, on September 20, was held on a 20-acre field, and about 70 Fordson Major tractors, all coupled to different implements, took part. The visitors included a delegation from Canada, of which country a 16,009-mile tour was recently made by a British agricultural machinery mission. Altogether, 14 foreign and Commonwealth governments-were represented. Many farmers and agricultural and industrial experts were also present.
Apart from the working demonstrations of farming and industrial equipment, there was also an exhibition of Ford educational activities. Visitors were introduced to the Ford trainee scheme from which future company executives are drawn; to the trade school which trains engineers of the future; to the scholarship plan which, by means of practica work's training alternating with terms at the South-east Essex Technical College, produces trained men for the Ford Organization.
On show also was the Dealer Development School, which exists to keep Fordson tractor and implement dealers all over the world abreast of the latest developments. In the export section of the exhibition, photographs showed Fordson Major tractors and -implements at work all over the world, in both temperate and tropical climes. A box which claimed little attention, until that of the overseas visitors was particularly drawn to it, contained a Fordson Major tractor complete except for wheels. The box measured 5 ft. 7 ins. by 5 ft. 4 ins. by 3 ft. 10 ins., a convincing testimonial to the ingenuity of the company's shipping department.
New agricultural imple me n t s— previously seen static at the Royal Show—were demonstrated by the Ford company for the first time. These included the Ford-Ransomes mounted reversible plough, the F-R deep-digger plough, and the Fordson root harvester. During these demonstrations the tractor ' drivers broadcast running commentaries on their work by radio with which each tractor was equipped. The receiving and amplifying equipment was arranged in a van.
Perkins Engines An outfit of particular interest to overseas visitors was the Ransomes 5-furrow "Dragoon" disc plough pulled by a County Commercial crawler tractor, a full track version of the Fordson Major. The Fordson Major was also shown on Roadless DG4 half-tracks made by Roadless Traction, Ltd., Hounslow, Middlesex. So equipped, the tractor pulled a Ransornes 5-furrow Hexitrac plough. Several of the tractors at work were powered by Perkins D-6 oil engines in place of the standard Ford vaporizingoil unit.
The many industrial applications to which the tractor has been applied were represented by a range of dumpers, loading shovels, mobile cranes, compressors and bull-dozers, working demonstrations of which were also given.