SUITABLE TYPES OF AGRIMOTORS.
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Mr. S. F. Edge on the General Utility of the Big Machine.
IHAVE READ the remarks in The Inspector's Notebook" on the subject of unsatisfactory agrimotors, and agree in some ways with him, but there are, to-day, and have been for some years, agrimotors that are a paying proposition for the
farmer to buy.
I also agree that many very inferior machines were brought into our country when the food scare was at its height in 1917 and, if those in control of our agriculture at that time had only, understood their work just a little, much money would have been saved by our country.
The errors can be set out in a few words. Late in 1916 a great ploughing programme came into the mind of the Prime Minister or someone else, and I can only presume (now that I know more of how politics and log-rolling entered even into the safety of our country), that ploughing land early in 1917 made a, bigger temporary show than the real corn production in the autumn'of 1917. At the beginning I thought ignorance was at the bottom of such folly.
The Board of Agriculture early in 1917 was sarle and practical', and ordered 'some hundreds of International Harvester tractors—good, sound, suitable machines—and the official of the Board of Agriculture concerned was a practical agriculturist with judgment and knowle-dge. ' Unfortunately, however, about February or March, a Food Production Department was created and soon started an orgy of obtaining tractors irrespective of suitability and
cost. It introduced the night and day ploughing. scheme, in regard to which the head of the department made -ridiculous claims in the 'House of Commons'as to the amount of acres they would plough— at that. time I rather think they believed acres ploughed meant the same thing as corn. grown. The President of the Board of Agriculture was swept off his feet by the tales and cinema pictures of a 290 tractor that.could be delivered in thousands from America., or made here in equally large numbers in a few weeks. As a result, attention was diverted from the, proved good machines, many of -which' could have been procured in 190 if •attention had been focussed on them instead .of on this 'experimental machine. True, it was 'a machine with SOD2ii3 good points, but it was too small and -light for most of the Government ploughing programme, . where skiving in man power was so needasary and,• in addi
tion, the price instead of being 190 was nearly three times as much, which made it, as a business proposition, a bad one compared with much morcipowerful machines at little more money. The light machines,. with their seeming ease of working, will be more popular with small farmers, but, every year I farm, I see, more and more the general utility of the big machines like the Titan.
I am not an agreement with the writer of your article that all the mechanical breakdowns and failures are due to the agrimotors themselves. I have, . to-day, in regular use on my farms a seven-year-old Ivel doing more and better work each year, not because it is better, but because it is treated more 'kindly and intelligently. I• have two Titans which just run every day with seldom a minute's stop unless ordained—nothing could be more reliable in the way of machinery. I have also a big Mogul, bought second-hand at one of the Government sales. From examination before purchase I found it had done very little work, but its condition of neglect, and evidence of, misuse and missing and loose,parts, were a clear example of Government mismanagement. Government machines fail from neglect, not from use ; they 'show so clearly they have no interested master looking after them. After going over this Mogul, and replacing the missing parts, I now have a road and field tractor second to none and good for years of work.
I also have a four-cylinder vertical-engine type, the Wallis, lighter and faster than the Titan and Mogul, which is invaluable for many jobs and which has no more reason to fail in any way than has any good modern motorcar. Failures with tractors in most cases are caused through ignorant handling. The agrimotor is a certain need on meld farms ; in fact, I go farther and say that you cannot grow corn at a profit in most cases on heavy land except with the aid of an agrimotor for ploughing. If the-demand is slow at present, this, I think, is caused by the fact that farmers, in the main, are unsettled by the fact that the wages they have to pay monthby month are being raised to an eVer-increasirig ininuntun by.the Government, coupled with a decreasing-or fixed maximum price at -which they may sell Much of their produce. Once the farmer's eonficlence is restored; agrimotora will become standard on all arable farms, and must do so if the farmer is to .live. S. F. EDGE.