• AGRIMOTOR NOTES
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Government Tractors for Sale. Titans at Work in Radnorshire.
With reference to the 800Government tractors which the Government has for sale—I learn this is the number and not 1400 as was currently reported— it does not 'appear to be much use for anyone who requires a tractor quickly to think of purchasing one if what I hear of tile procedure be correct. Instead of having them valued and axing a price ,against the payment of which the machine would be delivered, the Government is asking for offers for individual machines, and when an offer ' is received it is held over for further offers to be made, so that the department concerned may be quite sure it has secured the full market value for it. It 3:nay be many weeks, or even months, before a decision as to whether the offer made will be accepted is arrived at, and then there may be further delay with other departments bef Ore the cash will be taken and the tractor Oelivered. A friend of mine in the trade made an offer for a tractor more than two months ago which he was informed Would be accepted. He sold the machine to a customer who wanted it for urgent Cultivation work, but up to the present he has not got delivery, and his customer has cancelled his order, whilst the department between them appear to have lost sight of the transaction altogether, and are unable to locate the party in whose hands the papers are now, or who is in a position to take the money and authorise delivery. So much for our business G-overnment!
I have recently had sent to me the illustrations which are included on this page. It would appear from the pictures that new uses are being found for the tractor every day, and certainly none is more valuable to the nation at the present time than the timber hauling which is being carried cut by four Titan tractors in the county of Radnorshire. The machines are being used to drag heavy timber sticrs from a 'wood to the sirmmit of a mountain in the Radnorshire forest. In one of these photographs the tractors are to he seen approaching the summit on theleft, from which the heavy logs are rolled down the mountain side to a road whence they are loaded. on the usual timber carriages, and taken some miles away to the nearest railway station. The ground over which the timber is _ hauled was at one time covered with dense masses of heather, which has been burnt or " blazed," as it is called, to enable this work to be carried out. Another of the photographs shows a heavy timber log, weighing nearly 2 tons, being pulled These logs are dragged up the mountain side, the gradient in some places amounting to about 1 in 6, but for the most part is I in 8 or -9. The work is of a very arduous nature for the men engaged, but I think that there are great compensations, for my recollections of the seenery.in this part of our old isle are grand in the extreme. The air on the naouritains is particularly bracing. The white ribbon seen far down the valley in the remaining picture is the road from Kington in Herefordshire to traversing the full width. of Radnorshire through very varied scenery..
The extent of the use to which agricultural motor tractors are being put is shown by figures supplied by Mr. Rowland Winn, of Leeds, with regard to work which has been carried out in Yorkshire in the nme months from 28th September, 1917, to 28th June, 1918:—.
In the nine months 23,303 additional acres of land have been ploughed and 41,412 cultivated.
I am of opinion that after the war when labour conditions once more revert to the normal, so far as the supply of labour is concerned—I expect the price paid for labour will never lie as -before—we shall see a substantial development in the erection of tower silos on the farms, larzely because of the great acreage of _grass. land wiich has been ploughed up, thus depriving the farms of that amount of pasturage and necessitating the growing of fodder crops to keep the cattle going. In this connection it. is interesting to note that the latest developments in the U.S. take the form of silos built of form-concrete, which material has made enormous strides in popularity lately. It is now employed for a great many new purposes, amongst ,which may be noted the construction of ships, which is about the last thing one would have believed concrete to be suitable for; yet, beginning -With barges in this country, it is now being successfully used for larger ships. .A