MODERN MACHINERY.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19975, 9 July 1930, Page 16

MODERN MACHINERY.

STUDY IN ENGLAND. NEW ZEALAND METHODS DISCUSSED. "Agricultural machinery and the organisation of agricultural labour in Australia, New Zealand and Canada," is the subject of a 43 page booklet issued by the British Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. It is often said, observes the article, that the British farmer lags behind the farmers of the British Dominions and of foreign countries in regard to the use of machinery and of labour saving devices in agriculture. Conditions overseas, both physical and climatic, are often vastly different from from those of Britain,, and on that account mechanical methods of cultivation practised overseas might not be applicable to Britain. Still, there might possibly be some lessons for British farmers to learn from other countries; and in order that they might have a clearer appreciation of what other countries have to te%ph us, the Ministry of Agriculture in 1928 invited Mr Arthur Amos (Director of the University Farm, Cambridge) and Mr John Garton (president of the English N.F.U.) to visit certain of the Dominions and to prepare a report upon machines and methods likely to be adopted with advantage under British conditions. Their report has been published as No. 67 of the Ministry's "Miscellaneous Publications." The investigations were conducted in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. The Combine-Harvester. The Australian method of harnessing 8 or 10 horses abreast would not be suitable for Britain; but the report asks whether the present two or three horse teams in common use in Britain could not be advantageously increased to four or six horse teams for some of our larger implements. The Australian "gang-ploughs" are not suitable for British conditions; but it is considered that some use might be found in Britain for combine drills such as there are in Australia, for drilling seed and manure together, with trail harrows attached behind to cover the seed. In Australia these combine drills are sometimes adapted to cultivate before and harrow behind the drill. The combine harvester, which has ■ reached a high state of development in Australia, has no direct application to British conditions; but an attachment known as a "pick-up" is regarded as having possibilities.

The Canterbury Plain. The most important arable farming area in New Zealand is the Canterbury Plain, "in which there are over 700,000 acres of farm crops (excluding pasture) out of a total of 1,770,000 acres under crop in the whole of New Zealand. Farming.'conditions in this area, also, are more comparable to British farming conditions than in any other part visited by the investigators. The New Zealand system of fanning—three or four years grass and then a short run of cropping—is in many respects similar to that practised in Scotland and the North and West of England; and it is recommended for careful study in the South and East of England. The use of 4-horse and 6-horse teams and of combine drills for sowing seed and manure simultaneously are common in New Zealand, and are recommended for consideration m Britain. A small steel peg-drum type of threshing machine, found both in New Zealand and Canada, would seem to have considerable application in -Britain. The question is also asked whether a modification of the dairying methods in the North Island of Now Zealand— "walk-through" sheds, and milking machines of the "releaser" type with which no pail is required—could not be applied to British, or at least to South of England conditions. The harvesting and threshing methods of the Canadian prairie provinces are described by the authors of this report, who were much struck by the great development in harvesting machinery in recent years. Steel threshing machines with which a staff of seven men can thresh and deliver at the station 800 bushels of wheat a day are stated to be certainly worth a trial in those corn-growing districts of Britain where malting barley is not commonly grown (as they damage the grain slightly). Their rate of work is about double that of the English type of thresher with a staff of 10 or 11 men. The low form of Canadian harvest waggons are also worthy of trial in corn-growing districts. The wider adoption of dung spreaders, as used in Ontario, is recommended; and the use of electric power for dairy farms—, both in New Zealand and in Ontario —emphasises the importance of study-, ing the possibilities of electric - power for dairying at home.