THE TON TRUCK.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20084, 13 November 1930, Page 29

THE TON TRUCK.

INDISPENSABLE ON THE MIXED FARM. Three years ago the writer spent a week on a Victorian wheat farm. It was a rarity to see a reaper and binder. All the harvesting, practically,, was performed by the header-harvester. But more noticeable still was the übiquity of - the e 1 ton truclCj or its bigger or smaller relation. It was everywhere on the road> carting wheat . to the station. Farmers considered itwas • just as indispensable as the tractor or the harvester itself. It was 110 use leaping big areas of wheat each day if it had to be left lying in the paddock awaiting a leisurely removal by teams., Speed was the essence of the harvesting process, and the ton truck came right into the circle of the most necessary machines on : the farm. ■ If tfie truck is necessary on the Australian wheat farm, where production is largely confined to the on'e. cereal, it should be .doubly so on the mixed farm of New "Zealand, where varied classes of grain have to be carted to the station, where the truck can be used for fat lamb transport, carting manures and stock feed, and the dozen and one other things both on the farm and on'the road. In long runs, it is a pronounced money-saver, and the farmer is rapidly realising that it shows one of the best balance-sheets of all his farm implements. The motor truck has proved effective I in the suppression of fires in the rural district of California. Last summer one tank-pumper in the State division of forestry service controlled three miles of grass fire in forty-five minutes. Four pieces of motorised apparatus cost the State £BOO each, but during the period of July to December saved about £90,000 in property and labour. In addition to repaying their operating cost, they paid for themselves twenty fold in the half-year. Britain's annual consumption of milk is 21 gallons per head of the population. In America it ia 5S and jb Sweden 65,