Mechanised Farming In Britain

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24535, 7 April 1945, Page 6

Mechanised Farming In Britain

dne of-the- most remarkable transformations that have occurred in Britain as a result of the war arid the need to step up the home production of foodstuffs has been the tremendous increase in the use of machines in cultivation arid harvesting, This has not only permitted a much greater area of arable land to be put into production but it has also released' able-bodied men from the land for service# in the armed forces v Arresting figures about the increased use of farming machines ihdicate that the number of tractors has increased from 55.000 in 1939 to more than 200,000 at the beginning of this yfar; tractor implements, from fewer than 250.000 in 1939 to more than 1.000. now; and combine harvesters, from about 3000 . in 1939 to more than 30,000 to-day. The result in production, largely attributable, to increased mechanisation (though that, of course, is by no means the whole story) is an in*crease since the war in the home production of human. foodstuffs, measured in calories and proteins, of 70 per cent. Moreover, this has meant an annual saving of shipping spacfe of 11,000,000 tons —one of the most potent factors in the'defeat, of the U-boat attempt to starve out the people >f the British Isles. Measured in acreage under-* the plough, the results are equally arresting. Arable land has increased from 13,000,000 acres in 1039 to 19.000. in 1945, or nearly one third of the country’s total atea. The area under wheat in 1944 was 83 per cent, greater than in 1939 and, proving that mechanisation has not affected the intensive character of British farming, the wheat harvest of 1944 was 110 per cent, greater than in the year before the war. Actually, the average acreyield in Britain is to-day nearly three times that of the United

States, Although. a great ..deal. Df been -ploughed ,'ind stuffs for animals has'been -tremendously reduced-,; milk? production has, increased by 30 per cent, since 193839. The release of manpower *to the forces has reduded the number of men employed on the farms by 98,000; but this has largely been compensated for by the employment of 117,000 more women, though it must be remembered that much of the labour now. employed was largely inexperienced at the outbreak of the war. Many of the women, for example, had never been' on the land before and had no knowledge of farming conditions., With' the help of mechanisation, these workers have nevertheless produced at least 50 per cent, more than the German farm labourers. British farmers and War Agricultural Executive Committees have spent about £ 100,000,000 bn machinery alone during the war arid are still spending• at the. rate of about £25,000,000 annually. The use. of the tractor type of vehicle under war conditions has taught the manufacturers of agricultural machinery a great deal about the protection of machines from sand and mud; and these lessons are likely to be applied in the design of modern agricultural vehicles after the war. Such types will be of interest not only to British farmers, but also to Dominion and colonial farmers. Their, 1 requirements* as well ‘.as those of such countries as India and China, where mechanical farming is largely unknown, are certain to be studied and met with' an .efficiency 1 attributable to war-time experience—and battlefield as well as farmland will have contributed to if;' The Empire’s agriculture arid manufacturing industry will be even gainers.