LAND CLEARANCE MADE EASIER

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28050, 18 August 1956, Page 9

LAND CLEARANCE MADE EASIER

IMPRESSIVE TRIALS OF NEW MACHINE

GORSE AND SCRUB CUT AND PULVERISED

The difficulties associated with the breaking-in of gorse and scrub-covered land and land clearance work generally are likely to be considerably lessened if a new machine tried out in New Zealand this month for the first time bears out the promise which it offered at a recent demonstration in North Canterbury. Called a multi-purpose chopper, and manufactured in Britain, it was demonstrated recently on a downs farm at Ashley, adjoining the Ashley State forest reserve, owned by Mr H. L. Spark. Drawn by a tractor, it was put to work in a sloping paddock, thickly infested with gorse varying in size up to a height of four to six feet. Some broom was interspersed with the gorse and the whole covering was very dense.

The machine made an excellent clearance of anything in its path. The first time over it cut (or rather chopped) the dense growth of gorse to a level of about seven to nine inches from the ground. The second cut at ground level accounted for all the stumps and at the same time pulverised the dense mass of sticks and foliage left on the ground from the first cut.

In the observation of the writer, once the second cut was completed the land was left in a fit state to be easily handled (preparatory to sowing down) by a swamp plough, or alternatively—according to the farmer’s preference—by bush and bog discs or chisel plough. The machine has a five-foot cut. Light stands of gorse or scrub can be made ready for ploughing or discing with only one cut. Other areas including a roadside which had been thickly covered with very tall “old man’’ gorse were inspected by the writer after the chopper had handled it. The same good results were observed, the clearance effected being very impressive. The fair-sized gathering of farmers who witnessed the demonstration was obviously impressed with what was accomplished. One of their number was Mr O. M. Prattley of Oust, who some 12 months ago acquired 1600 acres of scrub-covered marginal land at Swannanoa adjoining the Eyrewell ■ plantations. Anxious to see the | machine’s reaction to manuka scrub, i Mr Prattley made arrangements with IMr Spark to clear a trial area of 25 I acres on his property. The writer saw I the chopper in action on Mr Prattley's land last week. Again it performed a satisfactory job. The manuka was not as dense as the gorse on the Ashley Downs, nor was it as tall, the stoutest plants being about 1$ inches in diameter. Nevertheless there was manuka enough and big enough to test the machine’s capabilities, even to the extent of dislodging most of the roots. Promising Only one cut w r as made, but this i was sufficient for Mr Prattley’s purpose I which was, he said, to immediately swamp-plough, roll and disc the padIdock preparatory to sowing down. iThe land being in its native i state 'has never had a plough ; on it. The manuka was cut iand chopped into small segments while i the machine travelled at the rate of ' about 2i miles an hour. It handled I about acres an hour—in heavier ; brush the going is naturally much i slower.

Mr Prattley, by the way, intends to break in the whole of his newly acquired 1600 acres and already within the short space of one year he has accomplished much. But this is a story of its own, which will bear telling some day. An interesting story attaches to Mr Spark’s acquisition of this patent scrub ' cutter which at the .moment is the ! only machine of its kind in the I Dominion. Seven years ago while on i a visit to Britain he made the i acquaintance of a member of a firm ! of agricultural engineers, with whom | he has since kept in close touch. Last year his friend wrote to him enclosing particulars of a new machine of I revolutionary design described as a multi-purpose chopper designed. for [mowing and pulverising potato haulm, j brussels stalks, kale stalks, bracken, .weeds and other vegetation. This i machine, he said, he had recently I patented. ! Mr Spark, in turn, after consulting with a Christchurch agricultural engineer wrote to his friend suggesting tha>, if he could improve the design of the machine to handle gorse and other heavy scrub in the same efficient manner as it coped with straw stubble and the like, it should find great scope in New Zealand on land clearance work. The upshot was that this British firm took up Mr Spark’s idea and in a few months produced a model equipped with heavy, swinging hooked tines capable of undertaking work of the nature he had suggested. After giving it a thorough try-out in Britain

under practical conditions, the firm decided that it had something which was worth marketing and the machine went into production. At the same time they offered to supply one of the machines to Mr Spark at bare cost price. Mr Spark, who is not the New Zealand agent for the machine, accepted the offer and the machine arrived at Ashley about three weeks ago.

Describing the practical trials which this multi-purpose chopper underwent at a land clearance demonstration at Newbury, Berks., on February 4, this year, the results of which have since been borne out in North Canterbury, Mr Spark’s engineering friend wrote: “Yesterday morning we took out the machine behind a tractor to some common land about 8 miles from Wallingford on which was growing a heavy infestation of gorse and sapling trees mixed with heather, blackberry bushes and other kinds of scrub. To pur utter amazement we found that the machine did an almost perfect job even on old gorse bushes over 7ft high in which were growing blackberry bushes and sapling trees with stems near the ground 2£ inches in diameter. “The gorse itself was pulverised. . . Once over with the machine completely cleared everything Over 9 inches high and once back over • the same piece of ground left it most beautifully short. Neither the tractor nor the machine appeared to find this work at all hard. In fact they both did the job with the greatest of ease. Naturally we were in bottom gear because it would not have been safe to drive the tractor blind into these vast gorse bushes and trees.’’ Machine Described The machine, which is illustrated on this page, is very lowset and is driven by four V belts from the power take-off from the tractor. So as to work effectively, the power take-off should travel at the rate of about 550 revolutions a minute. It is of very heavy construction. The specially forged flails (or hook tines) work on centrifugal force. Each line can swing back independently when hitting a stone or other obstruction, avoiding damage to itself and to the rest of the machine. It encountered some mansize stones in its demonstration at Ashley and again when mowing down the manuka at Swannanoa but, built of specially hardened steel, the tines escaped unscathed.

Its toughness, too, can be seen from the fact that during one of its trials in Britain, a ploughshare went through the machine which was engaged on chopping kale stalks. The machine suffered no damage whatsoever. No sharpening of the flexiblymounted chopper blades (tines) is said to be required. It is estimated that it can account for scrub and saplings with a diameter of up to 3| inches, with a tractor in the 30 to 40 h.p. class with a ground speed down to a mile an hour. Thus in the light of its trials in Britain and its performances already in New Zealand, strength and durability seem to be marked features of the machine. It is, too, readily convertible to the lighter task of pasture topping, chopping and spreading straw and other work of this nature, for which, by the way, it was originally designed.