EMPIRE FARMING

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume XLVI, Issue 3262, 12 October 1928, Page 8

EMPIRE FARMING

THE BRITISH ROYAL SHOW.

TIME-SAVING INVENTIONS.

MECHANICAL^ POULTEY PLUCivER

(By Gilbert B. Hunter)

The need for organising' the whole of the industries of the Empire as a single unit has been often and rightly emphasised. Agriculture is the oldest and greatest industry of ally yet little attention has hitherto been paid to the need for organising Empire fanning as

a single unit. ~. Some time ago-/a prominent statesman, a man himself skilled in* practical farining, made the*#eniarkable prophecy that the future would see us regarding'British farming hot'as an isolated event, but as part of the vast body of Empire farming as. a whole. Would it be too sanguine to regard this year's visit to*Britain of a group of farmers from all parts of the Empire as a first tentative' step towards a realisation of that mighty prophecy?

•These' Empire farmers saw much to interest them and not a little to instruct them during their visit. They saw farms, research stations,.' docks, factories and in fact everything directly or indirectly concerned with their industry. Perhaps their most remarkable experience, however, was the visit to the Royal Agricultural Show — the premier show in Britain and perhaps throughout the world, which afforded them the opportunity of seeing for themselves how British manufacturers cater for the farming industry in all its branches and in all climes.

The implement yard was particularly interesting, as well as instructive, for it reflected the great skill and ingenuity of British engineers • Progress was apparent on all sides; here it was represented by improvements on old* types of machinery, there by entirely new inventions. One exhibit of spec- | ial note was a poultry plucking mach-,i ine. By means of. this ingenious* de-j vice a fowl can be cleanly plucked and the plumage gathered together in less than a minute. This labour-saving marvel ought to find a place on all large-scale' poultry farms. Another notable invention was a

portablc shed or "bail," which had been used for demonstrating the possibility of milking cows by machinery in the open fields. This shelter was fitted with many automatic labour-saving devices, one of which was for- feeding concentrates to those cows giving a superior yield, > It is claimed that by this method one man and a boy can quite easily manage a herd of seventy" cows. The group of Empire farmeys also saw powerful steam and petrol traetors together with their complementary array of ploughs, cultivators and sub-soilers, destined to break in and put to the service of mankind those wide stretches of fertile lands at present practically uncultivated. Another storehouse of profitable lessons on the need for scientific methods in farming was the stand of the

World's Dairy Congress. Here could be seen machines and gadgets useful and profitable to all people occupied in the milk trade. A novelty was a. papier maehe tube for the retail distribution of milk. One end of it is closed by means of a metallic compress, while the other is temporarily covered with waxed seals. Considering that at the present time the British Empire and the world as a whole is concentrating on solving the problem of, producing great qnantities of pure milk;at low cost, the Dairy Pavilion was probably One of the most attractive exhibits. No less instructive than the machinery display was the show of seeds, feeding stuffs and fertilisers. British botanists and chemists were equally as eager as the engineers to demonstrate to farmers how much the prosperity of the agricultural industry depended on a free and full co-nartnershin with sci-

| enee. ' : I The stands of the leading merchants and of feeding stuffs, manufacturers equally recorded big scientific advances. The fertiliser stands were artistic and attractive. There were tableaux showing the new system of grassland management in progress and also models of the compared returns of fertilised and unfertilised crops.