FARM INVENTIONS

Greymouth Evening Star, 4 July 1933, Page 8

FARM INVENTIONS

NEW GERMAN DEVICES. In spite of times of -agricultural depression and of changing politics, the thirty-ninth national German agricultural show in Berlin this year is larger than ever, says “The Times.” Every effort, has apparently been made by those in authority to make it a success.

One would be inclined to say that the modern trend of politics in Germany has stimulated invention. For, as the tendency is for the largo estates to be divided into small farms and holdings, new ideas are pouring in for the benefit of the small farmer. With fewer large farms, there is less demand for the bigger machines. Special encouragement has been given this year to the entry of implements for the better cultivation and grading of potatoes and also for the washing of sugar-beet, leaves (to make them clean enough for cattle feeding). For these and oilier purposes no fewer than 1.56 new implements have, been entered for tost. For the purpose of reducing the initial outlay to the- small farmer, a cheap electric motor has been arranged to drive chaff-cutters, grinders, crushers, and potato sorters. For tho winter feeding of cattle, potatoes are now boiled in special portable boilers and then .stored in silos or pits. To overcome gluts in the, cabbage. market insula!ed storage sheds are now employed with concrete walls made with, wood-wool aggregate. Much ingenious canning machinery was displayed. Small hand machines costing under £3 not only seal new cans but also trim the ragged edges off old cans, thus giving them a new lease of life in a slightly shortened stature. Fruit juice can now bo electrically sterilised—the special electrode cosis less than £l—and so preserved alco-hol-free. Flapping, dust-raising belts have disappeared from the modern creamery. for built-in compact electrically driven separators have, come into vogue. Floating electric water pumps eliminate all costs of erection. Other electric pumps are self-charg-ing. and so need no foot valves, -and

will always pump water when switched on. For the farmer’s wife was provided a. porcelain flat-iron and a guardless fan with harmless ribbons replacing a dangerous metal propeller. Her husband’s needs were mat with an electric razor.