FARMING MACHINERY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20323, 2 August 1929, Page 7

FARMING MACHINERY.

IMMENSE POSSIBILITIES. PART IN WHEAT GROWING. LOWER COSTS OF PRODUCTION. The great possibilities opened up by thenew mechanical ago on the farm are dealt with in an interesting article published in tho Financial News, London. It deals particularly with tho amazing rcsillts of mechanisation of agriculturo as applied to wheat growing. Tho markets cf tho world aro flooded with wheat supplies, and prices are at tho lowest level in at least 14 years, states the article. Considering the value of money to-day in pre-war terms, tho return to the farmer is less than in a generation. In view of tho world's increasing population, tho growing number of bread eaters among former rice eating populations, the fact that Russia is actually an importer rather than an exporter of wheat, and the pre-war belief that by this time tho United Slates would havo ceased exporting wheat, tho present situation is puzzling to a very largo number of people. Revolution in Farming. The answer is that the mechanisation of agriculture which has taken place in the last eight years, and especially in the last three, has revolutionised farming. The chango from horse power to motor power has been as far-reaching as was the change from man power to horse -power • which came with the invention of the reaper and binder in tho middle of the last century. The invention and perfecting of highly efficient farm machinery has cut the cost of raising wheat to an extent that would have been considered inconceivable five years ago, but as yet less than one-third of the American and Canadian wheal crop is being produced in that way. Nevertheless, this low cost wheat is setting the price. Low-cost farming on land which has been entirely mechanised and managed by highly efficient experts has created a situation where millions of marginal farmers, attempting t{f produce grain by the old high-cost methods, are threatened with economic extinction. The combine, a tractor and threshing machine combined in one, cuts, and threshes grain in one operation and is operated by one man and a boy. It cuts a swath from 10 to 20 or more feet i-i width, and tho smaller size can harvest 35 acres of wheat per day. Illustrations of Labour Savings. Some years ago Henry Ford, in visioning what machinery would do for agriculture, was ridiculed- for saying that it should take only five days to produce a crop of wheat. What has actually happened is stated by Professor M. L. Wilson, Agricultural Economist of the Montana Experiment Station, who says:—" Three yoars (now four) ago, there were few farmers anywhere in the world who produced wheat with less than eight hours of man labour to the acre. To-day, many well organised, efficiently operated tractor wheat farms raise their crops with only two hours of man- labour per acre." A comparison of tho old with the new. which shows graphically how mncli cheaper the new system of farming operates, is given in a recent book on the agricultural revolution by Professors Mead and Ostrolenk and issued by the University of Pennsylvania Press:—■ One man, two horses, 12in. walking plough, can plough 1.6 acres per day. One man, one tractor, 3-bottom gang plough, can plough 8 to 10 acres per day. One man, four horses, 7ft. binder, can harvest 15 acres of wheat per day. One man, one tractor, Bft. binder, can harvest 25 acres of wheat per day. One man, one tractor, 10ft. binder, can harvest 35 acres of wheat per day. Small Producer's Position. The difficulty of the small producer when in competition with the great wheat, farms of Western America and Canada is strikingly shown by Mr. D. Thomas Campbell, who manages the planting of 95,000 acres of wheat in Montana. "Labour costs on our job, at £1 4s a day for engine operators, are less than they were thirty years ago when the standard wage for" hired help on the farm was £5 4s. a month and board," he states. " We have developed large power nnits and hitches whereby we can plough ail acre of land at a labour cost of Is. 3Jd., seed it for about 3Ad. an acre labour cost, double-disc it for sd. an acre, and harvest and thresh it at a labour cost of Is. Bd. an acre. " Tho present combine, at its reasonable cost, is the most outstanding develop- s ment in agricultural machinery that has ever been accomplished. The engineer and the industrial chemist will do for agriculture what they have done for other industries. It will not be long until many products will be made from material which is now wasted on the farm." The development of farm machinery and the switchover from man power to horse power released 27,000,000 workers from agriculture in tho United States and Canada between 1859 and 1920.