A Big Advance in
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BRITISH MECHANIZED FARMING
AC,CURATE results of experiments are always welcomed, especially in matters relating to the cultivation of the land, where only too often it is not possible to secure
really reliable information. Valuable data are included in the report on the working of St. John's College Farm, Oxford, made available by the Institute for Research in Agricultural Engineering.
In 1932 the College took over the farm for its own purposes, equipping and financing 340 acres, the whole being arable. In 1933 the acreage was increased to 480 and equipped as a completely mechanized farm.
The past two years have favoured • all mechanized-farming experiments, as the weather has been ideal for the purpose. Much useful experience has been gained.
Future Prosperity.
The report states that under conditions of mechanized corn growing the future prosperity of the farm depends much upon the success of the bare fallow. A hot, dry summer is not without its difficulties in cleaning light soil by means of the bare fallow. Heavy land can be cleaned of couchgrass and perennial weeds. On lighter soil, such as that at St. John's College Farm, it is the annual weeds that give the trouble. These cannot be killed by the fallow unless the seeds germinate, and the seeds will not germinate in dry, hot weather.
In 1934, in particular, at this farm the fallows remained so dusty and
dry that no annuals germinated until after harvest. It was, of course, possible, states the report, to do a certain amount of autumn clearing before planting, but here again the system presents a problem.
It is no light task for three men to plant 300 acres of wheat, 150 acres of which have to be ploughed out of stubble, and to clean the land without unduly delaying the autumn planting, particularly when, as in 1933 and 1934, the ground has not become soft enough to work until some weeks after harvest is finished. The control of annual weeds by methods of cultivation is preferred to spraying with sulphuric-acid preparations.
The two seasons mentioned havo been favourable to the farmer who does not use a combine harvester, as he has been able to thresh the grain in the field, thus restricting the advantages of the combine in comparison.
Three agrimotors are used on the farm, two being International TracTractors and the other a Fordson. When the whole staff (three men) is ploughing with the three a gri motors , the Fordson , with a two-furrow plough, is used for setting the ridges for starting and for finishing, thus enabling the two Internationals, each with a four-furrow plough, to -go straight on with the work of ploughing.
The harvesting is effected by an International combine harvester (No. 8) drawn by an International TreeTractor. The grain is cot. lee ted in the combine tank (not bagged) and discharged into 'a trailer drawn by the Fordson.
The results of planting and harvesting are -given as follow :—Planting : 1932, 211 acres between October 17 and November 18; 1933, 300 acres between October 6 and November 33 ; 1934,
288 acres between October 2 and October 25. Harvesting : 1933, 276 acres between August 3 and August 23; 1934, 335 acres between July 30 and August 24. Two agrimotors were in • use in 1932 and three subsequently.
Both harvests, we are informed, have been entirely dealt with by one 10-ft. combine (International). A power binder, purchased in 1934, was held in reserve, but was used only for " road cutting." In 1934 there was a large area of the heaviest crop completely laid out, i.e., laid on the ground; but, although the machine had to go slowly, no difficulty in harvesting was experienced—far less, certainly, than would have been the case under more ordinary methods.
The value of Trac-Tractors is notable in the manceuvring of the combine.
The farm has grown from a two-man unit in 1932 to one employing five whole-time operatives. The holding will be built up gradually, department by department, until the labour employed per 100 acres is not less than before the coming of the combine.
In the conclusion of the report valuable observations on the prospects of mechanized farming are made:— " The farm, although completely mechanized, is not even now, and will in future be even less, the completely specialized unit which the term ' mechanized ' so often appears to connote. Mechanical production on the farm should not mean of necessity a lower output per 100 acres, nor even a lower figure for employment; the intensification of agricultural production with the aid of machines becomes a much more certain undertaking than when it is attempted without their assistance.
"The machines have largely been developed, in the first instance, in countries of extensive farming, extensive because of the shortage of man power and of its consequent high costs. To-day, their development in this country is tending more and more towards their application to all those jobs which have previously been performed expensively and uneconomically by means of hand and horsed labour.
" The root crop, the distribution of farmyard manure,. and countless other operations which, only a few years ago, were considered impossible for mechanized power to perform, are now adequately and cheaply carried through by means of petrol and paraffin instead of oats.
Slow and Costly Horse Going.
"In this country, particularly as long as protective measures in any form are in. force, extensive and low-production faroring cannot be long tolerated. Mechanical power, in all its agricultural forms, is rapidly replacing the slow and costly horse and expensive hand labour of pre war days.
"Its advent is to be welcomed, if only for the increase in efficiency which it gives to rural labour, but in a country of stock and crop farming, of intensive agricultural production, there is no reason—and, we believe, no fear— why it should mean either rural depopulation or the conversion of
England into prairie. Mixed farming' may still prove the backbone of English agriculture, but no longer mixed to the extent of the complete and unalterable interdependence of farm departments."