THE JOURNAL 



OF THE 



MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE 



Vol. XXVII. No. i. 



APRIL, 1920. 



NOTES. 



The Report of the Departmental Committee on Agricultural 

 Machinery* may be considered to mark a new epoch in 

 British farming. It is a recognition of 

 The Future of the fact that old-fashioned methods will 



Mfchiner Ura A 110 longer Suffice ' and that lf ° Ur f °° d 

 StimuLtTng^Report. production is to be brought to the utmost 

 point of efficiency, the farmer must 

 employ the best mechanical power as an auxiliary to the skill 

 which he has acquired by centuries of tradition. Xot only 

 must he have at his command machinery of the highest 

 excellence, but he must know how to make the best use of it. 

 By this means alone will it be possible to reduce the costs of 

 production upon which the price of the nation's food depends. 



The Committee, after a wide survey of the field and the 

 examination of many witnesses, find the present position 

 unsatisfactory. They make a series of weighty recommenda- 

 tions, which, if faithfully carried out, should prove of marked 

 benefit to British farming. With regard to machinery, the 

 Committee point out that hitherto manufacturers seem to have 

 paid far too little attention to the principles of pure science 

 underlying machine construction. The Report admits that 

 a period of empiricism, during which the method is one of 

 trial and error, is inevitable to the development of any science, 

 but there comes a point beyond which such a rule-of-thumb 

 will no longer serve the cause of progress. Hence the need 

 for properly organised and systematic' research in all branches 

 of agricultural engineering. It is a fact that many 

 of our industries, including even the small industry of con- 

 fectionery, have set up their own Research Associations, 

 although, singularly enough, nothing in this direction seems to 

 have been considered by agricultural engineering, with the single 

 exception, perhaps, of the tractor branch of the industry. 

 It [is assumed by the Report that a Research Institute on 



* The Report of this Committee is noticed at p. 91. 



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