§ Sir A. Baillieasked the Minister of Agriculteure what steps he is taking to stimulate, in this country, the production of machinery to lighten the labour cost of harvesting.
Mr. HudsonAgricultural machinery manufacturers are already producing machinery of established types to the maximum permitted by existing facilities. I am taking all possible steps to assist in bringing newly-developed harvesting machinery of approved types into commercial production. In doing so I have the benefit from time to time of reports from the Agricultural Machinery Development Board, while testing and research facilities are available to inventors and manufacturers at the National Institute of Agricultural Engineering. Special attention has been paid to the harvesting of the potato, sugar beet and corn crops. Of a number of complete potato harvesters recently inspected, four have reached the stage of experiment on a commercial scale, and the firms concerned are receiving allocations of materials accordingly. One sugar beet harvester is in production on a small scale, and I hope that as a result of trials now in progress larger numbers will be available next year. Trials have been made this year of a British produced combined harvester-thresher; and steps have been taken by my Department substantially to increase the British production of binders.