Robots That blessed, or accursed, word, mechanisation, is usually used
of the grain farm, but the machine advances in all sorts of farming, not least in fruit farming. I know quite a small fruit farmer who thought it well worth while to spend £500 on a spraying machine ; and some of these are now of such a size and power that they have 142 spray nozzles, a 130 h.p. engine and can effectively spray 30 acres of standard trees in a day. So reports Raymond Bush in The Countryman. Another machine is a huge auger that can dig six enormous holes—for planting trees—within four minutes. The existence of such big, expensive and rapid machines sug- gests that they should be owned, not by individuals, but co-operatively or by some public service. In this way the small man is under no handi- cap; and I must believe that the country is benefited by a number of small cultivators. They do yeoman service—in spite of the arguments of the economists. Really astonishing examples of the high value of fruit, justifying such machines, have been given by Mr. Bush. He quotes the sale of a fruit farm of 38 acres for over £30,000, with another £10,000, or rather less, for the farm equipment! Again the fruit from one Kent orchard, mostly cherries, sold for £540 an acre. The net profit is not, of course, mentioned. One Worcestershire fruit-farmer told me that he usually spends at least £10 on cartridges, used chiefly against the starlings that come in flocks to raid his cherries.
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