Farm Buildings in England

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Technical Note (National Research Council of Canada. Division of Building Research), 1969-09-26

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Farm Buildings in England

Legget, R. F.

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DIVISION OF BUILDING RESEARCH

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF CANADA

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PREPAREE) BY R. F. Legget CHECKED BY APPROVED IY

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26 September 1969.

PREPARED FOR Record Purposes

SUBJECT FARM BUILDINGS IN ENGLAND

Special Explanatory Note:

The following brief record of useful contacts in connection with farm buildings in England was drafted by the writer upon his returl,1 from one of his regular visits to the United Kingdom (in 1958). It was just at this time that work was starting on what is now the Canadian Code for Farm Buildings. The writer intended to have the Technical Note prepared at that time in case it might be of some minor interest to the Chairman and members of the special Committee established for the pr epara-tion of the Farm Building Code.

Unfortunately the writer made the mistake of putting aside the first draft of this note with other Building Code papers and came across it only recently in the course of checking his Building Code records. "Dated" though it is, the note may still be of interest even though it is now issued after the death of both Mr.

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2

-On the 17th of November 1958 I had the pleasure of a luncheon talk with Sir William Slater and his son. Mr. J. K. W. Slater. at

Sir William's invitation. Sir William is the Secretary of the Agricultural Research Council. an important body in Great Britain sponsored by the

government and working closely with the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. His son is a graduate agricultural engineer and is on the staff of the National Institute of Agricultural Engineering.

I had met Sir William while he was in Canada attending a meeting of the Commonwealth Research Committee. of which he is a member. The President of our National Research Council had arranged for this

ｃｯｭｭｩｴｾ･･ to make a tour through Northern Canada instead of the more conventional type of meeting in Ottawa. I had the privilege of travelling with the group from Saskatoon to Yellowknife. Cambridge Bay. Resolute Bay. Churchill and Winnipeg and as I had Sir William as a travelling companion for part of the journey. we discovered our mutual interest in farm building problems. In London. therefore, I fulfilled a promise by reporting to him and his son on the work done by Professor Moysey and summarized in his report. In return, my hosts gave me an interesting picture of the current activity in Great Britain in this same field.

A survey of 2, 000 farms in Britain had recently been made and this has pointed to the need for research in connection with farm buildings. As a start, a bibliography is being prepared by a Mr. Martin. working in Sir William's office, covering the years 1946 to 1958. It is expected that copies will be available by the end of 1959 and I was promised one as soon as it is available.

In reviewing the general British farm situation it was surpnsmg to find that the number of farms is decreasing even though the area farmed is remaining fairly steady. the change being due to the gradual consolidation of the older type of small British farm into much larger units. Sir William said that the bigger farm agents today will not bother looking at any farm with an area less than 500 acres. He said that there is one farm in England with an area of 22.000 acres. a figure I checked with him because it seemed to be so large in comparison to what one normally imagines.

It was confirmed by the further statement that there is one English farm whiCh sometimes has 48 combines in operation at once. This same farmer had bought 2 special German machines at £ 2, 000 for a special harvesting operation. With the 2 machines £ 1, 000 worth of wheat that would have been lost otherwise through bad weather was harvested late in the fall so that the machines were going to pay for themselves in the course of a very few years.

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-The Agricultural Research Council is under pressure to do something about farm buildings since so many British farm buildings are out of date. It is anticipated that £ 15 million will be spent on new farm buildings during the next 10 years. almost all of it on

reconstruction of older buildings. They are. therefore. very interested in all developments relating to farm buildings in other countries and so wish to keep closely in touch with what is being done in Canada.

I was privileged to hear something of the work of the Agricultural Research Council which now is responsible for the operation of 22 labo-ratories, serving all the major research needs of agriculture in England. It was as the result of a request from the A. R. C. that the Nuffield

Foundation started its study of the functional requirements of laboratories, with which DBR is in touch. A. R. C. put up some of the funds for this important study.

Miscellaneous information developed in our talk included the fact that Sir William Slater had made a tour across Canada with the late Dr. K. W. Neatby and had made a report to the Deputy Minister of

Agriculture. presumably in connection with the recent reorganization of research work in that department. I heard also that Mr. Ewen McEwen (whom I had met during the war in connection with N. R. C. track research) had now been made the Technical Director for Massey-Ferguson Limited. responsible for their technical operations in the eastern hemisphere.

Finally I may note that at lunch at the Athenaeum Club I had the pleasure of tasting for the first time a drink called "Ferri" developed as a result of agricultural research. It is the equivalent of the world-famous English apple cider but made from pears. It is unfortunate that it is not available in Canada.