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80. The chain-cable method of clearing not only reduced the cost of flattening and rooting, but facilitated windrowing and the extraction of merchantable timber.
81. The following table shows the estimated time which a tractor took to complete each operation at Kongwa towards the end of the year:-
Flattening
2.0
acres per tractor hour
Windrowing
0.5
Stumping
1.43
Ploughing or Rootcutting
1.0
D
Raking
2.0
Ripping
Levelling
1.66 8.0
59
"
99
"
Tractor Maintenance
82.. The essential problem in preparing the land for agricultural operations is to keep the heavy tractor fleet in full operation.
83. When the Corporation took over there were in Kongwa 208 unservice- able tractors and the engineering section (paras. 217 et seq.) of this Report shows the urgent measures which were immediately taken to get these tractors into operation and to maintain them in good condition. The experience which was gained at considerable cost at Kongwa can now be applied elsewhere- particularly in the Southern Province. During the year it was not possible to organise the repair services in order to get all the tractors into operation for clearing. Consequently the proportion of unserviceable tractors remained high throughout the year.
Agricultural Operations
84. The sequence of agricultural operations following the taking over of land from Contractors for agricultural purposes was as follows:-
(a) Tandem Discing
This operation was carried out immediately prior to planting, using tandem disc harrows.
In the main these harrows were used singly behind a 35 h.p. wheeled agricultural tractor, but, under rougher conditions, a more even pull, with consequently less wear on bearings, was given by using a triple hitch behind heavy crawler tractors.
(b) Ploughing
Dry season ploughing has been carried out this year. On the red soils this calls almost exclusively for the use of the heavy duty disc plough. On large areas on Unit 1, prior ripping was necessary in order to get adequate penetration.
On the grey or black Mbuga soils, disc ploughs were used almost exclusively; on these soils, or where adequate penetration can be obtained in dry weather, light ploughs do a satisfactory job.
Dry season ploughing with heavy duty disc ploughs as a continuing operation is costly. The alternative is one-way disc tilling after the first rains, but this necessitates a large number of extra tractors during the peak
planting period.
(c) Planting
(i) Groundnuts
This operation was carried out with a power lifted 4-row planter, inqongorating fertiliser placement attachments. Page 144 of 1097
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