GUNS OR BUTTER
SIR,—Mr. Matthews' letter in your issue of May 24th assumes that skilled mechanics in garages are mainly occupied in helping joy-riders. In agricultural areas this idea would be a great and dangerous mistake. Our home food-supply depends largely on farmers' tractors. They are all over the country, working at full time on essential work. Farmers are usually good drivers and fair maintainers of their tractors, but they are not skilled mechanics and have no workshops or machine-equipment.
Farmers must seize the right moment for soil-cultivation. Delay means loss of food-supply. If, when his tractor stops for some reason he doesn't understand, or for a minor breakage, a farmer can send for a skilled mechanic from his market town at once, he can get on with the job again in an hour or two. If there is no good mechanic, but only a semi-skilled one, avail- able, there may be days of delay and food losses which cannot be retrieved. If the garage in Knighton that maintains my tractor lost its two best mechanics, a great many farmers who rely on their own or other people's tractors would fail to get essential work done in time.—Yours, &c.,
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