ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a discussion of technical changes affecting the farm and village scale of phenomenon and proceed to regional and world matters. The most striking innovation on the farm regarding modes of transport in decades has been the tractor. First developed as a wheeled vehicle, the later introduction of track-laying or crawler tractors considerably widened the range of applications as a source of power for farming operations on sloping and heavy lands. A reduction in the relative cost of movement within the farm means that when a farmer considers applying more labour to a distant field he has to reckon with a smaller cost on account of distance than formerly. The most obvious consequence of lower ‘real’ transport costs is a widening of the zone of supply of agricultural products, as exemplified in the case of dairy and horticultural foods in the United Kingdom.
