The New Zealand farmer has been driven by the nature of the country and by circumstances to develop a mechanical mind. He has been faced by seemingly impossible obstacles – often rough, virgin land to break in, a chronic scarcity of manpower in a new country, and isolation, not only from his neighbours but also from local and overseas sources of materials. He has had nothing to fall back on except central and local government, the labour of his wife and children, and his own skill. He has a fine record of invention and resourcefulness to his credit – of improving methods and machinery and of using them productively so that he can sell what he produces in distant and competitive markets. New Zealand made machinery, or New Zealand improvements, have been used all over the world: a riding multifurrow plough, butter churns, machines for seed cleaning, flax processing, gorse cutting, hay crushing, and drain cleaning.