Farming by Tractor.
Page 2
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
(•4:0ITE a number of farmers—who, although they
had seriously considered the question of em
ploying agricultural tractors-on their farms, had never actually done so—have now almost given up the thought of utilizing these machines owing to the very considerable reductions which have occurred in the prices of horses and their cost of upkeep. These farmers would do well to reconsider the position, as they should understand that the reductions
06 do not apply to horses alone ; the prices of tractors and the cost of maintaining them have also diminished very considerably, and the decline, so far as maintenance costs are concerned, is likely to continue, with the result that, work for work, the credit balance is still on the side of the tractor.
There is another, and often unconsidered, advantage given by the mechanically propelled machine, and that is its capacity for coping with many other classes of work than mere ploughing, for its engine can usefully replace almost all other sources of power previously required on the large farm ; in fact, it may well be termed the "maid of all work."
Admittedly, tractors in their infancy were a source of continual trouble, but all new, or comparatively new, devices have to go through this stage. That marvel of mechanical perfection, the high-class modern ear, cannot be compared with the vehicle of only a dozen years ago, and we do not find motorists scorning the present-day car because its ancestors had faults. It would be just as unfair as if we were looked down upon 'because our ancestors meet have worn tails.
Most of the latest types of tractors are a great improvement on the cumbersome or fragile and unreliable machines which were marketed not very long ago, and it is a great pity that more advantage is not taken of their capabilities.