Mixed Tractor lea for Mixed Farming
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A Fleet of .to Machines of Five Types Performs a Variety of Useful Agricultural Operations on South Downs Work IT is not only in connection with arable land that modern tractors are proving their value. Naturally, the bulk of the work for which the machines are needed is in connection with tilled land, but there is also the most important question of haulage from fields to farm buildings and from there to railheads and markets. There is considerable diversity in the requirements of ploughing, transport
and belt driving which cannot readily be reconciled in a single tractor, or even in two machines.
Recently, we visited a group of six farms, comprising 2,282 acres under the care of Messrs. A. B. Bray and Son, Compton Farm, Compton, Chichester. Of that total acreage, 1,304 acres are arable land. Homegrown food requirements have, of late, caused about 400 acres to be
ploughed up, this fact helping to account for the arable percentage being over 50.
In addition to the variety of work occasioned by tillage operations there are four herds of dairy cattle, which necessitate two tractors being more or less constantly at work on the job of hauling foodstuffs to the premises which house them. Sufficient young stock are reared to make the dairies self-supporting.
The 10 tractors at present in use consist of two Caterpillar D.2 type oil-engined track-laying machines and eight mounted on wheels. These wheeled machines consist of four Fordsons and four Internationals, two of the latter being of the popular 10-20 type, one a Farman H Model and one a row-crop F.12 machine. With so much arable acreage, it is possible to utilize the various machines to the best effect without giving rise to unduly long periods of idleness during any part of the year. The lower-powered machines can handle light trailers for crop collection, as well as undertaking the smaller cultivating operations.
Wheel equipment is mixed, in that both the pneumatic and steel types are found useful, whilst the tracklaying units deal with the heaviest work when soil conditions are at their worst. On these chalky South Downs the extra drawbar pull which the track-equipped machine can exert is valuable.
When it is rememberedthat a wheeled tractor commonly has an area of ground contact, so far as the driving wheels are concerned, of about 300 sq. ins., the comparative ground contact area of some 1,300 sq. in,s. for two tracks is a factor of importance which cannot readily be expressed in only cash terms.
The extra first cost of an oilengined track-layer is, of course, appreciable, particularly in these times, but a limited number of them can usefully be employed to do work which the wheeled machines cannot attempt.
As to track wear, the rate is not rapid on this Downs land. The older Caterpillar has recently had new track pins and bushes fitted after some af years' work. On these farms, tractor driving is among the operations entrusted to members of the Women's Land Army. With petrol-starting for the main engine,, no difficulty is encountered by the girls in handling Caterpillar machines. Starting after idle periods in wet weather is usually better than with a petrol-paraffin tractor, the electric-ignition equipment of which can be affected by dampness.