A Marshall Agrimotor in Suffolk.
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150 Acres Ploughed in 100 Hours, at a Total Cost of Ss. 6d. Per Acre. 200 Sacks of Oats Threshed in Six Hours, with a Consumption of Less than 10 Gallons of Paraffin.
By special invitation of Marshall Sons and Co., Ltd., of Gamsborough, a representative of this journal was last week enabled to see one of the standard Marshall 30-35 lep. agrimotors at farm work on the Culford estate of the Earl of Caftan. We have, on several occasions recently, made detailed reference to the constructional features of this type of machine. Mr. G. Thurlow, of George Thurlow and Sons, Ltd., of Stowmarket, which is the sole agent for the Maeshall agrimotor in the eastern counties, awaited our representative at Bury St. Edmunds with a car, and, after a run of eight miles over heavy farm lanes, the scene of operations was reached. The tractor under notice has now been at work in the district for five weeks, and its first work consisted of ploughing 150 acres of soft, spongy land, which has a lime and chalky subsoil and is extremely stony. To add further to the difficulty, a twitch of peculiar twisting quality grows in large quantity in this land, and this calls for great engine elasticity, in order to give increased power when the plough becomes clogged and digs deeply into the soil.
The ploughing has hitherto been done by means of a two-horsed plough, and an acre a day was considered good work. In 100 hours the agrimotor, fitted with a Howard four-furrow plough. ploughed 150 acres. Paraffin was used as fuel, and the consumption for the whole period was 3371,i gallons, an average of 21 gallons per acre. The lubricating oil used averaged one pint per three acres, and the total cost came to 3s. 6d. per acre, including labour. So soft was th.: land, that the special extension rings had to be fitted to the wheels, in addition to spuds, making the total width of each driving wheel 27 in. The Howard four-furrow plough had a width of 1 ft., and ploughed to a depth of 9 in.
AL the time or our representative's visit, the tractor was engaged in threshing, oats being the medium. In :ix hours, 200 sacks of oats (each sack containing four bushels) were threshral. The fuel consumed in this period was 9 gallons 7 pints, and 3i pints of lubricating oil were used. When the threshing is completed, the tractor will be used for hauling bricks, drain pipes, and other building materials to various parts of the estate, and tests have shown it to be capable of hauling a useful load of 20 tons up an incline of 1 in 15. The ample cooling system fitted to this machine has proved itself to be of the greatest value, for in this locality water has often to be carted for many miles, and its transport costs at times as much as 10s. for 150 gallons. Since its arrival, the agrimotor has worked for 20 working days of nine hours each, without a single involuntary stop. It would not be too much to say that the advent of the agrimotor in this part of Suffolk has solved the problem of local land cultivation. Much of the land in this part of England has hitherto been found to be of too poor a quality to pay for cultivation.
In connection with the description of the new type of street-washing machine for Berlin, which we included in our issue for the 29th February, the wrong initials were used in describing two of the illus
(rations which were given. In
stead of N.A.G.' " we should have written " N.A..M.A.G." We understand that the Bremen factory is operated by the Nordeutsche Automobil und MotorenAcktien-Gesellschaft.
We regret the inaccuracy. We cannot, however, refrain from again pointing out the foolishness of em
ploying these alphabetical descriptions for proprietary articles. We have written editorially on this subject on previous occasions, and we have to confess that we ourselves are in this instance the victims of a habit which is, to say the least of it, remarkable for its lack of originality. Vie marvel at such crudity.