TRACTORS at the PARIS AGRICULTURAL SHOW.
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The Recovery of the European Manufacturer. Interesting Adaptations, But a Strange Lack of Gas-Producer Appliances.
THE sixth annual Salon de la Machine .Agricole was held in Paris last week. The Show was again staged in the vast and depressing collection of iron buildings erected at the Porte de Versailles and described as the Pare des Expositions, although many more suitable names could be found for it.
The motor section of the Show was somewhat larger this year than in 192(1, and it showed several encouraging features. The American con tingen I of motor-driven agricultural machines had dwindled to three or four stands only. A few years ago it was very strong indeed—almost overwhelming, in fact. European manufacturers appear to have decided that they can make agricultural machines as good as, or better than. anything which comes from the other side of the Atlantic, and, moreover, that they can sell their preductons at competitive prices.
AlLhoug-h nothing very much in the way of novelties was to be seen, the advance in the French industry as regards tractors, portable engines and mei or-driven agricultural ma
chines was very marked this year.
The grouping of the motor exhibits was much better than at previous shows held since the exhibition was banished from its original home in the Grand Palais. All the motor stands were housed in one building, and outside this building an enormous space of hare ground was reserved for practical demonstrations. Amongst special features noted were : the almost universal fitting of air filters on the engines of agri
cultural machines, tractors and even stationary farm engines ; a general improvement in finish, and some very clever designs in the case of certain small motor cultivators for special purposes.
A certain curiots and rather in' explicable feature of the Show was the lack of gas producers. Apart from three or four anthracite-using suction-gas machines for use with stationary farm engines, the gas-producer did not appear at all. Yet three years ago there were 10 makes exhibited. In view of the very real progress which has been made in France with gazogenes, one would certainly have expected to find gasdriven tractors in the Show.
The S.O.M.U.A. had a most interesting exhibit of small motor driven cultivating machines. Amongst them was a new type, the C.7, which has some good features. The engine, gearbox and transmission arrangements, including transmission to driving wheels and also to the cultivator wheels at the rear, are built up in unit form. The driving shaft from the engine passes straight through the top of the gearbox, where a worm and a worm wheel transmit the power through the gears to the driving axle, the latter being incorporated in the gearbox. The shaft continues on, without a break, from the rear of the gearbox to the bevel drive for the cultivator wheels. All this mechanism is completely enclosed in an aluminium casing which is cast in one with the power portion of the engine crankcase. High steel side-screens are fitted to the machines and brought together at front and rear, which protects the appliance when pushing through thick growth. An interesting adaptation of the Fordson tractor was shown under the name of the Fordson-Cavalier. This machine is intended for work In large vineyards. The power plant of the Fordson is mounted on high bridge-like axles which allow the tractor to straddle over a row of vines. Small ploughs or other implements are trailed behind the driving wheels.
Amongst tractor exhibits, England was worthily represented by the 'Austin Motor Co., Ltd. Six Austin tractors, arranged for field or road work, were staged. One machine had the gearbox and axle casing sectioned, an exhibit which attracted a good deal of interest. Renaults, as usual, showed a fine range of their flexible track and wheel-drive tractors.
A newcomer to the Show was the firm of Th. Schneider, of Besancon, a name usually associated with sporting cars. Th. Schneider exhibited a very fine 35 h.p. flexible-track machine termed the Siam. This tractor has a four-cylindered engine, 85 mm. by 140 ram., running at 1,800 r.p.m. One firm exhibited a number of small avant train tractors of the "motorhorse !' type for general farm purposes. These machines are remarkable for simplicity and for their extraordinary cheapness, the prices ranging from _7,000 to 9,300 francs. The power unit consists of a substantial single-cylindered air-cooled two-stroke engine developing about 10 h.p.
Doyen, of Brussels, again exhibited the Dubois Diesel-engined tractor which created so much interest at last year's Show. For field work the machine is used in two-wheeled form, but for road traction a simple form of front axle is fitted. The change can be made in .a few minutes.
American exhibitors included the Fordson, Case, Moline Plow and McCormick. Gigantic motor ploughs such as the Praza Excelsior and Delahaye products, which have been a feature of former shows, were absent this year. The Agra, a big general utility type of tractor suit
able for direct coupling to various implements, showed several refinements this year.
The interesting A.R.A. chain-track machine, hitherto associated with Delaunay-Belleville, was exhibited this year by Lorraine-Dietrich. The special feature of this tractor is an oscillating form of jockey carrier which gives greater flexibility to the tracks than does the ordinary type.
The stationary and portable farmengine section was, as usual, one of the largest in the Show. There were nearly 100 exhibitors in this section. Latils exhibited a full range of their fine tractors, including several examples of the new light type which was first seen at the recent Paris heavy vehicle show. On the whole, the motor section of the Salon de la Machine Agricole was distinctly better than in 1926, in spite of the fact that the high price of imported liquid fuels makes the use of the motor in agriculture rather difficult in France at the present time. It may be that suction gas will he used in this connection. .