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AOIMOTOR NOTES.

27th February 1919
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Page 18, 27th February 1919 — AOIMOTOR NOTES.
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The Ivel-Hart Tractor. The Agrimotor's Many Uses. American Statistics.

The Ivel-Hart machine, a three-plough equipment propelled by a 30 h.p. engine, is being offered to intending users of tractors by Ivel Agricultural Motors, Ltd. Paraffin is the fuel for which the power unit has been designed, and in order that satisfactory operation may be effected, and adequate provision. made for slow running under conditions of no load, there has been adopted a system whereby, when the throttle is closed, the mixture from the carburetter is diverted along a shunt pipe into a heating chamber incorporated in the exhaust manifold. Exhaust gases passing around this heating chamber serve to effect a sufficient degree of vaporization to enable the engine to continue running at very light loads. It is claimed that this device functions quite satisfac, torily and gives clean, smooth running. A horizontal; twin-cylinder construction is adopted for the engine, which has a bore and stroke of 64 ins. and 7 ins. respectively ; the power of 30 b.h.p. is developed at 750 r.p.m. As is necessary in all engines where the revolution speed is very high compared with the vehicle speed, a liberal cooling system has to be. provided; the efficiency of this is further increased by a shaft-driven fan running at 2400 r.p.m., the fan shaft being mounted on self-aligning ball bearings.

Automobile-type steering has been provided, of which a good idea may be gained from our illustration. Two speeds forward give two miles an hour in low gear and three miles an hour in high gear: there is also a reverse speed. The final drive has an internal gear belted securely tothe rim of the driving wheels. So that the. ma, chine. may be used as a stationary power plant., it is fitted with a belt pulley 14 ins, diameter and 8 ins. face.

Using the Agrimotor all Through the Year.

In this country, hitherto, we have been accustomed to write and speak and think of the tractor in relation to its ploughing work almost exclusively and the British farmer has yet, as a broad proposition, to realize its usefulness in what our Yankee friends call the "barn." In other words, the value of the tractor as a portable power plant is very often overlooked here, whereas, in the States, belt work forms quite as important a part of the work as ploughing. One reason for this is, probably, because, just for the reason of the lac'c of available. power, few farms have machines capable of power operation. Chaff-cutters, root-cutters, winnowing machines and such like are, more often than not, hand operated outfits, and naturally of a very small and inefficient character. Where this is not the case. the old one or two horse " merry-go-round " type of power plant, or an old wheezy steam engine, or (this more recently) a 2,11,p. or 3 h.p. oil engine;. is installed. There is no large machinery on the farm. The silo tower with its attendant cutter, requiring a fair amount of power:to' oPerate, is unknown and not one farmer in a hundred owns his own threshing machine,for the very good -reason that this *plant, as he has hitherto known it, is large and expensive, requiring not only the thresher, but a steam traction engine as well, and no such things as small thre.shers have been offered to him. In America, where the light tractor has been an established feature of the farm now for many years, large numbers of small-capacity threshers are used. The needed power being available, they become a practical purchase and, just as the farmer who depends on contract work to get his ploughing done is at a disadvantage because the outfit may be engaged on some other farm when the weather conditions are at their best, so the farmer who has not his own threshing plant is at a disadvantage in the very important point of "catching his market.", His neighbour has beapoken the plant first and is thus able to market his produce when prices are at their best, whilst he is waiting his turn with the machine. With his tractor available and one of these small separators —as they are called in the States-6n hand, he is independent of the contractor man and can do his work with his own staff when the weather is good and when the market conditions are the most favourable. So far, I believe, none of these small capacity threshers —say with 20 in. or 26 in. cylinders—are offered by any English producer, and, at present ocean freight rates, the cost of their importation is prohibitive. It is to be honed that such machines will be available in the not too distant future, as their use undoubtedly sasyes a lot of grain as, if it is left too long in the sack, it dries out and is wasted.

All-round Usefulness Benefits the Trader.

From the point of view of the tractor manufacturer, importer and agent, there is another aspect of this question of the wider utilization of the tractor; and that is that the more this idea. of all-round usefulness is studied, developed and rubbed in, the more can the tractor be brought into the category of all-the-yearround business. With everyone concentrating on work with the plough and plough work only, the farmer is apt to look upon a tractor as useful only for that -purpose, with, perhaps, pulling a cultivator thrown with the result that we get two fairly lengthy "dead" sea-sons for tractor business in the year. Ploughing begins in February for the spring sowing, and by the time April comes we have seen the end of it, and from then until August few farmers will look at a tractor or talk, or even think about it, whilst when the autumn work is over in November there is another period of stagnation.

Farmers—and they are not singulardo not see why they should spend a lot of money on a new possession before they want it, and so, for all these many intermediate months of the year, the tricker demonstrators and sales staffs are more or less "eating their heads off" at home or spending money in

useless travelling expenses in the effort to work up interest preparatory to the buying season. The more this period of comparative uselessness can be eliminated, the more will the agents' selling costs be reduced and, as a consequence, the cheaper will tractors be able to be sold, so that it is to everyone's interests that this should be the case, and this will come about when it is clearly shown to the agriculturist that, although a tractor may have a greater degree of usefulness at certain periods of the year than at others, he can find plenty of useful work for one to do right away, at any time of the year at which he takes delivery, the more readily will sales be made.

American Statistics of Tractor Production.

The statistics which were compiled by the United States Government in connection with its Food Control Act, and relating to-the production and manufacture of agricultural tractors are of particular interest. They indicate the enormous impetus which that industry has received, mainly, no doubt, as the result of war conditions and food shortage. In 116, the output of tractors was rather under 30,000. In 1917, that production was doubled ; but the production of 1917 was equalled durine-° the first half of 1918, and it is estimated that, for the whole year' the output would be over 120,000 tractors and this, too, notwithstanding the fact that materials and parts for agrimotors were actually placed on a Class 13 grading as regards priority during 1918. It is anticipated by our contemporary Automotive Industries that many concerns whose plant.has been increased during the war out of all proportion to their normal needs will, when considering-possible outlets for their energy, look with a favourable eye on this section of industry, apparently so full of vitality and promise. Statistics rather seem to show that, in

America, as in this country, the two-ploughand three-plough machines are likely to have the widest sale.

Somehow, when thinking of -American farming and farms, one naturally conjures up visions of huge gtretches of country, all more or less under cultivation, and one thinks of the American farmer rather as talking in thousands of acres where the Britisher would be considering hundreds. This impression is quite an erroneous one. Of 6,360,000 farms in the States, more than half—in round figures 3,650,000-are less than 100 acres in extent. Of those which exceed 1000 acres there are only 50,000. This largely accounts for the slow progress hitherto made by the tractor in that land of machinery. Few tractors were small enough to be operated with advantage on farms of the size which are popular, and the rapid and almost phenomenal increase in tractor production is duo almost entirely to the advent of the small compact tractor such as, for example, the Moline, Mogul, Titan Wallis, and so on. The production of such types' has extended the use of the tractor into the small farm, and its market into practicallyall the States. New 'York,. for example, is particularly partial to the farm of small dimensions, and it is in that State that there has been a large sale of tractors during the past two years. They have been successfully used on farms as small as 50 acres in extent. The small farmer finds that with a tractor he can eliminate most of his hired help, and, in _particular, he can do with a tractor all that work which otherwise calls for heavy physical effort. Up to 1916, the number of farm tractors in use, represented approximately one-third of one-per cent. of the total number of farms. At the close of 1918 this number had increased to something over one per cent. It will be obvious, therefore, from perusal of these figures, that there is ample scope for the disposal of the American tractor makers' wares in their own country.

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Organisations: United States Government
Locations: York

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