Agrimotors in Gloucestershire.
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Overtime and Avery Motor Ploughs on the Cotswolds.
We had occasion to remark in the last issue of THE 0931MERCIAL MOTOR, with reference to agrimotor demonstrations, that " demonstrations an serve no further purpose than to show the capability of the machine when new."
The only way by whialasa farsoejs. can properly appreciate the powers of an agrnuetor is to witness it at work when its owner has become thoroughly accustomed to it, and to see the work done by it 'after such work has been organized. With this view in •Mind, therefore, of utility to the farmer, we are making a point of studying agrimotor work accomplished in various parts of the country, by different types cif machines under the charge of men who have overcome the preliminary difficulties and are now working the agrimotors under their charge up to their fullest capacity.
Supervisors at Variance.
The Government-supervised work affords a good field for such observation, and throws a strong limelight on agrimotor work, inasmuch as it is dependant to such a large extent on the person under whose charge the agrimotors are placed. We have had some insight into the mannerin which supervision is organized, and perhaps we need hardly say that the difficulties of turning out good work in the least possible time are almost insurmountable when supervision is placed in the hands of people with no actual knowledge of ' motor ploughing, and, also when that supervision is divided. We have the agent in conflict with the supervisory committee, and the committee at loggerheads with the farmers, the farmers prejudiced beforehand, but begging for agrimotors when the wOrk done by them is seen, and so disorganizing the allotment of work that has been made ; generally speaking, the agrimotor has te plough its way to recognition through a bog of disorganization more difficultthan the stoniest sward.
This state of affairs is, perhaps, only natural in all preliminary work, especially under . existing conditions, but due commendation should be given to those who successfully steer the agrimotors to uniform successful results. •
The charge of five agrimotorstwo Overtimes, two Averys, and a Peoria—working according to the Government plan, in the Cotswolds, has been placed in the hands of II. ' E. Steel, Ltd., the wellknown West of England company of automobile engineers, coachbuildess and electricians, of Chel 036 tenhain and Strood, Gloucestershire. Mr. Steel and his manager Mr. F. W. Corbett, have now had about 18 months' experience of agrimotors, and are in consequence excellently fitted for thia supervision work. Their difficulties were
:.,e4rony at the outset, but now it is easy to see. by the results obtained, that they have put the agrimotor under an effective and efficient organization. Some of these difficulties will be mentioned later ; but a big one is the considerable distance apart of the areas whereon the tractors are working. To visit these is a day's work, and although we were out from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m., we were only able to see three of the five tractors working. The trip, however, gave us an excellent chance to see the nature of the beautiful hill and dale country of the Cotswolds, and.to comprehend fully the difficulties of tractor work in this part of England. We could have had no finer day to view these umbrageous valleys and picturesque downs, and the rich nature of the soil could be gathered from the variety of the cultivation. On these hills, arable land, pasture land, and woodland meet, and nowhere can this be better seen than from the field situated on one of the highest hills of the West Downs, whereon we ea-w the Overtime tractor working. Here can be seen Cheltenham nestling in the valley, and thence came the tractor by steep hills and hairpin routes, by narrow serpentine lanes to plough up the sward, untouched for 20 years, near by the ruins of an old Roman Encampment.
The Overtime Tractor.
The Qvertime tractor is a neat, simply-constructed machine, 39 cwt. in weight, of 12 hop. at the drawbar. It is claimed that it burns paraffin without dirt or smoke, and the tractor we saw in action gave evidence of clean and economical running. A. special arrangement is built into the motor with water connection, for producing a perfect combustion. The clutch and brake are operated by foot pedals, and the gear shift by lever. The transmission is through simple automobile type sliding gears, with shifts for one speed forward, about 2.i miles per hour, and one reverse, the gear being in mesh only when travelling, and not at all when doing belt work. A speed of about 3 miles per hour can be had by using a special bull pinion. The drawbar is of the swinging type, and permits of easy turning on soft ground. The overall chassis height is 5 ft. 3 ins., width 6 ft., and length 11 ft. 11 ins., the wheelbase bein 7 ft. 6 ins., and the size of the rear wheels 52 Ms. dia. by 10 ins. wide.
The Tractor Engine.
The engine has twin cylinders placed side by side, en bloc, and water-jacketted. The bore is 6 ins. and' stroke 7 ins,' the speed of the engine being 400 to 750 revolutions per minute. The manifold is specially adapted for paraffin use, the intake and exhaust being in one piece, without pipes or joints. The engine is lubricated by the force pump system, self-contained, and automatic. The radiator is of tho honeycomb type, and there is, in addition, a large centrifugal pump and a belt-driven fan.
The Overtime on the Cotswolds, which had been working for 10 days on the Western Downs, was pulling a 14-in. four-furrow Cockshutt plough, but, as can be seen from the accompanying illustration (Fig. 1), one of the blades had been broken by the extremely hard and stony soil. Nevertheless, the sward was beautifully turned over, the blades cutting to a depthof from 4 ins. to 5 ins., in a mixture of sandy and clay soil, thickly covered by very tough grass and sandwort, the ground being prepared for oats. As can be seen from Fig. 2, the right-hand wheel of the tractor runs in the last out furrow, but leaves scarcely any imprint, the weight of the tractor being well distributed. Two men were in charge, one driving the tractor, the other guiding the plough, which, for good, clean work, needs very careful attention.
Down in the hollow between the downs could be seen ,a large extent of ploughed land ;• this NV ag the work of the same tractor, this soil not having been turned over for seven years, and some idea of the difficulties that had to be overcome in driving the tractor from field to field can be gathered from the view of this particular spot in the illustration on page 314. This piece cf land was being cross-ploughed by horses on the day of our visit, the soil being easily workable after the preliminary work of the agrimotor.
A Sixteen-hour Day.
It was only by careful organization and attention to detail that such difficulties had been overcome. The tractor, with the exception of a half-hour between shifts, was never idle. The first shifts of two men came on at 6 a.m. and went off at 2 p.m., the second shift continuing on till 10 p.m., each cleaning, adjusting and lubricating the tractor before leaving. This procedure had been continued regularly for six or seven weeks, and the tractor
had, aCcording to Mr. Corbett, worked perfectly, without any engine troubles, the only accident being the breakage of two driving pinions and one forward pinion. .
Although the men were, as a rule, totally untrained, nevertheless, owing to the careful instructions and constant supervision of Mr. Steel and. Mr. Ger ett, they soon became accustomed to the work, and, indeed, became heartily interested in it,a spirit of 'friendly rivalry being noticeable between the men of each shift. Those doing the ploughing when we were there were a, soldier and a butler, and they were doing their work exceedingly well. The clean way in which the soil was turned over can be seen from Fig. 1.
2:2 Gallons per Acre.
Five to six acres per day were ploughed by this Overtime, when working for 16 hours, on an average .fuel consumption of 21 gallons per acre; paraffin being used, with a little petrol for starting up.
TO move the tractor from the valley below to this topmost peak needed very careful manipulation, as it was right across country, but it was done without mishap. Once at its destination, as we. have stated, the work was continuous, and only rebently night work has . been discontinued.
When riot in use, the tractor was simply left in the field, -with all sensitive parts carefully covered, but:otherwise in the open.
The great secret behind all motor ploughing is a scientific markingout of the ground to be ploughed, so that there is a minimum of time passed with ploughshares lifted,. and a maximum extent of ground covered. The person in charge should not adopt. a hard-and-fast rule of ploughing ; he must study his ground first, and geometrically work out the best way of ploughing it up, with due eon.sideration of his tractor's size and turning capabilities.
Fields Geometrically Marked-out.
This preliminary marking-up had been admirably done under the instructions of Mr. Steel and Mr. eVrIfett in those instances which came under our observation. We were fortunate enough to see a small Avery tractor finishing up one of those eccentrically-shaped fields which appear to defy geometric laws.
This was on a summit of the hills situated the other side of Cheltenham. Driving "back to the town from the Western Downs, we brought with us the two men forming the first shift—having taken out the relief shift with us—and proceeded through another stretch of beautiful country to where the 16 h.p. Avery tractor was working.
The small strip of land which was the only piece still to be ploughed, was of such irregular conformation that about six or seven sharp angles had to be turned in order that no grourid should be left unploughed. Some idea of the shape can be gathered from the illustration', Fig. 4, and the way the small Avery tractor tackled it was a sight to see. The steersman was a soldier, and he worked hard and well, the only drawback being that he was smothered with dirt from the exhaust, which was unusually copious, this defect being 'somewhat of a, drawback to the tractor, although it could doubtless be easily mines died by fixing a piece of gauze across the exhauat outlet,
Small Avery Useful, on Irregularly . shaped Fields.
The 16 'h.p. Avery is well adapted for work on irregularly-shaped ground, as its flexibility and lightness are both distinguishing points. As can be seen from Fig. 3, the tractor, was able to-draw the plough right up against the hedge. The tractor's exterior width is 56 ins., length 130 ins., and height 53 ins. A four-wheeled tractor, like the Overtime, its front wheels measure 21 ins, diameter by 6 ins, width across the face, and rear wheels 50 ins, diameter by inns. width. special extensions giVing an addia tional face width of 6 ins: if desired. The weight is 4975 lb., and the tractor has h. speed of 3 miles per hour on high gear and 2 miles per hour on low gear. It is driven by a twoCy-linder motor, the cylinders being 5i ins, bore and 6 ins, stroke, and speed 500 to 600 revolutions per minute: The capacity of the paraffin fuel tank is 12 gallons, and that of the petrol tank 2 gallons.
In company with the other Avery paraffin tractors, the cooling is by thermo-syphon, with a radiator of the cellular type and fan. A pulley. , is provided on the cross-shaft for belt work.
High Fuel Consumption.
This tractor is capable of pulling a three-furrow plough,, and doing other field, belt and road work. The plough in use on the Cotswolds was a three-furrow Cockshutt, of about
860 weight. It had been work,ing for a month, during which period the only serious trouble had been the sniashingof the reverse pinions. We were shown an adjacent piece of land of about 14 acres, all of which had been ploughed up by the Avery. The paraffin consumption of the tractor was large, . being about 7 gallons per acre, and the stream from the exhaust showed a considerable wastage. The same method of working by shifts was adopted in this case. The capabilities of the Cockshutt plough were well displayed on this ground; there was not a single stop-page of the work whilst we were there, and every square node of the ground was being turned 'over.
The next tractor we visited was the 25 h.p. Avery, which has been fully described in the issue of THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR dated 12th April last. This had only just begun operations, but the ground th be ploughed, of considerable extent, at Snow's Farm, Stroud, had been carefully marked out by horse plough, and all was ready for tractor work. The marking-out lines can be clearly seen in Fig. 6.
The tractor was pulling a Robert's four-furrow plough, which appeared to be of strong design, and capable of heavy work: The driver informed us that he calculated to use 10 gallons. of petrol for 3 acres, and that this machine was more economical than the smaller Avery. The work
here was done in one long period from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Our chief impression after witnessing the work accomplished by these three tractors was that organization and agrimotors are bosom friends. Machinery can always be kept constantly at work, and the more it does, the more it becomes accustomed to the work. The supervision of these agrimotors is not an easy job, and needs hard and careful preparatog work. This labour is, however, well repaid by the admirable results obtained ; it is a pleasure to aee motor plough
ing done on systematic lines. Bat, on the other hand, the supervising agents are frequently handicapped by a lack of organized method on the part of the supervising committees, and the occasional dictatorial attitude of the presiding farmer.
Elastic Organization Most Necessary.
Their organization is not elastic enough. They allot tractors to certain work in districts that may be miles apart, yet each needs constant expert inspection when fifth charge of untrained hands. This necessitates the ,devotion of an undue proportion Of time by supervising agents to suCh work, for which they are not at all adequately paid, or even provided with sufficient petrol. All accounts have to be strictly kept in connection with tractors by the Government-appointed agents, and these have to. be regularly submitted to the presiding committee. Another great difficulty of the agent is the serious depletion of his staff occasioned by War Office requirements.
In some cases, the right agents have not been appointed, lent dur406°Itite5iir vt to Cheltenham we saw excellent work done and progress made under considerable difficulties ; it is a pity that such work should not be 'better supported and strengthened.