Huge Waste in Tractor . Operation T HE second conference on mechanized
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farming opened at Rhodes House, Oxford, on Tuesday, under the joint auspices of the School of Rural Economy, the Agricultural Research Institute, and the Institute for Research in Agricultural Engineering. After the opening address by Mr. C. S. Orwin a joint paper on "Tractor Performance In Theory and Practice," by Mr. S. J. Wright and Mr. E. B. Black, of the Institute for Research in Agricultural Engi
neering, was read. • Whatever lines mechanization may follow in individual cases, said the authors, the essential first step is the replacement, partial or complete, of horses by 'tractors. Tractors, by greatly increasing the output per Man in all, kinds of operation throughout. the farming year, Can effect bigger savings than any other single change in equipment or pro:c.edure. The authors -indicated that,. to justify itself properly, a tractor should do twice the work of horses.
The whole of the farmer's: potential savings, they continued, are dependent upon economical loading and efficient maintenance. Modern tractors are built to give, with regard to both points, a standard and highly satisfactory performance; but Whether this performance is achieved in practice or not, will depend entirely on whether tractor management is good or bad.
Wide Differences in Tractor Life.
It must be obvious to anyone who has ever considered the matter that the useful life of tractors varies enormously in practice. One machine is still running after eight or ten years, during which no serious replacements have been required; another of the same make may need a major overhaul after one or two years: There is no difference in manufacture; in fact, anyone who buys a standard tractor can rest assured that he has as soundly built a machine as can be secured for the price. All similar models ought, therefore, to have about the same • working life. This discrepancy in the useful life of a tractor • is due to avoidable wear brought about largely by oil dilution.
Most repairs have to be made to the engine. itself. This engine trouble. is not due to actual lack of oil, but to the use of poor lubricants. . Moreover, fuel supplied to the engine, which is not completely vaporized and burned, remains in the cylinder in liquid form, afterwards seeping down and diluting the oil in the crankcase.
Quite naturally this dilution Will be more serious when paraffin, and not petrol, is the fuel. The primary cause, therefore, of rapid engine wear and heavy tractor depreciation is incomplete combustion of paraffin, and the only real remedy is to take all possible steps to perfect combustion. It is impossible completely. to avoid dilution. Even when all the instructions. to use good-quality oil .and to change it frequently have been .carried out, dilution still goes' on if
there be bad vaporization. .
The obvious first requirement is to have an efficient vaporizer. Standard grades of paraffin, which the vaporizers are made to use, should be employed, and not cheap fuel or lamp oil.
Paraffin Engines that Run Too Cold.
The authors stressed an important point which farmers often do not realize—the difference between the petrol carburetter and the paraffin vaporizer. With the paraffin vaporizer the exhaust gases are circulated around the fuel intake, so that the incoming fuel is warmed up.
The trouble . is that only too frequently in practice the paraffin is not warmed sufficiently, because the engine is run too cold—and this, above everything else, is the primary
cause of dilution. Practically every tractor engine runs colder than it should. The temperature ought always to be kept so that the water in the radiator is as near boiling. point as possible.
The 'engine of a fully loaded tractor runs with a higher temperature, thus preventing, or minimizing, dilution and wear. The moral is: load your tractors as fully as possible, e20 and, if light work involving much starting and stopping must be done, run on petrol".
Other. avoidable Causes of heavy dilution are: trying to save petrol when starting; and having an unprotected inlet manifold. Tractors should be run for a quarter of an hour before being changed over from petrol to paraffin and should be changed back to petrol before stopping. When there is spitting from the vaporizer or exhaust, there is clear indication of the engine not being hot enough to burn paraffin and that dilution is taking place. •
The paper concluded with the striking statement:" There are something like 40,000 tractor users in the country and they are probably wasting £2,000,000 a year between them." " The remaining papers of the day were devoted to problems of row-crop cultivation, and concerned principally tillage equipment.
Agrimotors Increase Beet Output.
Mr. W. Newcombe-Baker, of King's Lynn, dealing with row-crop work in connection with sugar-beet growing, said that from his point of view he favoured using tractors, even if they cost more, as he was certain 'that 'a larger tonnage could be grown with their aid. His costs, too, compared favourably with those of other commonly employed forms of row-crop cultivation.
Hoeing 30 acres by means of power cost Is. 3d. per acre, against 2s. per acre for eight acres with horses. Power lifting cost 5s. 5d.. per acre for five acres per day, against 8s. per acre for two acres per day by horses. In each case the comparisons embrace an 8-hour day. .
In the same connection, Mr. P. W. -Rockdale; of West Walton, Wishech, dealt with potatoes. It was some time, he said, before he could obtain a suitable outfit, but he had now succeeded with a Case tractor and an outfit by Ransomes. The main reason why Mr. Rockcliffe prefers mechanization, so far as it is possible with this crop, is because of the speed with which he can carry out the various operations.
Mr, D. R. Bomford dealt with the subject from the point of view of eliminating hand labour in the cultivation of such crops as strawberries, brussels sprouts, spring cabbage and potatoes, in which the mechanical planter is involved.
Difficulty in Tractor Selection.
In his attempt in this direction, the difficulty is encountered of finding a tractor that can be geared down to travel at 4 m.p.h. This is the speed required for the semi-mechanical planter, which he thinks is the more suitable, and for the mechanical hoe.
Wednesday's programme of papers was devoted to technical and scientific matters -of a purely agricultural nature, relating to cultivation and fertility. Attempts were made to show that there is room for economy on the part of the practical farmer in both directions.
On Thursday, grass drying was dealt with in some halfdozen or so papers.
Much of the matter was of a technical nature concerned with the different methods of drying. Cutting the grass crop two or three times a year when young and drying it artificially, instead of leaving it for gathering once a year in summer after curing it in the open fields with all the risk' of bad weather, is a comparative innovation and is one that could not be put into practice but for the introduction of modern power, particularly in the form of the agricultural tractor.