MOTOR TRACTION.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 14339, 26 April 1912, Page 3

MOTOR TRACTION.

The views eeen in American and colonial farm papers of a traction engine pulling twenty to thirty ploughs and turning over as many acres petday, and the same stylo of work in seeding, harvesting, threshing, etc., have done much to show the farmers of older countries how far they are behind in the matter of up-to-date farm appliances. The cost of working on this system is admittedly cheaper than if the work was done with horses, but the reason why it is not attempted in the United Kingdom is because the fiolds are too small. It is possible to do things in the paddock a mile square which Avould be impossible in a ten-acre field. Tho British farmers have been progressing, however, and arc adapting "motor" power to .ordinary farm work more and more as ; :time goes on. The Royal Agricultural Society of England .recently held a trial of •''moio^s,''.and. the JLrst prizo k was awarded-to a steam traction engine,' thus emphasising the fact that they have not' yet exhausted the possibilities of steam as well as oil or petrol; and further, that they are mor© and more developing small handy powers, which can take the place of horses «>n ordinary farms, against the use of motive power of any kind (points out tho "North British Agriculturist."); There are, of course, several items of groat expense to be reckoned with. Ther© is, for instance, the depreciation in the value, which will be very great in most cases,-and which is probably not fully allowed for in the «ost of such work that we see sometimes quoted. ' Or. the other hand, a young horse "grows into money," i.e., increases in value for several years, and even after he attains maturity, at cay ten years old, he may decrease, very littl« in value for several years afterwards. Then, again, there nre- a score of jobs about a farm requiring one or two horses to do them, which 'oonld not. conveniently be dono by a ten horse-power motor of any kind, and for which some horses must still bo kept. Making allowance for all these thingvS, however, the fact veliiains that the motor has como to stay. An eight or ton hewse-power traction engine is a very clumsy and unhandy thing for field workj but there are a crowd of oil and petrol "tractors" now on the market to choose from (says th«» paper from which this is quoted}, and most *>f them comparatively handy and convenient: and if the really useful allround farm motor has not ret arrived, it is most certainly coming. Horse power will never be completely dispossessed, and horses n»>ver wen; more valuable than now; but, us above illustrated, tho use of tbe.-ie othev motive powers r-nnblos work to be dono of a quality, and at n time for which horses nre. quite incompetent. It is probable that mechanical power will be most conveniently usod for the hravy work of the farnv—deep ploughing, " su!>soiiin~. onltivatin;: when the land is too dry riiul "hard lor horses, long distance carting:; ami jo on. leaving tho lighter and _ smaller .jobs for the horses. These things arc in tho future, of course, but at tl.i? rate we are goinij it is a future nut very tar ahead.