Pioneer Tractors And Plough On Display

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28534, 13 March 1958, Page 11

Pioneer Tractors And Plough On Display

Alongside the new machines which will be going through their paces at Hoon Hay this weekend will be a plough believed to have been built in Canterbury more than 100 years ago and tractors built more than 30 years ago.

The weather-beaten, two-furrow horse-drawn plough is thought to have been built in 1856 by an early Canterbury blacksmith.

Among the tractors on display will be a Peterbro which came out in 1922. This big heavy machine on steel wheels was built by Peter Bros., makers of naval turbines in World War I, who built the early British tanks used in that conflict. The tractor was powered by an engine of the same design as that used in the early tanks. The English firm switched from tank to tractor production, but soon gave up tractor manufacture. This early machine has been in use at a soap works at Sockburn up till about four years ago. At Hoon Hay there will also be an early model Fordson built in Cork in Ireland, and dating back to 1922 or 1923. An unusual machine, which will also be on view, is a Massey-Harris general purpose four-wheel drive tractor, which is 24 years old. It was designed for agricultural and industrial use under difficult conditions. The agricultural tractor was driven by four 38-inch

diameter steel wheels, and the rubber-tyred model by four wheels fitted with 11.50 by 24inch tyres. The gearing mechanism incorporated two differentials for the front and rear drive wheel. Equal weight distribution applied balanced traction to each wheel irrespective of the contour of the ground because the rear axle could oscillate through a torque tube independent of the front of the machine. This tractoi was used extensively in the icy conditions of north-west Canada for hauling lumber from the forests.

One of the original Ferguson tractors to come to New Zealand in 1934 will also be on display. It is still working at Halswell.

Use for Old School.— The old Gapes Valley school in South Canterbury is now being used as a fertiliser and tractor shed on a farm at Beautiful Valley, about 16 miles from Geraldine.