THE NEED OF TRACTORS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3430, 9 December 1919, Page 10

THE NEED OF TRACTORS.

Why ' v we need tractors may be summed 1 up in a few words —because production is getting less. Something is reqenred to turn the tide of the " go slow " policy on arable lands. Readers will not be surprised to learn that the estimated wheat area in the Dominion compared with last season shows a decrease of some 67,000 acres, and of oats a decrease of some 77,000 acres—that is, we may anticipate, approaching some two million bushels less of wheat and two. and a-half million bushels less respectively than last year, providing crops thrash out up to last season's very fair yields. The foregoing figures are based on a recent statement issued by the Government Statistician under date November 6, 1919, which appeared in a recent Journal of Agriculture. Something drastic is evidently necessary if production is to make any headway. The farmer who will not consider a motor tractor because "she does not have a foal" will find, if we can credit the standard makers, that the machine has qualities more valuable than foal-bearing capacities. In endeavouring to summarise the arguments advanced, we imagine that some of them will be taken cum grano salis, but, taken with anything, good should result. It will be granted that 'doing work on the farm at the right time is/ of the greatest importance. With a tractor a farmer can not only plough deeper if desired, but he can wait till conditions are most favourable, and then rush the work through faster, because he has greater capacity. There is always a comparatively short period when conditions are most favourable for the preparation of soil, crop-planting, and harvesting. _ It is desu-able to carry out these operations in the shortest time possible. Any farmer cultivating more tillable land than he can handle himself with one team might find a tractor a profitable investment, as the tractor's utility increases with the acreage? providing, of course, that the lay of the land is such that a tractor can work to advantage. The prime purpose of the purchase of a tractor by a farmer is an economic proposition. It will save manpower, reduce the drudgerv of farm work, reduce the number of horses on the farm by the saving of animal-power (the tractor eats only while it works) by working long hours, ploughing may be finished when ground conditions are the best, and harvesting may be done before the grains become over-ripened. One of the strongest reasons why a farmer should buy a tractor is that tractors help in increasing production. At the height of the season, when tlie weather is too hot to get such work out of horses, the tractor will go right along tilling deeper, faster, and better, as horses lack the ability to meet the demand for power during rush seasons. Then one must not forget that the farmer has at his command an ideal belt-power suited for almost any sort of work. One other argument which might be advanced is that farming is made more attractive, and thus young men are kept on the farm because of the interest that is aroused by the use of up-to-date machinery.