POWER FARMING.

Wairarapa Age, 11 March 1930, Page 5

POWER FARMING.

AN INTERESTING LECTURE. An interesing address on some practical aspects of power farming was delivered in the St. -Matthew’s Pariah Hall last evening by Mr. W. K. Macmillan, a representative of the Shell Company. As showing that the tractor was coming into its own as an aid to farming, Mr. Macmillan mentioned that to-day there were 29,000 tractors in use in Australia as compared with 12,000 in 1926. In New Zealand, there were 412 tractors in use in law, and this number had now increased to approximately 4,000. Taking everything into consideration, the tractor had proved infinitely more economical than horse traction, but in order to obtain the best results it was essential that the tractor should be well looked after. A neglected tractor could not do as much work as one properly looked after and probably would cost twice as much to run. Mr. Macmillan dealt at some length with troubles of crank-case dilution and with methods of obviating them or reducing them to a minimum. One mistake often made was that of 1 running the engine toot cool. At the outset there was apt to be too much haste in changing from the motor spirit with which the engine was started to kerosene. Very few tractors were ready to use kerosene in less than seven or eight minutes' running. The tractor should be run at a temperature of at least 180 degrees Fahrenheit and an even higher temperature, so long as it was short of boiling point, was desirable. The use of a shutter or blind (preferably a roller blind) in front of the radiator was recommended as a means of keeping up the temperature. Blinds were used with advantage in Australia and might be used with still greater advantage in this more temperate climate. Running tractors cool was a certain way of doing them harm Difficulties and troubles arofte from lubricating tractors with too heavy an oil. Suitable oils of a fairly light type were to be obtained. Where there were complaints about dirty oil the trouble sometimes was that the tractor was dirty and needed decarbonising. Although motor spirit was needed to start the tractor, it was a mistake to run solely on second-grade motor spirit in place of kerosene. The tractor engine, built to run at about 1,200 revolutions per minute as compared with a speed of 3,000 revolutions in the case of the car engine, would give maximum power running on kerosene. Another very important point was to use the right type of grips on the wheels. As much as 12 to 15 per cent, of the power might be lost by using grips of the wrong type. At the conclusion of his address, Mr Macmillan screened a film giving clear and excellent views of the transport, storage, packing etc. of fuel and other oils at the Shell Company’s plant at Miramar.

The address and the screening of the film will be repeated at the Oddfellows’ Hall, Featherston, on Friday next at 7.30 p.m.