Traction Engines and the Farm

Progress, Volume VIII, Issue 2, 1 October 1912, Page 79

Traction Engines and the Farm

There is no branch of industrial enterprise which is of more importance to a young country like New Zealand than that which deals with the application of the latest and most improved machinery to our primary industries. We have always prided ourselves on being in the van in this respect, and have demanded the best the manufacturers can turn out, and we have got it. Of course different conditions necessitate different plants, and the manufacturer who studies the conditions that obtain in the country where he desires to sell will always have an advantage over those who do not give the question the same consideration. The work required of a traction engine on a New Zealand farm is very varied, as a rule. There is the threshing to be done, the chaffcutter to drive, the wool or grain to cart to the station, and the ground to be broken up by the plough, to name a few of the more general uses to which an engine is put. This naturally means that to be suitable for all these classes of work, an engine must be very carefully planned, and the illustrations given on this page show that the well-known manufacturers, Messrs. John Fowler and Co. Ltd., of Leeds, are giving the question that consideration which it deserves. It is a somewhat difficult matter to design an engine which will not be too large for chaff-cut-ting, is economical and reliable while threshing, and which can stand the wear and tear of continuous haulage of large loads on the roads, but it has been done, and we tender our congratulations to the makers on the success which has attended their efforts.

Every driver knows the trouble he is put to when he gets on to soft ground, and the way these engines extricate themselves from difficulties under their own power has been an eye-opener to those who have not seen their capabilities. Fowler’s New Zealand agents, Messrs. William Wood and Co. Ltd., of Christchurch, inform us that they are now remodelling their types, embodying all the latest improvements in traction building. So the march of progress goes on, and the producer on the land in New Zealand gets the benefit of the technical skill and ability of the Home engineer. A point which is becoming of increasing importance is the consumption of coal and oil, and this has received special consideration, with the result that these engines now work on a very low scale indeed.

done in New Zealand during the past thirty-five years, and the latest models show that there is to be no departure from the high standard of former years.*

The order of affairs has somewhat changed of late. A few years ago it was quite a common occurrence to see a motor car being towed home by a horse,, but during the recent rough winter when the roads in Southland were badly cut up, the N.Z.

Express Co. found their Argyll motor lorry a useful adjunct to their plant. Whenever one of their horse teams got bogged they sent out the lorry with sufficient wire rope and pulled it out. The lorry has never yet failed to perform its duty.