The Harvester World: Volume 5, number 10, October 1914

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HflRUESTER U/ORLD
For permanent culture deeper plowing is needed — and the farm world is power-short now. In the past ten years horses have increased nearly fifty per cent, in numbers and the price has increased over 1(K) per cent. Deep plowing of any considerable area with horses is
^riremely hard work on the horses, with resultant collar
^Jes, galls, fagged-out animals, etc.
A horse cannot pull more than fifteen miles per day on an average, but a team must walk sixteen miles to plow two acres. The traction engine will drag a gang of two to twelve fourteen-inch plows two to two and one-half miles per hour and will keep it up all day without stopping to rest at the end of the furrow.
COMPARISON
The life of a horse is figured about 10,000 working hofirs, but his maintenance is several times that. The horse force must be kept 9,000 hours for every 1,000 hours of full service. One acre out of five under culti¬ vation is required to produce the food for horses that supply the power to work the rest, a food product valued at $1,250,000,000 per annum, or the total income of 2,000,000 families (Putnam). The traction engine consumes nothing that could be made into food for the human family in any more direct way than through the tractor. The traction engine can he worked to its full capacity every day in the year if there is work for it to do, without regard to excessive heat, flies or continuous hours.
be used for road hauling, pulling a couple of mowing machines, cutting and grinding feed, pumping irriga¬ tion water, sawing wood, running the washing machine and several kindred uses. These machines can be obtained in both the round-wheel type and the endless- belt type.
AN INTERMEDIATE TRACTOR
In the intermediate tractors we have from eight to fifteen horse drawbar pull. This tyi)e of tractor fulfills the field between the very small farmer and the very large one. It can be used for cultivation of orchards and vineyards; frequently can pull as many as an eight-disk gang plow, harrowing, seeding; can be used for fairly heavy road hauling, ensilage cutting, irriga¬ tion pumping, wood sawing, stretching fence, threshing and all such operations.
TYPE OF WORK DETERMINES SELECTION
In the  large  tractors the  sizes vary frofu twenty to forty horses displaced in agricultural work.    The brake horse power of these ma¬ chines vary from SO to
"30-60 Mogul hauling 14,000 feet of green lumber in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Wagons are 3>^-in. Webcrs." —W. L. Dempsey, general salesman, Boston.
A gas tractor not only effects a striking economy, but it multiplies the efficiency of every piece of machinery or implement on the farm not operated by human power. No agriculturist, worthy the name, will deny that the self-binder is a great invention, as are also the mowing machine, the disk and tooth harrow orthe gang plow. The development of modern farming is due to all of these implements, yet each is limited in useful¬ ness by the cost of the power required to operate it. Any of these implements attached to the powerful, quickly-moving and economically-operated gas tractor have a greatly-increased value over that possessed when only the more expensive and slower-moving horse traction is available.
W^ ENGINES FOR EVERY AGRICULTURAL OPERATION On the market there are traction engines for almost every agricultural operation. There are exceedingly small tractors of four to six-horse drawbar pull for orchard, vineyard and berry-patch work. These are of very compact design and can be driven close to and under trees, where one could not drive a horse for fear of the injury he would do.    These  small tractors can
100-horse power. Upon the type of work to be per¬ formed depends the selection of the power of the tractor.
Most machines are geared to travel close to two miles per hour when underload. Depending upon the width of plows, twelve to fifty acres of land can be plowed eight inches deep every ten hours. Using a combina¬ tion of plows, harrows, rollers and seed drills, the entire ojieration of plowing, preparation of the seed bed and sowing can be accomplished at one operation. When these heavy duty tractors are not employed in plowing the fields they can be used for heavy road hauling, construction work, etc. At the time of harvest they pull the combined harvester, displacing twenty- eight to thirty-six horses.
The different sizes and makes of tractors have differ¬ ent adaptabilities, and these are usually stated with a good deal of conservatism by the manufacturers. The tractor is designed to do a certain piece of work in a certain way. This the makers will guarantee. In design they can take itito account everything except the human element that is going to drive it. One man can take a traction engine out and have the best success