THE LINCOLN TRACTOR TRIALS.
Page 17
Page 19
Page 20
Page 21
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
The Concluding Portion of the Trials Described and Commented Upon.
IN OUR LAST issue we dealt fully with the Trials at Lincoln and more particularly with the events up to the Thursday. In the notes which follow we hark back to the Thursday morning and comment in detail upon the performances of the machines during the remainder of the event. Further comments, in which some of the technical points revealed by the Trials will be more. completely analysed, must be held over for a week or more-owing to the difficulties raised by the railway strike in the transmission of manuscript. The report of the judges'will, we unders stand, be issued much more quickly than was at first expected or even intended, the judges and officials having stayed at Lincoln after the Trial in order to complete the job then and there. There will be no prizes and no order of merit, but the .capabilities of the different machines will be discussed in such a way as to be most useful to farmers.
The British farmer has a4akened to the necessity of the development of power farming to help him solve the great labour troubleswith Which he is faced. This and the desire to develop farming along progressive lines has helped considerably to bring the farmer " out. of his shell" as it were, and thus brought him to Lincoln,. in many cases gentlemen farmers, owners of estates, and occupiers of farms were present with their bailiffs, closely following the proceedings and discussing the Usefulness of the different machines and implements and their application to their own
eireumstanc'es. . ,
In good weather, on fair soil over an area covered by about 30 fields, the maChines had all acquitted themselves very well on Wednesday. Amon, those that came out of the tests on very difficult land on the second day and maintained this reputation throughout was the Clayton, a machine which will do much to supply the needs of heavy land fanning.
On the whole,'-the smaller machines attracted most attention, both because of their neatness of appearance and work. All the work done was good, and farmer spectators must have walked many miles up and down theafields, watching carefully and noting almost every movement the inachine, made. • They watched to see whether the furrows were of even height and whether all the stubble Was being turned under and whether any uneven or,bare patches wete being left. The gait and deportment. of the tractor were keenly scrutinized, and they noted the grip. of the tractor on the. soil and Whether it was inclined to jump in the cliangeS of speed and when it came to a bit of tougher work. Many other points, too, which only an agriculturist can observe were noted.
The severe tests were well met and there were few failures, at least in outWard appearances. The British machines showed up splendidly, and, while the American, having a' longer experience, did excellently, the British had nothing to fear from them.
In cultivating, the implements made by makers of the tractor with which they were used showed the best results. A Saiinderson cultivating a stubble field with a Saunderson cultivator could not do otherwise than give the utmost satisfaction. It was one of the best lessons of the Trials—a cultivating implement made for the tractor. The work proceeded at a good speed amid soon a considerable acreage was covered, and was done thoroughly. No better method of clearing foul land in hot, dry weather, such as that prevailing at the time, could be imagined. Many tractor disappointments in the past have, been due to the use of horse implements, 'and the results at Lincoln have proved that the development of suit-. able implements must proceed alongside the improvements in the tractors themselves if the latter are to meet with the success to which they are justly entiEled. Many of the tractors would have done better had they been fitted with the right sort Of implement to suit them. In some respects quite a minor incident of the exhibition part of the affair was the show made by a small garden hand tractor called the Beeman. But in a little :how which it had on its own in an allotment it most decidedly emphasized the need for using proper implements. The Beeman is a fine little thing for the garden and for work in small fruit plan' tations. But the implements with which it is fitted
are nearly useless. Users who have fitted to it implements of their own design find that it gives the utmost satisfaction, and the same is true of most of the larger tractors. The majority of the farmers realized this and did not blame the tractor for faults in implement equipment..
Behaviour in the Haulage Tests.
In a measure the haulage tests were depreciated by the same lack of foresight. For example., an Austin was put to haul a five-ton load up a very steep bank with the coupling hitch attached to the wagon and the tractor in a position slanting upwards towards the wagon. In other words the wagon end of the hitch was-half a yard further off the ground than the tractor end ; thus the load, when it came to a very stiff gradient., simply raised the rear of the tractor and took away its grip, thus spoiling the whole affair. Many tractors that are well known to be good at hauling under decent conditions refused to do so now, and thus was marred a very useful feature of the Trials. Otherwise, these tests severe as they were, well satisfied those who watched them. Ehe AlIdays and several other makes stood the tests very well.
Ploughing, of ecturSe-, was the main feature of Wednesdsnas and Thursday's proceedings, but hauling and threshing proceed on each day. The threshing is one piece of work in which those tractors that took part in it excelled. The Mann steam tackle took part in this, and of the tractors engaged in threshing, the International Junior gave a very good account of itself. It is not thought that the majority of tractors will be called upon to do much threshing for the next few years, as few farmers possess their own threshing (malts, and these machines are very expensive to buy. But, for general belt work, tractors are much in reguest and the pulley fitted for driving barn machinery is exactly the same as that required by the thresher. One large farmer said he wanted a machine for ploughilig and for hauling certain heavy loads which could not be handled by horses or motor lorry. He told us that he would not think of using' a tractor, which was intended principally to plough and cultivate the soil, for general haulage or belt work, unless it was an occasional turn at the thresher. "If you can raise the capital," he said, "it is much more economical in the long run to have separate machines for the different kinds of work.' He used an ordinary oil engine for stationary work, a. tractor for ploughing and cultivating, and motor lorry for transport purposes.
The ploughing on WerliaesdaY finished up splendidly, the work being done thoroughly and well finished off. Some 500 acres of ploughing was done, and the sight of it agriculturists would not have missed folaa, great deal, and the agents and manufacturers have never before had such an opportunity oftetting into such close touch with users and of meeting;thein facegto face. These were great days long to be remembered.
The cultivating which completed the Trials on Friday brought the proceedings to a close; and proved beyond the shadow of _a doubt that for land work there is now nothing to beat the tractor. With cultivating implements to suit it, fine work was done. The disc harrow (of the tractor type) is the cultivating implement for the motor tractor, and its use will ultimately result in greater production per acre of land cultivated because of the effects of increased tillage upon germinating seed and growing crops. Before. the war English farming lands had fallen back in the matter of cultivation, and as a censequence the crops on thousands of acres of land were poor and unprofitable. The tractor and tractor implements, especially the clise harrow, will act. as a great and welcome stimulus to more and better cultivation, and the result will be higher yields of produce.
As we have said, the tractor has proved its great worth for work on the land. It has also proved its capabilities in the matter of haulage and belt work, but whether the best ploughing machine can be made
to: be the best for other purposes, particularly haul. nag and extensive belt work, remains yet to be proved.
The proceedings on Friday opened with weather as fine as ever, lasting until about mid-day, When it was broken up by a sharp storm, which, however, gave place to fine sunshine again in the afternoon. The storm drove many of the spectators to seek shelter, but did not hinder the tractors ; they kept on with the work rain or no rain until time for • lunch at one o'clock. Still large crowds were present and each machine had its group of admirers and examiners. The morning session comprised ploughing, threshing and haulage tests, and the afternoon cultivating, threshing and hauling.
Tractors Succeed With the Threshing.
Threshing appeared to be quite an easy matter for all the tractors taking part in it. The work was thoroughly well done and the tractors were quite equal to the task. Somebody pointed out that the threshing was not absolutely clean, but close inspection showed that the number of grains not actually cleaned and delivered into the sacks was very small, quite negligible, and even this was not due to any shortcomings on the part of the tractor or the threshing machine, but to the fact that the cora was more or less in a state of " sweating," making the straw and ear somewhat tough and damp. There was no (=round for criticism whatever in regard to threshing.
Some of the tractors had the belt! pulley on the front of the machine, and farmers geaerally prefer it to be on the left-hand side-or at any rate on the same side as it is on the thresher itself. The tractors that took part in Friday's threshing operations were the Cleveland, Fiat, Fordson, Mogul and Morme. The haulage tests on the hill near to the exhibition Aground created much interest. Altogether, these tests were not what might be described as ideal. Sometimes a machine known to be good at the job was shown up at a great disadvantage as a result of some minor detail, sueh as, for instance, the position of the drawbar. The Clevelaud (chain track) performed a quite creditable feat, although it churned tip the road very much if it happened to stick for a moment. Machines taking part were the Cleveland, Moline, Wallis Junius, and the Whiting-Bull. It may be interesting to refer briefly to the haulage
trials of the previous days. Tractors taking part were the Alldays, Austin, Fiat, Garner, International Junior, Titan, Saunder son, Wallis Junior, and Whiting-Bull. The several feats were really good. -The Austin, an otherwise capital machine for hauling could not manage the whole of its load (4 tons 13 cwt., wagon included) up the hill, owing to the slanting position of the drawbar, which tended to raise the drive wheels of the tractor from the ground, causing them to skid round. The Garner, on the other hand, with the drawbar in practically the same position, but having good rubber bands on the wheels, did the job very easily. This machine was regarded as giving the best results in the haulage tests. The Alldays managed its load, though it did not "show
up" at its best. International Junior succeeded well. The fine success of the Garner demonstrated the effectiveness of 'rubber bandeilliOd to the wheels for hauling purposes.
The ploughing on:Friday was 44 satisfactorily done, on land that was light but which varied a good deal in depth, so that some of thetwork was much deeper in one place than in another. Most of the tractors endeavoured too:Main a. depth of five or six inches, but in a few cases the rock was only four inches below the surface.
The Fortison was noticed going along at a good pace, but only ploughing with a two-furrow (Oliver self-lift) plough. The Ford son, Garner, Wallis and Crawley. were all slipping along very rapidly, especially the Crawley, and were doing goekl" workBoth the Crawley and the Garner were general favourites at ploughing, judging by the amount of , attention attracted to them and the remarksof eulogy used by farmers in describing the work which these machines were doing. '1 TheGarner is an ordinary wheeled type of tracfor, while the' Crawley embodies the selfcontained plough idea. Three others of the Combined tractor and plough type that succeeded in maintaining an equally good reputation were the Martin (selfcontained), the Ma,skell al-14111e Moline.
Among the Other four-wheeled Machines giving highly satisfactory results were the Overtime, drawing a four-furrow Moline plough, the Austin; and Alldays. Only one Overtime was entered, which machine took all before it. The Alldays had occasion to stop a time or two, for minor adustinents to be made. This tractor (three models) travelled all the way from Birmingham to Lincoln by road. The Austin got on to some very shallow soil on the last day of the ploughing trials. Titan was a good machine throughout, drawing a three-furrow, independent (Sellar) plough,' and the Emerson G. 0. Saunderson, Weeks, Martin (wheeled) and Blackstone (wheeled) were much inspected and remarked upon, the Saunderson and the Weeks coming in for a good deal of attention.
A remarkable little appliance the International Junior, entered by the International Harvester Co., was among the best of the American machines, although it only had a two-furrow plough. The Mogul, Avery, and Omnitractor were among the larger, heavier four-wheeled tractOrs ploughing with a fourfurrow riding plough, scarcely the kind of appliance likely to attract the British farmer. The ploughing which they did, however, was the best, that done by the Mogul and Avery especially: They are heavy substantial machines.
The tractors having three wheels only were represented by the Wallis Junior, Whiting-Bull and Glasgow. But all three were different in type, the Wallis being a machine similar to the ordinary fourwheeled types such as the Fordson, Garner, Austin, etc., but it has only one front guide wheel ; the Whiting-Bull belongs to the motorcycle and sidecar pattern, while the Glasgow has two wheels in front and one behind, all being driving wheels. The Wallis, with a three-furrow plough, was very fast and its work equalled that done by any of the four-wheelers ; the reports which were forthcoming about the Whiting-Bull testified to its worth at such. operations as ploughing, hauling and belt work. The Glasgow, which was not very well known before the trials, must, according to outside observation and judgment, be ranked among the best machines at the Trials.
• To those who contend that the chain-track type is doomed to disappear, the performances of the Clayton and the Cleveland must have come as a sort of shock. Both these machines gave an excellent• account of themselves, particularly on the heavy land during Wednesday and Thursday's trials. On the light land, the Clayton had a four-turrow plough and the Cleveland three. The latter is an ideal machine for work in hop and fruit plantations. Two other types remain to be mentioned, the Santler, a somewhat heavy machine fitted with two ploughs, one at each end, and ploughing one way, thus avoiding the necessity for turning on the headlands. Then there was what has been described as the garden-roller type,. including the Gray (American) and the Pick (English).
The latter, which met with some trouble and had to be stopped occasionally, weighs 2 tons 4 cwt. with load and 2 tons without, and is fitted complete with a four-furrow plough.
The Gray has two front wheels 40 ins. in diameter and 8 ins, wide, and a rear driving drum 54 ins, in diameter and the same in width: it draws a fourfurrow self-lift plough. Both would undoubtedly bq very suitable for light land needing consolidation, but are not likely to be of much service to the heavy-land farmer. The latter did very good ploughing. The Fiat, among the four-wheeled machines, has to be mentioned as proving highly satisfactory at ploughing and then the above completes the description of the ploughing by the various machines done on the third and last day of the Trials.
Now, it will be necessary to have some account of the cultivating operations which took place in the afternoon. And in this connection the subject is soon disposed of. All the machines taking part did work of a most estimable character, proving that, as providing power for cultivating, the tractor leaves nothing to be desired. Perhaps the best work with a disc harrow was done' by the Cleveland drawing a tandem disc harrow 7 ft. 6 ins, wide with 28 dims. The Eros unit also managed the disc harrow exceedingly well. These implements in the future will prove a great boon in power farming. The Fiat had a disc harrow 8 ft. wide and 32 dims. On the stu-bbles most creditable work was accomplished, but some cultivating operations on the ploughed ground did not altogether suit some old Lincolnshire farmer, who were watching, as the weight of the rear wheels made an impression on the ploughing which was not erased by the dims passing over it. Perhaps the implement was not set deep enough.
The cultivating implements used with all the tractors were specially constructed for power work and were mostly discs, or implements of the scuffier or scarifier type, and the effectiveness of these was demonstrated as well as the power of the tractor to pull them. The Saunderson tractor had a very useful and Specially heavyscultivator that must find a .place in cultivating and clearing soils on 'heavy foul lands. There really was not much to say about the cultivating, it being all so well done, and there was little to choose between the tractors engaged upon these operations.
A word now remains to be said about the exhibition and of one or two items other than oil or petrol tractors. The Eros tractor outfit for use with a Ford chassis drew many inquiries from among the farmers. It showed good results at ploughing and cultivating. The Mann steam tractor demonstrated its powers at ploughing and had its group of interested followers, and Walsh and Clark had their set of oil traction engines, working on the lines of the old steam tackle, a useful turnout for the purpose for which it is intended. There was a good exhibition of tractor drawn and driven implements providing a good education in this important line. The motor lorsies from the one to the four tonner were much inquired after, an indication of the direction rural transport developments are likely to take in the future. Concerns supplying suitable oils and fuels were also well represented.
No more instructive function than the Lincoln Trials has been put before the agriculturist for very many years, and the farming community responded to the opportunity by turning up in their. thousands on the last as on previous days. The site of Friday's Trials was just off the ma,in road and much nearer Lincoln. Boundless credit is due to those responsible for the arrangements for the able manner in which everything was organized and carried out. Let us hope that next year's Trials will bring espial credit to the promoters.