2 Agricultural Gazette of N.S.W. [Jan. 2, 1920. 



farmers of Great Britain an unique opportunity of studying the potentialities 

 of radical and scientific treatment of existing conditions, with the result that 

 many farmers have now become owners of tractors who would ottierwise 

 never have dreamt of employing any more effective medium than horse power. 



Before the advent of the tractor, ploughing in Great Britain was done by 

 teams of two horses and hingle-furrow ploughs, gang ploughs being little used. 

 The employment of additional ploughmen was consequently necessary, thus 

 adding largely to the cost. Under that method the cost of ploughing may 

 be reckoned at 19s. and upward per acre (horses 6s. each per day, man's 

 wages 6s. and uDward per da\^, and Is. for wear and tear, grease, ifec.) These 

 costs are obviously high, and tractors should have had little difficulty m 

 effecting a saving. 



Some difficulty attended the gathering of any definite figures as to the cost 

 of ploughing by tractor when the writer approached private owners. The 

 consumption of paraffin, petrol, oil, and grease was usually known, but no 

 account had been taken of allowance for wear and tear. In most cases the 

 machines were new, and there had consequently been little trouble from wear 

 and breakages. In estimating the runidng cost of a tractor, therefore, the 

 allowance that should be made for those debatable items constituted a con- 

 siderable problem, but high-speed light tractors may be given a life of two 

 years, while a 20 per cent, depreciation should be a fair estimate for 

 low-speed heavy tractors. The cost of upkeep varies considerably, in some 

 cases not exceeding £15 for the first year, but usually being very much in 

 excess of that figure, especially with a high-speed engine. A safe estimate 

 should be from 15 to 20 per cent, of the cost of the machine. The exjienses 

 for spare parts (at cost price) used on the Government tractoi's amounted to 

 about 3s. per acre ploughed. 



The Fordson tractor is fitted with a high-speed engine, which means 

 greater wear and tear and greater consumption of lubricants. With this 

 machine a good deal of the paraffin finds its way through to the base chamber 

 and weakens the lubricating oil, hence hindering the proper oiling of the 

 bearings, and causing speedy deterioration of the wearing parts. For this 

 machine it is necessary that the oil chamber should be drained and a fresh 

 supply of oil given at intervals not exceeding fifty hours. The Fordson, 

 being a light machine, consumes less paraffin per acre than other makes of 

 tractors that have been employed. Estimates based on figures froui private 

 owners show the average consumption for ploughing per acre for all machines 

 as follows : — Paraffin, i gallons per acre ; lubricating oil, h gallon per acre ; 

 grease, 2 oz. per acre. As i)etrol is only usetl for starting, the amount used 

 would lie scarcely worth consideration when divided over a good day's work. 



The tractor mentioned usually draws a double-furrow plough, and the 

 Titan, Mogul, Overtime, &c, a three-furrow implement. If the average 

 ploughing is taken as a 10 in. furrow, 7 inches to 9 inches deep, the draw-bar 

 pull on a three-furrow plough may be estimated as somewhere ecjuivalent to 

 that of a five-furrow plough in average soil in New South Wales wheat 

 country, where ploughing is much shallower. 



