26 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



January 10. 1921 



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Clearing Cut-Over Land with Tractors 



The George C. Brown Company of Memphis, Tcnn., have placed 

 tractors on their hand clearing operations at Brown Spur, Arkansas. 

 These tractors have proved very successful and have reduced the 

 labor costs materiallj'. They are the track-laying type, equipped 

 with powerful winches, and in the photographs below, these can 

 be seen bringing in on the cable, heavy "snags" which ordinarily 

 would prove quite a load for teams. 



One advantage particularly, which appeals to those who are in- 

 terested in this class of work, is the absence of a mast, or other 

 similar device, as it is often impossible to erect such, on cut-over 

 land. 



The Caraway corporation at Jonesboro, Arkansas, is also doing 

 similar work to that of George C. Brown Company, with the excep- 

 tion that a portable mast has been devised with an overhead trip 

 attachment. By these means, logs and snags can be snaked a great 

 distance and piled for burning. Mr. E. L. Dean of the Carraway 

 Company has kept an accurate cost data account, and it is our 

 understanding that he is fully convinced that the tractor represents 

 the only logical equipment for clearing cut-over land. These trac- 

 tors can also handle heavy disc plows with ease and the natural 

 adaptability to this work, has already been proven. 



Single or 3-Speed 

 Tractors 



The time is here when the 

 question must be brought to the 

 attention of all interested in the 

 production of hardwood. There 

 is no one identified in this im- 

 portant industry exempt from 

 the obligation of considering 

 the merits of this question. 



Developments in the last four 

 years have shown careful, valu- 



able and constructive ideas in the problem of perfecting tractors 

 and converting them from the agricultural purposes to the rugged, 

 staunch labor-saving devices now found in the northern and south- 

 ern hardwood country. 



Some manufacturers contend that a change speed gearing is un- 

 necessary; that a tractor with a gear ratio sutBcient to allow it to 

 travel at the nominal speed of mules or cattle is all that might be 

 expected of them, and that a lower or higher speed of this rating is 

 without material advantage or at least without enough to warrant 

 additional cost. On the face of this argument, many are inclined to 

 believe the correctness of the claim. It would seem that any mechan- 

 ical unit designed and constructed to replace cattle, should not be ex- 

 pected to do the work which jjreviously was performed by primitive 

 methods at any speed greater than three miles per hour. 



On the other hand, a tractor rated at 60-40 will find in many in- 

 stances work which is entirely within its power, yet with s^iecifie con- 

 ditions which will alter the requirements to such an extent that per- 

 haps there is insufficient power to handle the work. The writer has 

 in mind one extremely ideal log hauling job which is entirely motor- 

 ized with "Caterpillar" tractors. Every portion of the work is such 

 that it would bring a smile of gladness on the face of any salesman 



or sawmill owner. The 10-ton 

 machines which are being used 

 are confronted with a four-mile 

 log haul, eight-wheel wagons be- 

 ing used, three wagons to a 

 train and a gross tonnage of 

 thirty tons accredited to each 

 traiu. The road is neither ideal 

 nor too severe. It is an ordi- 

 nary clay road, the type which 

 we are all familiar, corduroyed 

 in many places to eliminate bad 

 holes, yet, half way from the 

 start to the finish, there is' a 



Photographs Show Three Attitudes of Track-Laying Tractor Engaeed in Clearing Land 



