1920] on British Crop Production 55 



came from America, where the problem of farm labour had long been 

 serious ; we are still having to use American tractors, although English 

 makes are now appearing. The English plough makers successfully 

 coped with the engineering problems, and brought out an effective 

 type of plough capable of doing excellent work. 



The tractor has two important advantages over the horse. 



First of all, it works more quickly. Its pace is 3 J miles per hour 

 instead of 2J miles. It turns three furrows at the time instead of one 

 only ; on our land it ploughs an acre in four hours, instead of taking 

 nearly a day and a half as required by horses. There is no limit to 

 the work it can do — even an acre an hour is no wild dream, but may 

 yet be accomplished. It therefore enables the farmer to get well 

 forward with his ploughing during the fine weather in late summer 

 and early autumn, and thus to obtain the great advantages of a partial 

 fallow and of freedom to sow at any desired time. On our own land 

 our experience has been as follows : — 



Dates of Completion of Sowings of Wheat and Oats. 



Year Wheat Oats 



1916 Feb. 17 



1917 March 16 Oct. 17 , 



1918 Jan. 26 Oct. 27 I oniy 



2°H2I Horses 



1919 Nov. 26 Oct. 5 Tractor 



Further, if the plough is correctly designed and properly used, the 

 tractor does the work fully as well as horses — even the horse plough- 

 man admits that. It therefore increases considerably the efficiency 

 of the labourer, which, as we shall see later on, might advantageously 

 be raised. The cost of working is apparently less, though it is difficult 

 to decide this until one knows what the repairs bill will be. In our 

 case the cost is : — 



Cost of Ploughing per Acre, Autumn 1919. 



By Tractor By Horses 



8. d. s. d. 



Labour 7 7 10 2 



Maintenance .... — 22 6 

 Oil and Petrol .... 78 

 Depreciation and repairs . . 6 3 



21 6 32 8 



Time taken . . 4 hours 1£ days 



The internal combustion engine is only just at the beginning of 

 its career on the farm, and no one can yet foresee its developments 



