722 



The Lincoln Tractor Triai;S, 1920. 



[Nov., 



the machines which were distinguished by the judges, it may 

 be questioned whether the awards will in any way assist either 

 prospective purchasers of tractors or the tractor industry. 

 Until the judges' report is published it is, of course, impossible 

 to know what were the precise points of superiority upon 

 which- the awards were based, but from the nature of the 

 regulations and tests and the duration of the trials it is 

 certain that factors w^hich are of supreme importance could 

 not be taken into consideration. It is very questionable 

 whether under any conditions the competitive element is a 

 desirable ingredient in scientific trials, but until design and 

 -construction have attained some definite standard anything in 

 the nature of a competition appears positively undesirable, 

 since uniformity of tests or conditions cannot be obtained. 

 Last year's report demonstrated that even machines of the 

 same make could not be effectively compared and contrasted 

 under the present trial regulations. The statistics showed 

 .that identical machines ploughed altogether different acreages 

 per hour at different cost for fuel. From this fact it may be 

 hazarded that if similar machines underwent a similar trial 

 to-day a series of results would be obtained substantially 

 different from those recorded last year. 



Apart from these considerations, it must be emphasised that 

 a test of a carefully tuned machine over a few days only, and 

 in the hands of an expert operator, affords no criterion what- 

 soever of the reliability or the durability of the machine in 

 farming practice; and if this is not demonstrated, any test 

 is robbed of the greater part of its value. 



To turn to a more technical point, it may be suggested that 

 the method of classification by the formula adopted to measure 

 horse-power is also open to criticism. This formula was 

 based upon the declared revolutions, the piston area and 

 stroke. Classification by such a formula is clearly open to 

 improvement, as it is impossible to ensure that the competitor 

 will actually run his engine at the revolutions declared. A 

 competitor may, on this account, put identically the same 

 machine in two different classes, the description of the 

 machine being similar, with the exception of the revolutions. 

 In practice this may not be serious, and it will afford makers 

 a chance of putting their machines into the class most suitable 

 for them. The whole question is admittedly difficult. Based 

 on cylinder dimension, only the extreme high speed can give 

 the best results, although, obviously, this is the least suitable 



