FABM EXPERIENCE WITH THE TRACTOR. 35 
REPAIRS. 
• The cost of repairs has always been an item of considerable impor- 
tance in connection with the farm tractor. Not only have the repairs 
been expensive, but the time lost in obtaining new parts and inserting 
them has been a serious matter. 
This feature has frequently been pointed out as one of the greatest 
disadvantages of the tractor and one which practically precludes its 
use on the average farm. 
It is only fair to the tractor, however, to state that a very large 
percentage of the repairs are made necessary through inefficient 
operation. The statement that any man can operate a gas tractor 
efficiently after only a few minutes' instruction is so far from the 
truth that it would seem that its falsity should be apparent to even 
the uninitiated. Yet this erroneous idea has been responsible for 
hundreds of failures and an enormous amount of repair charges, the 
effect of which has been detrimental to the tractor industry. If 
every man who used a tractor during the years of its development 
had been thoroughly competent to operate it, the history of the 
farm tractor would be very different. 
While the average farmer's familiarity with many machines and 
their operation should make him an apt pupil in the study of the gas 
tractor, it is in no sense a complete education therein. There are 
many tractor owners at the present time who, while operating their 
tractor with a certain degree of satisfaction, are unfamiliar with 
many details of its mechanism; in fact, it is the exception to find a 
tractor owner who fully understands one of the most important parts 
of the tractor — the ignition system. 
It is this ignorance regarding details, some of them apparently 
trifling, which all too frequently causes expensive delays. /In inter- 
nal-combustion engine is extremely simple in its operation, but it is 
simple only to one who understands it fully. No one but an experi- 
enced operator can obtain the best results with a farm tractor, and 
the necessity for an owner carefulty studying the principles of the 
internal-combustion engine and the operation of his own tractor 
before undertaking to operate the outfit can not be overemphasized. 
The lack of such preparation is clearly shown in the cost of repairs 
to tractors during their first season's use. As has been stated, 
although in nearly every case all repairs required the first season 
which are not caused by the operator are furnished free, it was found 
that the repairs for which owners are required to pay during the first 
season average about 2 per cent of the first cost of the tractor. 
While previous tables have shown the amount of repairs for 
various groups of tractors, it was thought a table showing the general 
average repairs for tractors might be of value. It would be mani- 
