Vol. LXXIII., No. 4242. 
NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 14, 1914. 
WEEKLY $1.00 PER YEAR. 
AN EXPERIENCE WITH A TRACTOR. 
Good Where It Can Pull. 
Here is something about my experience with a 
tractor engine, plow and harrow outfit. A slick 
salesman who promised everything sold to me on 
his claims for the rig two years ago last Fall. The 
25-horse engine would not pull four plows in Al¬ 
falfa sod, set eight inches deep, and at seller's ex¬ 
pense I sent it back, and was shipped a 45-horse dou¬ 
ble cylinder oil-burning engine. It will pull provided 
—and here is the kernel in the nut—it has a good 
solid, footing, as a sod, but if it is sandy land, or wet 
On my farm in Monmouth County, N. J., I have 
demonstrated that Alfalfa is a wonderful crop, mak¬ 
ing four crops a year if it gets fair rainfall and the 
first crop is taken off early. But plowing up the 
Alfalfa sod with us is like breaking new ground, 
the roots being so thick and heavy. Farmers near 
me refuse to grow Alfalfa because they cannot break 
it with horses, but with the ti'actor I walk through 
i However, I have to lift two plows and use only 
four bottoms, for I want to plow deep. And here 
is another almost fatal weakness of the rig I got— 
the plows will not go deep, and there are no power 
gang-plows made which will go over eight inches and 
That plowing and the cover crop was certainly 
worth a coating of stable manure on the succeeding 
crop. But when we started to turn under a crop 
of cow peas on a field of sand, our tractor outfit 
failed us utterly—the wheels had no footing. 
Where a farmer or an association of farmers has 
enough work to keep a tractor outfit busy 20 hours 
a day during the breaking seasons it will undoubted¬ 
ly pay in this age of high prices for horses’ feed and 
labor. But get a powerful machine and put head¬ 
lights on it and run night and day. If I had it to 
do o\er I would get the new small-size caterpillar 
type of engine, for it will walk over sand, soft cover 
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land, or if only a cover crop on soft soil, it will not 
pull—not even its own weight at times. It is a 
splendid machine, and we have had very little trou¬ 
ble with it as a piece of machinery. We cleaned up 
an old apple orchard in two days by hitching the 
tractor in the crotch of the trees; rne largest trees 
were first given a light charge of dynamite to loosen 
up the ground around the big roots. 
We hitched the tractor to a heavy road grader, 
and two rounds in March did several miles of gravel 
roads more good than you would believe, thus prov¬ 
ing that every county ought to have such an outfit 
to keep the roads high in the center and the ditches 
open. 
LOOK PLEASANT, BOSSY. Fig. 74. 
work well, whereas I want to plow 12 and 15 inches 
deep, and that takes power and lots of it. 
The tractor outfit did fine work the first Fall 
on our old sod. except in depth. In the Spring we 
could not use it as early as we could horses, for 
where ground is rather soft the wheels of the giant 
machine dig a grave for itself. We succeeded, how¬ 
ever. in doing one good job. which we had failed be¬ 
fore to do with horses. As soon as the Timothy 
hay was off the tractor plow and harrow turned 
the sod over and made it ready for a cover cop of 
Crimson clover. At that time of the season we could 
not have spared the horses even if they could have 
plowed it, but it was too dry and hard for that. 
crops or mud. and pull its load. In oil and fuel they 
will in actual use consume about double what is held 
out to be sufficient by the slick salesmen. Though 
I feel stung, and have paid dear for my experience, 
yet I believe in the power plow, but I would want 
the caterpillar type, and I would want a small asso¬ 
ciation of neighbors to share the cost, for it will 
plow 10 times more land than most eastern farm¬ 
ers have to break each year. For silage and wood 
sawing the tractor is great power. t. r. f. 
R. N.-Y.—Here again is another side of the co¬ 
operation question. It is not only in buying supplies, 
but in buying power with which to utilize them, that 
the farmer will aid his economic conditions. 
