302 
fair showing. The milk distributors realize the 
value of this publicity for, during the milk strike, 
they sent great advertsements to the country papers, 
hoping to confuse or break the spirit of the farmers. 
We have got to put our story before the public so 
that they will understand it, and in a way that is 
familiar to them. Mr. O'Connor speaks of the work 
done by the Brewers’ Association. They kept the 
daily papers crowded with big advertisements, which 
misled thousands of voters and muzzled the papers 
so that the temperance side was rarely presented. 
A string of restaurants in this city was branded by 
the Food Administration for charging excess prices 
and cutting down its portions. Then it was found 
guilty of selling adulterated milk. The restaurant 
at once began advertising in the daily papers— 
spending large sums of money and saying nothing! 
All public criticism of them stopped as they spent 
this money. This way of approaching the public to 
teli a business or political story lias become a regular 
part of city life; in fact there is no other way to do 
it so well. We regard it as essential that the far¬ 
mers should put their business story squarely before 
the consumers. They can unite and do it at the 
cost of a few cents apiece. 
Farm Work For the Coming Year 
ELr AND FERTILIZERS.—The question of 
what to do on the farm the coming season is 
one that is discussed wherever farmers meet. V\ e 
are all wondering what we shall have to pay for 
help and what we can get for our produce. The 
present outlook is for a rather reduced supply of 
farm help early in the season, at least as compared 
with three or four years ago. The question of 
fertilizers is also rather serious. We must nay 
very large prices even for the poorest stuff. On the 
other hand, we see the price for some classes of farm 
products going down, while it seems likely that 
others will go the same way. Again we see the 
prices of some things holding up in the face of offer¬ 
ings which would have swamped the market of 
other years. The whole makes up a tangle fully as 
bad as that of the first year of the great war. 
TIIE FRUIT GROWER’S PROBLEM.—In the 
fruit business we are in a way different from most 
other farmers. Much of our capital is tied up in a 
long-term, continuing investment. We must protect 
that Capital by adding more every year or run the 
risk of seeing it all wiped out. We cannot change 
our business at the end of a crop year, like the grain 
farmer, for an abandoned orchard is not simply a 
piece of farm land ready to be turned to some other 
use. It is a piece of rough land which must be 
cleared. Also there are no assets that may be re¬ 
covered when an orchard investment is abandoned. 
It remains an investment only so long as we keep 
adding to it. The returns may be very great in some 
years and very small in others, but the investment 
must be maintained through good years and bad. 
BUYING A TRACTOR.—What. then, is an or- 
chardisf to do when his supply of labor is cut oft' or 
reduced? Shall he maintain his orchard and neglect 
his general farm crops, trusting to luck to pull 
through and get a good crop of good fruit which 
will sell at a high price, or shall he neglect his big 
investment and hope that it will not fall off very 
much until he can come back to it? Neither will be 
wise, so -he must maintain both his series of crops 
by making some other changes. In many cases this 
means the purchase of a tractor. Everywhere one 
goes the tractor is the great subject of conversation. 
Start talking tractors and men begin to drift to the 
group. When the talk changes to some other sub¬ 
ject they drift away. At the Rochester fruit meet¬ 
ing those who had a big tractor on exhibition were 
surrounded by a crowd. Those with a small tractor 
were swamped, while the tractor implement men 
simply gave up and tried to avoid those who did not 
actually force their way into notice. The writer 
was in the market for a tractor disk. A good friend 
who was showing another line of stuff offered to 
introduce him to the exhibitor of the disk purchased. 
While waiting for the opportunity he left his over¬ 
coat with the friend and walked through the ex¬ 
hibits. Finally he came to the booth where the 
machine of his choice was shown. Several men 
were there talking. No one paid any attention to 
him. After a few minutes lie went to another ex¬ 
hibitor of tractor tools. There were more men 
there, and seemed to be several salesmen or demon¬ 
strators. No one noticed him. At another booth 
he butted in and was told to help himself to litera- 
, ture. Asking for a folder about one particular tool 
he was told they were all gone. By 'this time he had 
decided that the salesmen thought he was in some 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
way connected with the show, and not a prospective 
buyer, and was on the point of trying it again with 
overcoat on. Soon after, when the agent had been 
introduced, the mystery was solved. The demon¬ 
strator said he had sold more disks than he could 
deliver next Summer, and was really trying to dodge 
customers. The experiences of that day brought out 
another surprising point. In *the search for infor¬ 
mation every man met was asked what he knew 
about tractor disks, and every man who had used 
tractor disks named the same make as the best! 
ORCHARD CULTIVATION.—The farmers of this 
part of the State are going to use tractors this com¬ 
ing season. A very large number of them are going 
to use them mainly for cultivating the orchards, 
thus leaving the horses and most of the man power 
free for raising the other farm crops. On our own 
place we expect that one man with the new kerosene 
mule can cultivate the orchard and leave the other 
men and the horses for other work. If we did not 
do this we should have had to get new horses and 
try to hire more men. We have seven less horses 
than a year ago, and the power shortage had to be 
made up. 
GOVERNMENT NITRATE.—We are planning to 
use some more of the Government nitrate this sea¬ 
son. It saved our corn crop and our beans last year. 
Ours were growing when the neighbors were praying 
for a few warm days to make the corn big enough 
to cultivate. It put the corn and beans so far ahead 
that they were ripe enough to be out of danger when 
the freeze came early in September. The effect was 
not so apparent on other crops. Our big idea for 
the coming year is to cultivate the orchards thor¬ 
ough; spray more carefully than ever before and 
raise as much of other crops as possible without 
cutting into the orchard business, alfreu c. weed. 
Wayne County, N. Y. 
Pulling Capacity of Farm Tractors 
A CAUSE OF TROUBLE.—The tendency of some 
salesmen and dealers to over-rate the drawbar 
horsepower of their tractors and the inclination of 
many new owners and operators to overload grossly 
have, taken together, probably been the greatest 
cause of farm tractor difficulties. Perhaps a few 
salesmen may wilfully over-estimate the capacity of 
their tractor, but only a few. However, the sales¬ 
man may elaborate on the surplus power in such a 
way and to such an extent that a buyer may be 
entirely misled. 1 have heard claims of 2->. 40 and 
oO per cent surplus above rating talked of in such 
a manner that one might be justified in believing 
the tractor capable of carrying that excess load 
indefinitely. For instance, I heard a manufacturer’s 
representative, at a demonstration, state that their 
tractor, rated at nine II.I’., had. at a public test a 
few days before, pulled a 20 II.P. load. He made 
this statement with much gusto and no explanation. 
A few days later 1 saw the published record of this 
test. It showed that this nine II.I', tractor did. with 
the motor at maximum speed, pull 20 II.I', on a 
recording dynamometer for the period of one 
minute. Now. that was the excellent performance 
of a good, reputable tractor, but the folly of the 
salesman's statement, without explanation, was in 
the fact that many men who heard it no doubt be¬ 
lieved that a 15. IS or 20 II.I*, load could be pulled 
hour after hour and day after day. And, if they 
bought, they had reason to believe that it could be 
done. They were headed for disappointment and 
dissatisfaction. That tractor is built for two 14-in. 
bottoms and can handle them satisfactorily. It has 
excess power available, for short periods of time, 
when it may be required, but it is not designed to 
sustain a load in excess of that for any great length 
of time, and should not be expected to do so. 
INCREASING POWER.—In general the tendency 
of tractor manufacturers now seems to be to increase 
the power without adding to the rating. However, 
there appear to be exceptions. Some S-16 H.P. 
tractors will show greater Il.P. than others rated 
0-1,S or IP-20. And. perhaps. A's 10-20 is capable of 
greater power than is TVs 12-25. These things are 
incidental to this and the automobile industry. It 
is apparently the policy of company C to give a 
rating equal to the machine's best sustained effort, 
for in so doing they may be able to sell at a lower 
price and show greater economy than can company 
1 >*s tractor of the same rating. The casual buyer 
may not know that D has a better-built tractor 
capable of developing 20 to 40 per cent more power 
in normal operation. It is safe to assume, however, 
that the policy of D in underrating will eventually 
win out over the policy of C in rating up to the last 
ounce of available power. 
February 22, 1919 
OVERLOADING.—Every tractor owner and oper¬ 
ator seems to have a natural inclination to overload 
his machine. An exception might be hard to find. 
It is found that two 12-in. plows can be pulled easily, 
so two 14-in. plows are put on, the extra four inches 
perhaps making the tractor labor hard in places 
A neighbor pulls an eight 16-in. tandem disk set 
quite readily, so for the same tractor you will, at 
least, consider buying a twelve 20-in. tandem disk set. 
Of course, in some instances, this may work out 
satisfactorily. But usually when the maker recom¬ 
mends a certain load under average conditions, that 
is 'the limit to which that tractor can be worked 
economically under those conditions. Overloading 
will increase fuel consumption and cause general 
depreciation out of all proportion to the extra work 
which may be accomplished. 
RESERVE POWER.—In using a team every man 
knows that it can, for a moment, pull twice or three 
or even four times the load which it would be 
capable of for a full day, and it is just as necessary 
to have reserve power in a tractor. When a plow 
goes into the ground, or when it strikes a root or 
big stone, there is an extra load strain. Emergencies 
may double the load. So if a tractor is capable of 
an actual drawbar pull of 12 Il.P. the regular load 
should not exceed six H.P.—for instance, three 
12-in plows in average, level soil. 
SOIL VARIATIONS.—Grades, kind of soil and 
condition of soil combine to make such marked 
variation in plow resistance that it seems foolish 
for any manufacturer, salesman or owner to say 
“this tractor will draw two plows anywhere.” That 
“anywhere” is a large territory, full of surprises 
and disappointment for that man. “Pulls two bot¬ 
toms in all kinds of soil” is another strong state¬ 
ment. This has been much used in relation to a 
certain tractor of sturdy construction and economical 
operation. It has ample power to pull two 14-in. 
plows through average soil at six or seven inches 
depth—soil giving a resistance of five to six pounds 
per square inch of furrow cut. But I know of 
several men who have had this particular tractor 
and are perpetual “knockers,” because there were 
soils and grades in their cultivated lands where 
this tractor could not pull two bottoms at reasonable 
plowing depth. It did all that could be expected 
from its weight and motor capacity, but it could 
not measure up to that “all kinds of soil” claim. 
Major Zimmerman gives the following table as 
the approximate resistance per square inch of fur¬ 
row slice in the various soils: 
Sandy soil . 2 to •“> lbs. 
Corn stubble .. 3 
Wheat stubble. 4 
Blue grass sod. 6 
.Tune grass sod. 6 
Glover sod . 7 
Glav. 8 “ 
Prairie sod. 15 
Virgin sod . 15 
Gumbo . 20 “ 
Two 14-in. plows at seven inches depth cut 106 
sq. in. In sandy soil this is a resistance of 5SS 
pounds, while in gumbo it is 3.920 pounds. A 
tractor which can draw two 14-in. plows at 2U> 
miles per hour in clay will use less power, pulling 
three 14-in. bottoms in average wheat stubble at 
the same speed and depth. 
EFFECT OF GRADE.—The effect of grade on the 
draft of plows is figured as one per cent of the 
tractor and implement weight for each one foot rise 
in 1.000 feet, or one per cent grade. A 5.000-pound 
tractor and a 1,000-pound gang plow total 6.000 
pounds. On a 10 per cent grade 600 pounds must 
be figured; three 12-in. bottoms plowing seven inches 
deep in level clay require 2.016 pounds, or 10 II.P., 
at 1% miles per hour. On a 10 per cent grade this 
load would increase to 2,616 pounds pull. The 
average 10-20 tractor in average condition could not 
make this pull. It would be a heavy load for a 
10-25 at 1 : M m.p.h and a 15-30 would be a safer 
proposition. If the 10 Il.P. pull tractor were to be 
used on this soil at the same depth and speed, two 
12-in. bottoms would be the advisable load. Assum¬ 
ing a 12-25 to weigh three tons, to travel 2V. miles 
per hour and have a capacity of 1.800 pounds on 
the drawbar at that speed, it would, on a 10 per 
cent grade, have only 1.200 pounds pull available, 
or about the capacity of an S-16 at the same speed 
on the level. It is thus seen that the man with a 
hilly farm must give his requirement special atten¬ 
tion. 11 is proposition is essentially different from 
that of the man who will use a tractor on practically 
level fields. A tractor adapted to the conditions of 
one particular farm may need be. to do the work 
economically, either of less or of greater capacity 
than would be considered practical for the same 
work under average conditions. 
W. FI! AX KLIN MOORE. 
