The RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
1443 
A Greenhorn on the T ractor 
The Record of a Season’s Work 
Pakt II. 
H E said the oil might he getting 
past the rings, and that we might 
have to put in new ones. It would 
have paid us to have done that at that 
time, for a few days’ run would have 
paid the entire bill. About this time 
the fan belt gave out, and a new .one 
was put on. This, too, gave out quickly, 
so a new one of a different kind was 
put on, and lias lasted the rest of the 
time, and now seems as good as when 
new. The next trouble was in the first 
day of plowing. In trying to square 
up a corner a different turn was made, 
and brought us too close to the edge. 
The drag of the plows kept us from 
turning, and finally the left wheels slid 
off into the bay. The water was about 
a foot deep where the wheels stood, and 
deeper a little farther out. It took 
about six hours of self and helpers to 
get back on solid footing. Shortly after 
this the engine began to heat up rather 
badly. The timer contacts were found 
very rough. A new timer fixed that, 
but the new one is about worn out now. 
A new one of a different kind is or¬ 
dered, and should last better than the 
others. 
OVERHEATING.—The next trouble 
was overheating again, this time due 
to a loose fan belt. One day when 
putting the tractor to bed the air 
washer was carefully cleaned, and then 
switching on to gasoline water was 
poured into the air washer until it began to come 
out of the exhaust. This cooled off the combustion 
chamber so that the engine finally stopped. In the 
morning it was necessary to clean spark plugs before 
starting. The carbon deposit was very soft and 
easily removed. There was a temptation to clean 
only No. 1 and let the others clean themselves after 
the engine started. The possibility of hard starting 
finally decided us in favor of cleaning No. 2 also. 
No. 2 had the center post burned away so that the 
spark gap was more than an eighth of an inch. No. 
3 also had the center post burned away. No. 4 was 
all right. The engine had been working all right 
for some time in heavy going with the spark gap 
in two plugs at least 10 times as great as it should 
have been. If these two cylinders had not been 
firing it would have been impossible to have pulled 
the load. 
REPLACEMENTS.—The total buying of extras 
and replacements since getting the tractor has been 
a belt pulley, bought 
extension rims; six new 
and two new fan belts. 
The cost of fuel and 
grease cannot be told, as 
the hills are not yet all 
in. In addition to this, 
there have been about 
$10 repairs to the disk 
outfit. 
WORKING POINTS. 
—This tractor is light, 
strong, handy and quick. 
With one drawbar horse¬ 
power more than its 
most noted opponent it 
weighs 1,300 pounds 
less. It weighs about 
250 pounds per drawbar 
horsepower. In disking 
it will turn around and 
be started back about as 
quickly as a good man 
can turn a team and 
plow and get ready to 
start back. The fact 
that it has no governor 
has been used as a talk¬ 
ing point against it. In 
sawing firewood and 
similar light work it 
makes no difference. The 
greatest load is not 
enough to make the en¬ 
shouhl be heavier forward than the one 
which is to be used for farm cultiva¬ 
tion. The light one for field work 
must be watched more carefully than 
the one for the road. In hitching to 
tools it is a little easier sometimes to 
make the connection when there is a 
hand clutch instead of the foot clutch 
on our machine. 
NO BRAKE.—The most serious ob¬ 
jection to our machine is the fact that 
there is no brake. A person operating 
it on the road and trying to shift gears 
on a hillside may find himself in a very 
serious position. In the fields the plow 
or cultivating tools will hold on almost 
any hill where it is proper to use the 
tractor. On our land we believe the 
round wheels are the greatest objection 
to this tractor. Last Spring we had a 
fine level field just suited to tractor 
operation, which we could not work 
because it had a wet streak a rod or 
two wide across two sides. In several 
of our fields are sand drifts which will 
not let us work a round wheel tractor. 
SUMMING UP.—We believe that for 
strictly farm use where conditions do 
do not call for a much heavier and 
more powerful machine we have a good 
tractor of the round-wheel type. We 
believe that for our conditions some 
type of caterpillar without front wheels 
is better than any round-wheel ma¬ 
chine. Our tractor has run about 423 
hours on heavy work. Experts estimate that one 
hour of heavy tractor operation is the equivalent, so 
far as wear on the engine is concerned, of from 20 to 
70 miles of automobile operation. The guesses are 
rather wide apart. Probably the lowest is too low 
and the highest much too high. Assuming that an 
automobile will average 20 miles per hour of running 
'time, which is probably above the average, half of this 
time will be with a very light load, or even coasting, 
while the tractor has a full load, equal to climbing 
a steep hill with as many in the auto as it can carry 
and not have to shift gears. Looking at it iii this 
light, it seems likely that an hour of the tractor will 
take as much out of the engine as 30 miles of driving 
the automobile under average conditions. 
Wayne Co., N. Y. Alfred c. weed. 
Controlling Curculio 
Wo have a large blue plum, blossoms and “sets” 
freely, but when the plums are about half grown there 
is a large black wasp-like insect that comes along and 
stings them. It does uot touch the plum except to stiug 
them; then the juice 
oozes out and the plum 
rots and falls off in a 
week or two. We have 
had only oue crop of 
plums in 10 years. 
F. c. M. 
Trumbull Co., Ohio. 
The injury is caused by 
curculio—a small brown¬ 
ish or gray, hard-shelled 
snouted insect that 
punctures the newly- 
formed fruits at the time 
of egg-laying. The de¬ 
structive work of the 
curculio may be pre¬ 
vented in a great mea¬ 
sure by thorough spray¬ 
ing, as also may brown 
rot of the plum, which 
often practically de¬ 
stroys the crop later in 
the season as the fruit 
approaches maturity. 
The use of arsenate of 
lead in combination 
with Bordeaux mixture 
(copper sulphate, lime 
and water), will control 
these destructive agen¬ 
cies and give an abund¬ 
ance of fine fruit. The 
,Ohio Experiment Sta- 
Rjje Eight Feet High Near Des Moines, Iowa. Fig. 468 
with the machine; a pair of 
spark plugs; three timers, 
gine race when the load is taken off. In thrashing 
and similar heavy work it will be necessary for oue 
man to be on the tractor all the time. In field work 
the lack of a governor is not at all a fault. It makes 
it possible to get through many tight places by speed¬ 
ing up the engine a little just before getting to the 
trouble. This must be done with great care, for a 
little too much with a little extra load may make the 
tractor rear. Some men have been killed or injured 
with this, as well as other makes of tractors, by 
speeding up the engine to get out of trouble. In road 
work the rearing can be reduced by putting a few 
sand bags on the front end of the tractor. In the 
field the tractor, which is so heavy in front that the 
engine cannot raise it when conditions favor rearing, 
must burn a lot of extra fuel to push this heavy 
front end through the soft ground. On the hard road 
a few hundred pounds on the front wheels is easily 
drawn. Each tractor designer has had a different 
idea of the place to draw the line between fuel 
economy and safety of the operator. A tractor which 
is to be used mainly for belt work and road hauling 
Everybody Works on a Poultry Farm. Fig. -} 6‘4 
