40 
Land & Water 
May 2, 19 1 8 
Wni- 
GONG SOUPS 
are "TOP HOLE*' 
A few packets of Gong Soups in his 
haversack, and a brisk little wood fire 
glowing in the shelter of a farm-house 
wall, mean much to the man who has 
just returned from arduous toil for his 
" rest " period. 
Water is quickly procured, the Gong Soup 
packet dissolved, and in fifteen minutes or so 
"the best meal for a week" is ready. 
The particular handiness of Gong Soups, 
together with their variety and economy, render 
them specially suitable for use in the home as 
well as at the Front. 
Extract from a letter received from the Front : — 
"The men are on fatigue all night until 2 or 3 a.m., 
and much appreciate hot soup on their return. 
Sometimes the men come in wet through and 
plastered with mud, and a drink of hot soup makes 
new men of them in a very short time." 
Twelve Delicious Varieties: 
Scotch Bioth 
Ox Tail 
Mock Tur.le 
Thick Gravy 
Pea 
Celery Cream 
Mulli^ataway 
Green Pea 
Lentil 
Hare 
Kidney 
Tomato 
Sole Proprietors and Manufacturers : 
0X0 Limited, Thames House. London. S,C^. 
Motor Utility Machines 
By H. Massac Buist 
WHILE the war has made altogether unprecedented 
demands on the world's motor industry alike for the 
production of aircraft and marine engines and for 
motors for military transport service, it is generally over- 
looked that it has, besides, enonnously accelerated the 
demand for engines for agriculture and for all forms of utility 
service in civiliart life pure and simple. Indeed, when the 
history of motoring in these islands comes to be written it 
will be found that tlie first really extensive use of agricultural 
machinery dates from the preparations made for the coming 
harvest. The shortage of horses for civilian service, which 
is an inevitable feature of any war, has enormously accelerated 
the growth of the utility vehicle movement. 
The general idea is that the agricultural motor is needed 
for ploughing only, and that if that can be arranged satis- 
factorily, the agri-motor problem is solved. The fact, how- 
ever, is scarcely n> simple, as may be promptly realised when 
it is borne in mind that on the average farm ploughing takes 
place on appro.ximately only twenty - one days of the year. 
Even on the co-operative principle -it would not be a com- 
mercial proposition to purchase motor machinery for so 
relatively few days' service, despite the fact that a motor 
differs from horseflesh in {hat when it is not in service it is 
not consuming the material which enables it to do its work. 
Moreover, if the motor equipment of a given farm, or collec- 
tion of farms, takes the form of a plough only, then it follows 
that horses must be available for all the many subsequent 
operations to which ploughing is the preliminary. Obviously, 
if horses were available for the subsequent processes they 
would be equally available for the initial one. 
Thus, the successful application of the internal combustion 
liquid-fuel engine to the agricultural problems depends in 
large measure on the variety of uses to which the machiner\' 
can be put. This becomes particularly emphasised in a 
country like our own, where the individual farm and the 
individual field are extremely small by comparison, for 
example, with the areas that are brought into cultivation in 
Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, the 
Argentine, Russia, etc. 
Ploughing Tests 
As regards the problem of motor-ploughing, tests have 
practically proved that success or failure depend not so 
much on the motor mechanism as on the ploughshare, or 
shares, employed for the work in the given district. Many 
of our agri-motor trials promoted in the eariv days of this 
war really gave a false idea of the relative ments of various 
forms of motor tractors because the point was overiooked 
that you could not judge those merits unless all the tractors 
engaged m the given competition were working precisely the 
same type of share on the given patch of land. Judges, 
moreover, in certain districts obviously were more partial to 
a certain class of share than others, long experience having 
taught them what is the most suitable for the given neigh- 
bourhood. The result was that they could not but judge 
by rather the ploughshare used than by the motor equipment 
Henceforth, therefore, it is desirable that when agricultural 
motor trials are promoted, the manufacturers entering for 
them shall always be informed what share they are to use in 
each district in which thev are to compete. It is only bv 
standardising in this fashion that the relative merits of each 
tractor can be brought out. 
The number of motor tractors that have been brought into 
service for farm work in these islands to-day is very great 
running into more thousands than there are months in the 
year. Yet we have merely touched the fringe of the develop- 
ments. The work, too, is in part handicapped by the fuel 
situation. In face of the demands during the war and on 
the coming of peace, for the lighter motor spirits, which must 
always be rendered available for aircraft work, for example 
obviously petrol must be regarded as an uncommercial fuel' 
for agri-motor purposes. Consequently, the bulk run is on 
paraffin-at anv rate, after the mechanism has been warmed 
up on petrol. The difficulties of vapourising paraffin have 
been overcome in more or less practical fashion ; but un- 
questionably, the whole business has been greatly hkndi- 
capped by the dearth of men of motor experienqe t8 initiate 
the average farm hand, who has been no more trained than 
nis,torbears to mechanism and the idea of it 
The^youths of to-day who will be the farm hands of to- 
(Conlimud on page 42.) 
