EDITORIAL. 
FARM TRACTOR TRIALS. 
Deep interest has been aroused among agriculturists in a trial of 
farm motor tractors recently held in Lincolnshire. Although the 
official report is not yet to hand, some authoritative comments upon the 
tests have been made by Messrs. T. Close, B. J. Owen, B.Sc., and H. G. 
Richardson, M.A., B.Sc., and in a conjoint statement they remark upon 
two striking facts. | With insignificant exceptions all the competing 
tractors ran practically continuously and without a hitch, and that 
a very large attendance was composed of farmers and others from all 
parts of the United Kingdom and abroad, not as spectators, but_ to 
obtain practical information as users, manufacturers, or officials. One 
noteworthy feature emphasized was that manufacturers have definitely 
departed from the idea that great weight is necessary, and are paying 
close attention to the reduction of weight. Beyond a certain point any 
increase of weight must clearly increase the liability of slipping on soft 
ground and decrease the ability of the tractor to climb gradients, besides 
increasing the risk of damage to the engine when stones are en- 
countered. Considerable attention has also been given to rendering the 
vital paris of the machine more accessible, and to providing protection 
from the effect of weather and dirt. 
CONCLUSIONS FROM THE TRIALS. 
The conclusions arrived at were that the trials were of great valie 
from a commercial and educational stand-point. It is difficult. 
to conceive of a better means of demonstrating the articles which 
a manufacturer has to sell or of affording a would-be purchaser 
a ready means of determining his choice. It should, however, 
be borne in mind that the trials were by no means exhaustive or 
final tests of the value or capacity of any machine. They cannot from 
their very circumstances afford any evidence of the durability of a 
machine, nor are they in any case strictly comparative, since there is 
no uniformity of test or conditions. The very favorable weather con- 
ditions undey which the trials were carried out, while most happy from 
a commercial and probably from an educational stand-point, in them- 
selves lightened the task both of the machines and the operators. ‘The 
fields were selected so as to give, as far as practicable, uniform soil 
conditions, but there was very considerable, although unavoidable, varia- 
tion in the plots allotted to the different types. Another point worthy 
of notice is the presence of the expert operator at trials of this char- 
acter, and the personal factor undoubtedly comes into play to a very 
considerable extent. There is room for tests of a rather different 
character, extending over a considerable period, and so arranged as to 
give approximate uniformity of task and conditions. In this way a 
standard of comparison could be instituted far more exact than is 
possible under conditions such as existed at the Lincoln trials, and the 
durability of the machines, of the first importance to farmers, could be 
evaluated. ‘There is, however, room for both types of test, and neither 
could displace the other. The popular success of the Lincoln trials is 
undoubted evidence of the need for exhibitions of that character. It 
remains to add, states the report, that British manufacturers were well 
represented at the trials, and that the British-made tractors compared 
favorably in every way with the American tractors. Apart from 
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