FARMING BY POWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 376, 9 June 1928, Page 27

FARMING BY POWER

HORSE AND TRACTOR COMPARATIVE COSTS The working out of scientific methods of management has been one of the most important advances made in recent years. Scientific management has enabled the business man to make great economies in time, energy and material used, and has resulted in greatly increasing the output for each worker in nearly every important industry. The same is true in agriculture to a very considerable extent, and greater recognition of the fact is indicated in the increasing interest shown in the application of mechanical aids to the work of the farm. This is asjr-cially so in tie case of the tractor, and at present the subject of the relative merits of the tractor as against horse teams is one which is being very extensively debated. In the wheat-growing areas especially the use of tractors has been increasing steadily, but, against this, in other farming areas there has been an equally steady tendency in favour of the horse. As is the case with most other economic problems facing the primary producer to-day, the subject at bedrock evolves itself into one of costs. The majority of individual farmers, after a careful survey of the work that has to be done and consideration of the minimum energy required to accomplish it, express themselves as being in favour of the tractor, and do not hesitate to declare that only doubts as to costa prevent them from using this source of power. However, when this information is sought it is found that little or nothing of a specific character is known. Few farmers have kept a comprehensive record of costs, and they can indicate only in a general way that costs of the tractor are heavy or light, as the case may

he. Still less is known regarding the comparative economic merits of the tractor as against the horse. The subject affords scope for both interesting and very valuable economic research. Experiments in the United States

The United States of America has applied mechanical aids to agriculture to a far greater extent than any other country, and, while conditions there are by no means comparable witb those of Australia, the general results of research work into the problem which has been undertaken there should be valuable to the Australian farmer, who is now so vitally interested in it. Exhaustive research into the comparative merits of the horse and the tractor have been carried out at the agricultural experimental station attached to the University of Illinois. The conclusions reached indicate that, judging from the experience of farmers based on the costs of using both horses and tractors, as well as from the most complete data available on the average wheat area farms growing less than 240 acres of crop, the horse costs cannot be reduced enough to offset the cost of operating the tractor. This does not mean, however, that it is posisble to use a tractor profitably on every wheat farm of more than 240 acres, for other factors than area must be taken into consideration. It has been definitely established that 240 acres is the best size, and for this alone the research has been of great value. The most important of the other factors mentioned are: (1) The annual cost of keeping horses on a given farm may be above or below the average. Obviously, with the higher cost a smaller number of horses would have to be displaced to justify the use of a tractor, and conversely the lower cost would necessitate the displacement of a larger number. (2) There may be special need for belt power and similar work on the farm or in the neighbourhood which would help to provide profitable work for the tractor. (3) The tractor operator may be above or below the average in efiiciency. This factor, which is very important, is extremely variable. Steady operation, low repair costs, and a low rate of depreciation go with the efficient operator, while the contrary is true of the inefficient operator. Naturally, when all three of the factors mentioned are in favour of the tractor, the farm on which it may be profitably used mav have considerably less than 240 acres under crop. When all these factors are against the tractor it will not prove a profitable investment even on the largest farms in the wheat belt. The. results of this research are of the highest possible value to the farmers of the United States, but, unfortunately, the man on the land in New Zealand has no such information to help him. The use of tractors, in

Canterbury at least, is sufficiently widespread now to afford scope for similar research here, and because of its value and the undoubted interest and demand for it, it should be undertaken as soon as possible. Such factors as the capital cost, depreciation, working costs, and interest of the tractor, and of the horse, and the fair average life of each, will have to be determined and compared over a period, and the other innumerable aspects considered. It is an extremely difficult problem, but one which is by no means beyond solution.