Show l r Nl-r u 19 AWAi 5 R M r Thousands of Tractors Now Nov in in Use on Farms in All Parts of the W World orId nOSE HOSE who have watched the theT operation of the tanks at the movies and have marvelled at the T II lumbering machines s that crawl over the face of the earth like pre prehistoric monsters have gained some idea of the adaptability of I. I 7 the modern tank No other armored machine that moves upon the ground is isso isso isso so capable of surmounting obstacles When the tile squadron of tanks appeared in the vanguard vanguard van van- guard of Byng's yng's famous drive at Cambrai its appearance appearance ap ap- ap- ap seemed providential writes Hamilton M. M Wright in the New York Sun The armored leviathans leviathans levia levia- thans pushed through the German barbed wire entanglements entanglements en en- as If they were so many cobwebs They sidestepped deep pockets stretched their long tracks over miniature chasms chasing dipped rose backed and nd tipped Upped at dangerous angles as they picked their way forward amid a han hall of missiles And yet for all Its supreme adaptation to the needs of the hour the tank was not invented for war purposes The first tanks fanks Introduced Into I Europe were used In lumbering operations and In heavy hauling Just as they were In the United States Rapidly their use was extended to large larg e agricultural u r works and before the present wa war er r utu ULU e our me the tract track layers layers lay lay- ers were well-known well in every country in hi the world Even the prosaic track tracklayer layer used In farming will Ivill if armored armored arm arm- ored make a tank forwar for forWar forwar war use Indeed during durIng dur dur- ing the 1917 1911 recruiting season ordinary track layers armored with sheet iron plowed through walls almost as readily as the biggest war tanks yet built bunt At the present time 2 G SS S'S oj Y o h. h F k yr rh a N N tiNa J 9 t x t IL nA n 11 1 A An 0 rP vr 6 J J VI J V CJ A 4 v v n c CSC J aM YN X a Ja Xo T. T rw n K lYE CO r F HE or Of WA lJ a n r k j r t c ra 4 J if b t r f i rd i a i r rYA a NO ISTER TA IK JC OS TYPE P m o moo track layers are used i In plantation work In Cuba the Philippines Java Hawaii South Africa and so on throughout the world There are almost one hundred of them at work in Hawaii taken there from California where the tractor flourishes They are hauling logging trains in Maine Montana Montana Mon Mon- tana Wisconsin Minnesota and Canada as efficiently effi effi- as they are transporting supplies in the mining regions of the West On the dusty roads of the Panamint range where the steep grades wear down the spirit of the strongest mule teams and where water stations are few and far between between be be- tween track layers are as valuable for freighting as they are In the heat and whirling sand c clouds of the Mojave Desert There are at the present time about fifteen firms engaged In making tractors wi with h the end less belt type of drive There are be between veen eight and ten thousand tractors of this type of all aU different different dif dif- dif dif- ferent makes now In use In the world Factories are now speeding the construction of these tr track laying tractors for the use of the United States in the field artillery marine corps signal corps and other oilier branches of the service Armored track layers are ore used In hauling supplies supplies supplies sup sup- plies over ground that cannot travel on on Today manufacturers of track layers find the war orders tax tar th their ir facilities to such an extent that they are not able to keep up with the commercial commercial commercial com com- mercial demand The advance of the tank over the earth suggests suggests suggests sug sug- the movement of a living creature Y Yet t Its operation Is simple The track layer lays Its track down In to front of the frame ro rolls ls over It picks it up again and repeats the process The track consists of i a a geared broad-geared belt or endless chain pf of flat fiat steel teel links which is put in motion by large supporting chain wheels which fit Into the Inside of ot the belt by gears It thus resembles a belt stretched around the front andrear andrear and andrear rear wheels of an automobile and presenting a flat surface on the ground The outside of the belt Is comprised of broad links known as track plates which are rl to to prevent their slipping clipping The inside of the belt contains the twin tracks upon which rest the rollers that support the weight of the tractor Nine out of ten persons who watch vatch a tractor demonstration em for the first time get the Impression sloe sion that the track itself is moving upon the ground The illusion is created by the fact that the top of lf the belt is observed to be going for for- ward But the forward motion of that part of the belt Is taken up by the forward motion of the car If It the car Is raised from the ground and the motor set In motion the belt will be seen revolving revolving re re- around the supporting chain wheels In Inthis Inthis Inthis this case the tank Is absolutely at rest There are two belts one on either side of the car When the car goes straight ahead both b belts revolve at even speed But the right and left lefthand hand tracks may be bo operated Independently Through the operation of Clutches that correspond correspond corre corre- spond to those In to an automobile one track may maybo maybe maybe be bo brought to a standstill while the other track continues s to move at nt normal speed The tank with all its power applied on one side will make a sharp turn If It the right hand track Is moving and the left is Is' Is still the tho tonic tank will turn turu to the left The weight t of at the tank Is distributed along the whole length of ot the track In the crumbling newly newly new new- ly Iy reclaimed land of the the San Joaquin delta Call Call- fornia track k layers layers' travel on soil that will not support the weight of a n man much less a horse They will pass over o cracks in the crumbling earth that a horse could fall Into dragging harrows over ver th the thi uneven ground until all crevices aro are aref f 1 Ij filled with earth and the new-made new fields presents a finely mulched even surface The tank is not only first in war It is first In peace For its weight it has more pulling power than any farm machine made It is the biggest money saver and time saver ever Introduced for power purposes upon the farm The division of agricultural engineering of the University of at California Call Cali fornia has found that one man with a 45 horsepower horsepower horse horse- power tractor on the university farm can do the work of from three to six men with mules Moreover Moreover Moreover More More- over the same machine may be kept going day and night a great advantage In California wh where re reIt it Is necessary to get a n large amount of work done In a short time And It requires n no feed or care when not working g. g For a varied Illustration of what a track layer can do take talce the case of the L 54 a husky little 45 horsepower tractor which has been out of the shop for eighteen months The writer watched her working and learn learned d of her career since tl the e day she left the factory She was hauling beets beets' when I first saw tier lier Under the thrust of her powerful engines she went forward in a cloud of dust that hid her from all eyes eyes but her drivers She mounted the sides of the levee dragging her ow own weight of five and one-half one tons and two ton eleven-ton truckloads of beets as easily as If there had been no load at ataU atall all The ground on the Island Is what ranchers In fn the delta of the San Joaquin river call peat bottom bottom bot bot- tom fluff It gave under like saw logs logs' in a amill mill boom as the little L 54 dragged her weight over it hugging the ground as closely as a badger When she had reached the top L L 54 54 stopped a moment moment mo mo- ment and the driver got his bearings Then the gears connected with her right track her left track tract remaining stationary and she swung around from right to left her on own axis quite as rapidly rapIdly rap rap- Idly as a lady In the fox trot This however was nothing for the L She Slie can go backward or forward up hill or down aown and can spin around all day like a dervish if her driver throws In but one clutch lutch Time and again she has picked her way over the peat bogs of the newly reclaimed land skirted the edge of big cracks six or eight feet deep backed bathed and sidestepped and bridged miniature chasms confident confident- that nothing sh short it of ot ota a In cave-In of the whole ear earth h could stop her progress and that the harrows plows plows' or trucks behind were bound to follow wherever she led L 54 Is a ponderous deliberate creature with a n tremendous grip upon the earth If covered with sheet Iron and armored she could tear her way through wire entanglements as easily as Byng's tanks tore through the German defenses at Cam Cam- brat brai But more than all things else she is a n money saver and a n man saver This is Is' Is all In the days day's work wi with th 54 L and nights night's work too In fact her driver can remember ber bel when she worked all day and then went at It at night with an acetylene lamp plowing up beets with a subsoil plow 16 Inches deep She has tins been ben on the Job in one way or another all the time for 18 months She had pulled a n grader holding five cubic yards of ot dirt to level the land for l irrigation rl before before before be be- fore a single acre had been put into beets She had been lent to a n farmer In the nearby foothills He lIe had luid hitched her up to a n shaped chisel-shaped sub- sub soller that wo would ld break the hardest ground In the district and she silo had bad the land to a depth of 20 Inches breaking up the plow hard pan where ten fen span of horses had failed For the first time In 25 years that land had produced 80 30 bushels bushels bushels bush bush- els of wheat to the acre When WIlen the L 54 mounted the levee with her two lie J t loads of beets she was doing doing dOng do dO- ing ng the work of ten two- two horse teams With hay a at 30 a ton rolled barley at from 55 to 60 00 a n ton and other feed teed proportionately high it will keep a farmer busy to feed his work stock let alone make a profit The United States department of agriculture agriculture agriculture ture once made an estimate that it cost in feed and time t to keep a horse throughout through through- out the year The operation of L 54 which replaces 20 horses costs as follows Twenty five gallons of distillate distillate distillate dis dis- developing 20 horsepower horsepower horse horse- power the work of 20 horses for ten hours at 10 cents per gallon two gallons gallons gal gal- lons Ions of cylinder oil at about 55 cents a gallon LIO track oil ll transmission oil n nand and arid cup grease will probably go from 75 cents to 1 a day Total If It anything In the world could stave off oft a threatened crisis In the worlds world's food supply supply supply sup sup- ply It would be the tank In agriculture If u there were a sufficient number of at gasoline tractors m su toe w we United States today with men who knew how to operate them and take care of them there would be no question but that we could export to our allies every bushel of wheat they require and still have an abundance for our own use T That at is If old Mother Nature and the weather weatherman man did not conspire to turn things topsy The first track layers ever manufactured and put Into commercial use were were very much like the track layers sent over to the Russian armies before before be be- fore the disturbed our c calculations asto asto as asto to the course of the war They were adapted to haul baul heavy loads through snow Ice mud and slush and on uneven roads In the logging woods of Maine They were Invented by A. A O. O Lombard of Waterville Me who Is so far as Is known the inventor of the track layer He p put t his first track tracklayer tracklayer tracklayer layer in operation early In 1000 1900 and secured a a patent on It on May 21 1901 mOl In the six months following our declaration that thata a state of war existed with Germany an average of two gas tractor companies have been Incorporated incorporated Incorporated each day They are good Indifferent and of the tho stock-selling stock rich quick bad Some a are e variety There is no way of telling how many gasoline tractors tractor there e are In In use upon the farms of the theU U United States An expert In automobile power puts th the number at I Farm Form experts already foresee the day when gasoline power will be almost universal In agri agrI- culture The Tile war In a few months has done more to Increase the demand for mechanical power on the far farm than years of peace would have accomplished The faithful horse will never leave us but much of his hardest work will be done by gasoline even on the smaller farms |