Show idle tractor Is P poor dinv inv investment e estment four hundred hours of work annually necessary to make expenses with certain kinds and amounts of work a tractor 1 Is jd indispensable SP e n to in the farm arm busl business ness while tinder other conditions a tractor Is ia a foolish investment says saya prof Pro fV V B hart or of cornell university the largest single item of tractor cst cost Is depreciation on new york YO rk farms depreciation to ie a little over one third of the total cost of 0 operation pe ration fuel Is the next largest item and ma mikea aps approximately another third of the cost coit the other third Is interest cash and labor tor for repairs palis rc lubrication insurance and storage cost cosi per hour with such fixed charges the total num number berof of hours of work done by a tractor makes a wide variation in the coffan cost an hour forthe tor the work done the tractors used hours a year i cost 80 86 cents an hour while the tra tractors c tors U used sed 20 hours cost for eichho each hour r in the survey made on tractor costs costa at it was found that one sixth of the tractor work done in the state was custom work and that the average tr tractor a actor in new york works work 8 on fau four r different farms Estlin estimates ites made by farmers who kept records on both traitors tractors and horses I 1 indicate that the tractor saved the work of I 1 one and eight tenths horses aballi anil ahree r and six tenths months of hired birdd labor a year the tractor including ciudin 9 equipment cost an hour I 1 ahl while 1 eche the horses with the tools used cost 68 cents an hour lioci on the average the horses coat one third more abear than the tractor but the horses worked more hours houis hore hart not displaced in spite of the popular statements that the wa work on many farms Is done entirely by tractors professor hart says we have found that horses have not yet been displaced to any great extent in the light lighter erand and more rapid field operations pe rations such as cultivating and haying 11 the greatest field use of tractors now made in new york films farms Is in the heavy draft operations like ilke plowing harrowing and disking with the tee present high cost of man and horse labor rapid development and improvement nt con can be expected in the tbt lighter farm tractor equipment he says say the tractor has many distinct advantages advantage s if it can be used i enough to be economical and if the farm layout labout Is favorable it will work long Jonk pours hours and in hot weather and it will speed eed up work in a critical time some conditions an still demand horses and pr professor 0 hart suggests that before a former i buys hi must first answer the 4 question estfon of whether it ft will pay kiy the nest question Is whether I 1 I 1 I 1 or not inot t the b e money necessary to buy and 1 operate a tractor will pay better if invested elsewhere in the farre farm business I 1 |