Worcester Democrat And The Ledger Enterprise

Fuel and oil requirements for two-plow and three-plow tractors on Corn Belt farms, when figured on the basis of acres covered or other work done per day, are practically the same for both sizes, according to the investigations of the United States Department of Agriculture in costs of operating tractors. While the three-plow outfit with its more powerful motor requires a correspondingly greater amount of fuel and oil than the two-plow outfit when performing the same kind of work under identical conditions, the larger amount of fuel and oil is offset in the greater amount of work done per day.

For the heavy operations, such as plowing and disking, the two-plow outfits require an average of about 18 gallons of fuel per day and 4 quarts of oil and the three-plow outfits about 23 gallons of fuel and 5 gallons of oil. By careful operation the amounts used on works where the tractor is not loaded to capacity can be reduced somewhat. There are instances, however, where an operator of the smaller outfit has used as much as 25 gallons of fuel and 3 gallons of oil per day, which is as much or more than operators of most three-plow tractors use. When an instance of this kind occurs it is usually the fault of the operator in not having the carburetor and oiling systems properly adjusted.