The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1899-08-17
BEST WIDTH OF TIRE.

BEST WIDTH OF TIRE.
RESULT OF A SERIES OF TESTS AND
EXPERIMENTS.
For All Purposes a Tire SIX Inches
In Width of Tread Gives the Most
Satisfactory Results - Length of
AxIes Should Be the Same.
Six inches Is che width Of the tire
which will best serve the farmer for
all round purposes This Is the result
Of long series of accurate tests and
experiments made at the Missouri ag-
ricultural experiment station The ex-
periments extended over period of
20 months, in all kinds of weather and
Oh all kinds of:rpadss and farm .Yands.
Urestor II: J. Waters, who conduct
ed THE Experiments; .;nsae. it-his ear-
pose to arrts:af the Exact truth OF
tue, matter and had tEo-wagons spe.
ciafly arranged for the tests. They
were Of exactly the same weight, one
being fitted with ordinary one-half
inch tires, the other with six inch tires.
Each was loaded with exactly 1000
pounds
These wagons were hauled over all
kinds Of dirt and gravel roads, both
wet and dry, and over various kinds Of
farm lands, the pull exerted by the
horses being carefully measured by
the help Of tractometer. It was
found that the same power needed to
draw the narrow tired wagon with its
1000 pound load ON a gravel road
would have pulled load of 2,4S2
pounds ON the wide tired wagon. The
same power required to draw the 1000
pound load on narrow tires over dirt
and gravel roads when these were dry
and hard was found sufficient to draw
a $3.50 pound load on the wide tired
wagon under the same conditions, and
it was shown that when these roads
were deep with mud, but partly dried
at.ebe surface by a few hours san, tis
same power required to draw the 1000
pound load over them on the nartow
tires would pull load of 8, 200 pounds
on the wide tires
Director Waters states that the con-
ditions unde- which the narrow tires
offehan advantage over the wide ones
are unusual and Of short duration"
and that through a majority of days
in the year and at times when the dirt
roads are most used and when their
ic he
wagon will pull materially lighter than
the narrow tired wagon
He states that "a large number of
tests on meadows, pastures, stubble
land. corn ground and plowed ground
in every condition, from dry, hard and
firm to very wet and soft, show with
out single exception large differ
ence in draft in favor of the broad
tires. This difference ranged from IL
to 100 per cent" As a result Of all
experiments conducted he says, 1T APP
pears that six inches is the best width
of tire for q combination farm and
road wagon and that both aXles should
be the same length, so that the front
and hind wheels will run in the same
track" $50
Other experiments have shown that
much less power is required to haul
a loaded wagon If IT be provided with
wide tires. sQue> Of these tests was
made by the officers of the United
States department. Of agriculture at
the Atlanta exposition In 1896. Two
wagons, both weighing alike with their
loads, were drawn over q wet piece OF
clay road, one wagon having two inch
tires, the other with four inch tires
and with the rear wheels farther apart
than the front wheels, 80 as not to run
In the same track. It was found by
the use Of the tractometer that twice
as much pull was required to haul the
two inch tired wagon as was required
for the other. That part Of the road
traFersed by the narrow tired wagon
was cut and rutted to a depth Of sew
eral inches, while the tires Of the 9th
err wagon had rolled the road into q
smooth and hard surface.
Experiments made at the agricuftur-
al experiment station in Utah have
demonstrated that IL inch tired
wagon drew about 40 per cent heavier
than one with three inch tires and
weighing with its load the same as
the other. At the Ohio State universe
ty it was shown that wagon with
three inch tires and loaded with ALSO
pounds could easily be hauled by two
horses oyer an ordinary dirt road in
good condition and with a hard sur
face, while with narrow tire half as
much was full load for double
team.
The general use Of wide tires would
do great deal to maintain our roads
In good condition. Narrow tires neces-
sarily wear ruts and cut up the road
surface. Water and narrow tires work
together to destroy streets and roads
OF all kinds, whether macadam. dirt or
gravel
The value Of wide tires as road roll
ers has been strikingly illustrated in
Onondaga county. N. Y. The SoIvay
Process company of Geddes. in that
county, were accustomed to hauling
heavy loads Of stone for AZ miles from
the quarry. To test the wide tire theory
they built several wagons having four
inch tires on the front wheels and six