For some time, efforts to procure for army service some really reliable internal combustion tractors running on paraffin were continued. In February, 1909, trials were held at Aldershot, in connection with which a considerable premium and valuable prospective orders were offered as an inducement to manufacturers to turn their attention to this class of machine. The entrants, however, only numbered three. One of these was a substantial four-cylinder Thornycroft paraffin tractor, which performed well throughout and was ultimately successful in obtaining an award, though it does not appear that the type has since been adopted in any quantity. A very singular machine which did wonderful work for its power was a Broom and Wade single-cylinder paraffin tractor of about 20 h.p. The work of hauling a heavy military trailer with a load of about 6 tons was, on occasions, too much for this machine under the sometimes very arduous conditions under which the trials were carried out. The third entry hardly came within the scope of what the War Department wished to encourage. It was a Stewart-Crosbie steam tractor with a two-cylinder compound double-acting engine giving 40 b.h.p. at 600 r.p.m. It was able to meet the stipulations as to capacity for carrying fuel and water supplies, since the boiler was of the vertical central-fired water-tube type working at 200 lbs. pressure, and supplying to the engine superheated steam which had been passed through coiled tubes in the furnace. During the greater part of the trials the roads round Aldershot were covered with a thick coating of snow, which constituted a serious difficulty for iron-tyred tractors when using public thoroughfares in time of peace. In emergency, it would of course have been possible to fit spikes, or grips of some kind, to the wheels to prevent skidding and slipping, but this could only be done at the risk of great injury to the roads which did not appear justifiable under the circumstances. All three tractors were provided with means for employing their engine power through the medium of a wire rope, and this had to be utilised in some cases to get the loads up some of the very steep gradients encountered. The trials terminated in an extraordinarily difficult test across the Long Valley. Here much loose sand was negotiated successfully, and afterwards the engines were required to get their loads across a deep swamp. The Thornycroft was the most successful, but even the little Broom & Wade machine managed to carry out the work by means of a system of pulleys applied to its wire rope gear. It was curious to watch this little engine dragging its big load in a trailer which had sunk almost to the wheel tops in mud and water. Occasionally, turf and mud had to be dug away from the front of the trailer, and when it was in motion the wheels were actually rotating slowly in the wrong direction under the influence of the pressure of a continuous supply of weed-bound mud surging over their tops.