None of the Farmall "letter-series" 4-cylinders had a balance shaft...and they did OK, for their era.
With a 4-cylinder 4-stroke engine, you have a cylinder firing every 180 degrees of crankshaft rotation; with an inline six, you have a cylinder firing every 120 degrees. If bore and stroke are equal between the 4 and the six--which seldom occurs--the six always has two more "mouths to feed" at any given RPM.
About the closest to the "all things being equal" that I know of in the IH/Farmall line are the 806, which had the 301 cid gas six...and the 544, which had the 200 cid four. [Since you brought up balance shafts, I chose a 4-cylinder that has one.] Same bore and stroke, just that the 806 had 50% more cylinders. The 544 was rated at about 53 PTO horsepower, and used 4.4 gallons of fuel per hour. The 806 was rated at 93 PTO horsepower, but consumed 7.4 gallons per hour to do it. So the 50% more cubic inches produces 75% more horsepower...and uses 68% more fuel to do it. [Notice, too, that the C301 in the 806 is rated at 2400 rpm max, and the C200 is rated at 2200 rpm.]
So which tractor is "better"? Depends on what your needs are for a particular job. If you need a 120 hp tractor, BOTH are gonna suck. If the job only requires around 50 hp or less, why not use the 4-cylinder and put the fuel savings in your pocket? And when you get to the point of needing 75-80 hp, the 4-cylinder is gonna suck. As I said, it all depends on what your NEEDS are. Y'know why 8N Fords remain popular? Because that's all the tractor some folks NEED for what they do with a tractor.
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Today's Featured Article - Old Time Threshing - by Anthony West. A lovely harvest evening late September 1947, I was a school boy, like all school boys I loved harvest time. The golden corn ripens well and early, the stoking, stacking,.... the drawing in with the tractors and trailers and a few buck rakes thrown in, and possibly a heavy horse. It would be a great day for the collies and the terrier dogs, rats and mice would be at the bottom of the stacks so the dogs, would have a busy time hunting and killing, all the corn was gathered and ricked in what we c
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