How Ford Tractors Were Born

October 25th, 2009 | by real |

If you grew up on a farm, you are likely experienced with Ford tractors. Tractors by Ford have been milestones in the history of world farming. The venerable Fordson and its progeny forged an inheritance of affordability, dependability, and capacity that set the standard for farming.

This article is about the first fifty years of Ford tractors, about the Ford men and women who formed the company, and about the times when these tractors were new.
The need for farming machinery grew out of the dreams of the revolutionary farmers in the Great Plains and the far West of north America. Fledging farm machinery firms spawned the first, huge, steam-powered machines in North America. These enormous tractors were capable of handling twelve or more plow bottoms, and were the prime movers for the monstrous early threshers. At that point in North America, 93 percent of the populace lived on farms, but only a few on giant farms. Most USA citizens and Canadians subsisted on farms of forty acres (sixteen hectares) or less whole continentals regularly lived on even smaller farms.

These tiny farmers in north America lived in the styles of houses immortalized by Grant Wood and granny Bell invented the phone in 1876, but few found their way into rural homes till after World War II. Henry Ford’s Model T auto became the farmer’s chum in 1908, providing the farm family with a new liberty and mobility.

Life on these little farms depended on the pony. The farmer usually had one horse for each 10 acres (4 hectares) under tillage. The pony was more than simply a farm animal like a cow or pig, and more than only a pet like a moggy or dog; a friendship developed between farmer and pony. The horse toiled along with the farmer to provide food for all. And both shared in the rewards, with each horse yearly eating the output of approximately three acres (1.2 hectares ). Because horses wanted to eat some of what they produced, the opportunity for the small tractor arose.

The first decades of the twentieth century saw tractors grow to giant proportions. Hugh Cases, Rumelys, Hart-Parrs, and gigantic world Harvesters ruled the fields in the US and Canada ; Saundersons and Marshalls worked great Britain ; Renault in France ; Fiat in Italy ; Lanz and Deutz in Germany ; and Caldwell Vale and Jelbart in Australia all tilled the soil. Only farmers with great spreads of land could use or afford these monsters. And horses were still required, as these behemoth tractors were only helpful for plowing and belt work.
the arrival of the gas-engine-powered farm tractor is normally credited to two people named Charles-Charles Hart and Charles Parr. They made the 1st successful production tractor in Charles city, Iowa, in 1902. In doing so, they started the internal-combustion traction engine industry and coined the term ‘tractor.’

A gold rush was shortly on to build ever smaller, lighter, and more helpful tractors. Case had been in the steam traction engine business since 1885, but in 1913 added internal-combustion tractors. World Harvester introduced tractors in 1906. Masse-Harris and John Deere acquired existing tractor firms to add to their list of farm implements in 1917 and 1918 respectively.

It was into this world the Fordson arrived in 1917. It was little and cheap, designed for the small farm, and his interest in tractors, he related in an interview, was to make farming what it ought to be, the most nice and profitable profession in the world.’ For the next 50 years, tractors from Ford were tailored to the requirements of small farmers around the planet.

These, then, were the times that gave birth to the classic Fordson, Ford-Ferguson, Ferguson, and Ford tractors in north America and Europe.


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