November 2004
Farm Collector Staff
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Robert T. ValentineRetiring the tractors
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This picture is of some of my recent exhibits at the New York Steam Engine Assn.'s 44th Annual Pageant of Steam in Canandaigua, N.Y., Aug. 12-15, 2004. Many 'old farmers' who have worked with hay carriers and corn shellers are glad to see these farm tools of the 1800s.
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I read Farm Collector cover-to-cover as it arrives. Jim Moffet sure keeps up with 'What Is It.'
- Ron Bennett 1870 Strong Road Victor, NY 14564-9134
Retiring the tractors
I am 83 years old, and owned and operated a farm near Leola, S.D., before retiring at age 70. I have owned and seen many different models of tractors.
There was a tractor sold by Co-op that carried the Co-op name. It also was assembled using Dodge truck parts. I can remember talking to a farmer in the Mina, S.D., area who had recently bought a new one. He praised how well it handled, the amount of power it had and that he pulled his grain drill eight miles an hour. The framework on the tractors was built with an enormous amount of 3/8-inch steel plate. As for the Co-op tractors, I saw a custom haying outfit, with a fleet of them that they used to pull their side delivery rakes. I suppose they found them ideal for fast moves from job to job.
I remember one tractor, Grey, that never shows up in any of the old tractor publications. It didn't have separate rear wheels; instead, it had a big drum extending all the way across the rear.
- Robert T. Valentine Rural Route 2, Box 2 417 Commercial Awe. S. W. Wolsey, SD 57384-2203
No, not a Farmall F-16
I have an answer to John Lad's question in the Farm Collector September 2004 issue, about the existence of a Farmall F-16 he saw at an antique thresher show.
I have photographed the Farmall F-16 in question and found that no such tractor was ever produced by International Harvester Co. The tractor in question appears to be a Farmall H engine, transmission and rear end combined with the front end and sheet metal from an F-12 or F-14 Farmall. The owner (creator?) has a convincing paint job and decal set.
This is similar to the Farmall Super H-TA commissioned by Jon Kinzenbaw of Kinze Mfg., Williamsburg, Iowa, that uses a late Super H transmission and rear end combined with an early Farmall 300 engine and torque amplifier assembly. The idea is to make it a 'convincing-as-possible' (matching casting numbers) Super H-TA.
- Stephen McCoy 3318 Harbor Ave. Newton, IA 50208
Firing up the stove
The stove remains found by Leonard Schmaltz, Farm Collector, September 2004, are cut iron portions of a parlor heater - the round part is the firebox. Any portion above that was customarily sheet metal, 18-to-22 inches high, which may have been a cast iron dome for the smoke pipe. Ornamentation of some fashion, about 4 inches wide, usually hung on the two ears. The grate lever extension appears at the opening and the ash pan was a simple sheet metal pan made to fit in the opening.