One word describes those early Prairie tractors: BIG.

Rumely OilPull tractor.
Huber Mfg. Co. tractor.
Aultman & Taylor tractor.

They were huge machines designed and sold for one purpose, to break the centuries-old sod of the Midwest. These gas-powered behemoths were sold to replace steam traction engines.

Most of these tractors were built in the early 1900s, primarily in the ’teens. There were many manufacturers: Advance-Rumely, Aultman & Taylor, Avery, Case, Emerson Brantingham’s Big 4, Gaar-Scott, Hart-Parr, Huber, IHC Mogul and Titan, Kinnard-Haines Flour City, Minneapolis Threshing Co., Minneapolis Twin City, and the Wallis Bear, to name a few.

They were heavy. Most tipped the scales at six tons or more. They were tall. Rear wheels on most were at least 8 feet high. All came on steel wheels equipped with steel lugs of some kind. They were powerful. Most were 30-60s, 35-70s or 40-80s.

Although they used a lot of fuel, in the Plains states, kerosene, distillate and gasoline were more plentiful than the coal or wood required to fire steam traction engines. They had large cooling system reservoirs, but they needed less water than did a steam engine. Some, such as the Hart-Parr and Rumely, used motor oil for coolant.

These tractors could pull an 8-bottom platform plow in tough soils. But occasionally, even with the weight and power, they would need more traction. Aultman & Taylor helped solve that problem. The company provided what is called a “mud lug.” It went between the two existing chevron lugs. The mud lug was about 3 inches deep to provide extra traction. Dan Ehlerding, Jamestown, Ohio, has a complete set of mud lugs for his 30-60 Aultman & Taylor.

	The rear fenders of some Aultman & Taylor tractors slid up to allow mud lugs to be mounted.

Aultman & Taylor

On Aultman & Taylor tractors equipped to use mud lugs, each rear fender had a sliding panel (or door). When raised,  the rear wheel was exposed. That made it much easier for the operator to add the mud lug. He simply raised the door and bolted the mud lug in place. Then he moved the tractor forward far enough to expose the next position for mounting a mud lug. He repeated the process until all the lugs had been installed on both rear wheels.

Voilà. Now the tractor could get a better grip in wet land or loose ground to pull a heavy load without slippage. Dan says the Aultman & Taylor was well built, reliable, durable and long-lasting. Many are still around: That’s why you see more of them than any other prairie tractor at shows.

After the big push to break prairie sod, most of these big tractors were used in road construction. The company was bought out by Advance-Rumely in 1924. In 1931, Allis-Chalmers bought out Rumely, primarily to acquire the company’s sales outlets and the famous Aultman & Taylor separator. But that’s another story.

I found in an old farm textbook a chart showing how many miles are traveled in plowing an acre of ground.

The chart is reproduced here:

Can you imagine the thoughts of a 19th century, Midwestern farmer setting out to plow the “back 40” we’ve all heard so much about? A 40-acre field is one-quarter of a mile on each side, or one full mile around the outside edge.

Russell Lee Bill Stagg turning up pinto beans, October 1940, Pie Town, N.M.

According to the chart above, in plowing that 40-acre field with a 12-inch walking plow (the standard size for two horses), our sturdy farmer (not to mention his faithful team of horses, mules or oxen) would have to walk 330 miles, and that doesn't include getting to and returning from the field. Allowing time for periodically resting the animals, a slowly plodding yoke of oxen would have required about 25 10-hour days to plow 40 acres.

It’s small wonder that horses steadily replaced oxen, even though a horse cost more to feed, had less stamina and was more excitable, and besides that, couldn’t be eaten when he became too old to work (well, he could, but it wasn’t real popular). A horse could walk almost a mile an hour faster than an ox, bringing the total time to plow 40 acres down to about 16 10-hour days. A modern tractor with a 5-bottom, 16-inch plow could easily knock off the entire field in a day.

Where I grew up in western Pennsylvania, farms were smaller – 50 to 100 acres, including the farmstead, pastures and a woodlot or two. The fields were usually from two to 10 acres. We always called our largest field, way at the back of the farm, the “20-acre field,” but it was actually about 17 acres. It was raised in the center with the land sloping off in all directions. I remember plowing it with a Ford-Ferguson tractor and a 2-bottom, 12-inch mounted plow. We usually plowed around the field and it seemed as though you would never, ever get to the top of the hill and be able to see the plowed ground on the other side. It would take me two or three days to finish that field, and I didn’t have to walk.

I can only imagine my grandfather, and his father and grandfather before him, starting out to plow the “20-acre field” with his trusty team and a 12-inch walker. Every day he had a 1-mile walk each way to and from the field and then all those miles and miles of walking in the furrow to finish that 17 acres. It’s no wonder there were no diets, exercise machines or fat farms in those days.