We’ve all heard stories about the neighbor, uncle or grandfather, who after farming with horses all his life finally bought a tractor. Following careful instructions from the dealer, the new tractor owner got the machine started, and was going along pretty well, when some unexpected occurrence (such as the end of a row) demanded an immediate stop. All thought of clutches and brakes fled the operator’s mind and he hauled back mightily on the steering wheel and hollered “Whoa!” for all he was worth, while the tractor continued merrily on through the fence, into the creek, or whatever.

I don’t have any such stories of my own to tell. My grandfather never drove a motor vehicle as far as I know. He owned cars, which were driven by his sons, but always farmed with horses. When my dad and my uncle took over the farm and bought a tractor, Nandad was content to ride the mower or the binder and leave the driving to others.

Sometime ago, a friend sent me an account of his grandfather’s experiences with his first tractor and gave me permission to retell the tale.

Here’s the somewhat edited story:

“My grandparents, who were getting on in age, were ‘dyed in the wool,’ small mom and pop farmers. Their annual income, which was probably less than we spend in a month, was derived from sales of milk, butter, eggs and vegetables taken to a curb market in Franklin, Pennsylvania. With that, the stage is set!

“Sometime about the end of World War II, Grandad was persuaded to get a tractor, as it would make life a bit easier. Tractors were scarce and in great demand, as were a lot of consumer goods after the war. In order to buy a tractor you had to register and you couldn’t get one of the scarce machines until your name came up.

“Well, Grandad’s name finally came up. Oh my! That was a big day! My dad and I went with Grandad to finalize the arrangements. I was pretty young and, while I knew all about what was going on, I don’t recall any of the details.

“The tractor, which I believe was a Ford 8-N (Author’s note: The Ford 8-N came out in 1947. Before that, it would have been a Ford-Ferguson 2-N), was delivered to the farm and that’s when the transition from team to tractor became interesting. Grandad could only afford to spring for a tractor, so all the old horse-drawn implements had to be converted. My dad told him (Grandad was hard of hearing) that we would have to cut off the tongues and bolt on steel to hook to the tractor’s drawbar.

“Grandad at first didn’t want any part of this because he wasn’t sure the tractor would work and he might need to go back to using the team. We got past that and cut off the tongues of the rake, mowing machine, wagon, and binder, among other implements.

“Now, all these machines needed an operator and I’ll tell you about the mowing machine and that’s all.

“Grandad had a car and did a limited amount of driving, which was understandable with the wartime scarcity of tires and gasoline. So, Grandad was proud of his driving ability and determined not to mark or scratch the shiny new tractor. However, Grandad just couldn’t get the hang of stopping the tractor, he was so used to saying “whoa” to the horses.

“I was ten or twelve and not big or heavy enough to lift the cutter bar of the mowing machine unless I slid off the seat, stood on the lift pedal with one foot, and pulled back on the lift lever with all my might. This seemed to work OK and we started mowing hay.

“Remember I said that Grandad was hard of hearing, and he just couldn’t get his brain to instinctively tell his feet to depress the clutch and brake in order to stop quickly. Many times while mowing, the hay would ball up on the cutter bar and I would have to holler Wooha! several times before Grandad heard me. He then would holler WOAHA! a couple of times before it came to him to push in the clutch.

“This caused no real problems in the field, but after you finish mowing a field it’s nice to clean up by mowing around the edge of the field in the other direction. Grandpa hadn’t made a boo-boo in several days of mowing, raking and hauling in hay and he was getting real proud of himself, however this was the final test.

“As you know, there are often surprises when going around the outside edge of a field and we found one. As we were going along, I saw we were getting too close to an old stump and began to yell “Whoa!” When Grandad heard me, he lost it and reverted to the old horse mode by yelling “WOAHA!” By the time we got stopped, the cutter bar looked like a pretzel. I can still remember how the cutter bar hooked to that stump and began to twist and tear itself up as the entire machine swung hard to the left. Yea man! We had an original thrill ride way ahead of its time.

“We found another old mower and robbed enough parts to get back in business, but I remember that after that I was the “designated driver” for some time.”

It’s fun to read these old stories of the real experiences of real people. If anyone has a tale that has to do with using horses, tractors or farm machinery, send it and I’ll see that it gets told.

I recently came across an article in the October 24th, 1925, Pennsylvania Farmer about the use of tractor power on a Pennsylvania livestock farm. The story described the tractor’s use on the 350 acre Greer Stock Farm in Lawrence County (not far from where your humble correspondent grew up) and mentioned that the tractor operator’s name was George Hackathron, although the make of the machine was never revealed.

The author points out that the tractor has been worked into the general farming scheme along with the draft horses. Some jobs were done entirely by the tractor, but on others it was sent into the field with the horses and was used “... merely as a supplementary form of power.”

The tractor was used “... in tillage work, for plowing, discing and harrowing land before the crops are put into the ground. It pulls two fourteen-inch plows without difficulty. The land on the farm is generally rolling and the tractor seems to have no difficulty in negotiating the hills.”

The article goes on to say, “But the work of the iron horse is not limited to tillage operations by any means. At wheat cutting time the tractor is hitched to a seven foot grain binder and there it has been found to work splendidly during the long hot days of harvest. There is no necessity for changing teams in the middle of the day.”

At haying time the tractor pulled the hayloader and wagon around the field “...at a pretty good rate of speed and loads a wagon in a very few minutes.” Horses were used for hauling the loaded wagons to the barns, but the speed of loading was said to be “...a mighty valuable thing when there are storm clouds gathering and a lot of hay is still on the ground.”

The Greer farm had its own twenty-two inch threshing machine which was powered by the tractor. This job could thus be done at the “... time when threshing should be done in order that the grain can be put into the bins in the best of condition ...” without having to wait on the busy custom thresherman.

After threshing, three large silos had to be filled to provide feed for the Greer’s sixty-five head of purebred Shorthorn cattle, and this job “... gives the tractor work for quite a few days.”

After the silos were filled, corn had to be husked and shelled, and then ground into livestock feed. “The tractor is used to operate the husker and the sheller and when the corn is all shelled it is dumped into the grinder and worked up into feed.”

The Greer family ran a pretty progressive operation for 1925. The author says, “Plenty of power for the work to be done is one of the slogans on the Greer Farm.” Besides the tractor, there were several gasoline engines used for pumping water.

They also had a large 5-ton motor truck that was used for hauling limestone and livestock. The Greer Stock Farm apparently showed the Shorthorns at various fairs and the truck was used to “... take a number of show animals around the fair circuit in the fall of the year.”

The article says, “... the Greer farm is nothing at all if it isn’t well limed.” Four or five carloads of raw limestone were applied every year and the truck was used to haul this “... amendment to the soil” that produced “... heavy stands of clover and alfalfa.”

The author mentions the “... fine, not new but strictly modern” farm buildings. “Every stable is provided with an overhead manure and litter carrier which facilitates cleaning out the stalls, and loading the manure into the two spreaders.”

There also was an implement and machine shed where “... every machine is kept under cover when not in use and the excellent condition of the implements at all times speaks very well for this system of operation.”

In 1925 it was still several years until International Harvester introduced the row-crop Farmall and most eastern farmers believed that tractors were only for the large farms “out west.” It was probably enlightening for them to read of an eastern farm making so much use of a tractor.

Although this Model T Ford truck is hardly a 5-ton model, and the cows aren’t Shorthorns, the illustration shows how cattle were transported by truck in the 1920s. (From an ad for the Muncie auxiliary transmission for the Model T truck on the cover of Farm Mechanics magazine for September, 1926. In the author’s collection.)