Best picks in calendars
John Deere Tractor Legacy 16-month calendar (September 2013 through December 2014) with photography by famed photographer Ralph W. Sanders. To order, call Voyageur Press, (800) 458-0454 or visit Voyageur online.
John Harvey’s Classic Farm Tractors 2014 calendar, 2014 Collector’s Edition, 25th in the series. Companion piece available at a separate charge: wall poster featuring the cover photo from each of the John Harvey calendars since the series launched in 1990. Twenty-five handsomely restored antique tractors in full color. Call (800) 888-8979 or visit Classic Tractors.
Have some little folks on your shopping list? Set ’em up with My Name is Huber: A Tractor’s Story. Authors Jane Aumann and Cindy Ladage bring a 1927 Huber tractor to life, allowing the tractor to tell its story from the time it leaves the factory, bound for the farm, to the day the Huber realizes it’s being pushed aside by new equipment. Happily, the tractor is ultimately restored by the original owner’s grandson. Along the way young readers learn a bit about life on the farm and simple images allow children to fill out scenes in their own minds. My Name is Huber: A Tractor’s Story, Jane Aumann and Cindy Ladage, softcover, 26 pages, b/w illustrations. Available through Amazon and Oak Tree Press at ShopOTPBooks; and direct from the authors at (217) 741-9509.
For collectors or hobby farmers, Compact Tractors is a useful guide to an often overlooked category. The book zooms in on the history and evolution of compacts and their implements and the small tractor in general, with major focus on the introduction of what is known today as the “modern” compact in the 1970s. Includes period ads and current photos. Compact Tractors: An Illustrated Guide and History, Dennis David, softcover, 112 pages, photos in b/w and color, Iconografix, 2013. To order, call (800) 289-3504; online at Enthusiast Books.
A classic example of the good old boy who lives down the road, Alan Easley (an occasional contributor to Farm Collector) has penned his memoirs and tales of his forebears in a style as comfortable as a couch on the porch. No words minced, no punches unpulled and no shortage of plain old country cussin’ in this rambling collection of “good old days” anecdotes. Good (and mostly) clean fun. It Must Be True: Paw-Paw Said So, Alan Easley, hardback, 258 pages, b/w photos, NukeWorks Publishing, Fulton, Mo., 2013. Available at Amazon and from the author: Alan Easley, 8300 E. Turner Farm Rd., Columbia, MO 65201; $25 (postage included).
For Early Farm Tractors: A History in Advertising Line Art, graphic artist and historian Jim Harter has drawn from 20th century advertising cuts and earlier engravings in compiling a wealth of line art predating the Great Depression. The book includes brief overviews of steam traction engines, cable plowing and early farm tractor manufacturers — but most of the content is given over to tractor line art from 1909-’29. Richly detailed illustrations stand proudly on their own in black-and-white, allowing the essence of the tractors to come shining through. Early Farm Tractors: A History in Advertising Line Art, Jim Harter, hardback, 152 pages, b/w illustrations, Wings Press, 2013. To order, call (210) 271-7805 or visit Wingspress. FC