Asking for the Farmer’s Trust

By The Farm Collector Staff
Published on July 9, 2019
article image
Curtesy of Farm Collector Staff

 

When children show up in advertising for heavy durable goods like farm equipment, they’re there for a reason. Adriance, Platt & Co. communicated a message of trust and confidence with this image, in which four children are entrusted to their faithful horse to carry them safely across a stream. Likewise, the farmer should trust Adriance equipment to be dependable and durable.

Dating to 1889, this chromolithograph promoted the trademarked line of Buckeye, Adriance, and Triumph horse-drawn farm machinery. In the background are scenes showing the company’s mowers, grain binders, and reapers.

John P. Adriance began making harvesting machines in Worchester, Massachusetts, in 1854. He moved to Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1857, and began manufacturing the Buckeye mower and reaper. The company name was changed to Adriance, Platt & Co. as early as 1866. In 1867, he was successful in attaching a self-raker to the Buckeye reaper. The name “Buckeye” is a trademark given to the mowing machine, which first successfully introduced two driving wheels and a double-jointed folding cutter bar. In 1889, Adriance introduced a lighter and more compact rear-discharge harvester and binder (illustrated in a vignette in the poster’s lower left corner).

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