‘The Fordson at Work,’ a booklet published by the Ford
Motor Co. over 50 years ago to present testimonials of satisfied
users, is now available for modern collectors and restorers.
In 76 pages, with many pictures, the company reprinted letters
of praise from farmers all over the country, telling of the many
ways in which their Fordson tractors had proved valuable.
‘I have no horses, and do not need them,’ wrote F. N.
Bruce from Yuba City, Calif. He bought his Fordson in 1919.
‘During three and one-half days,’ he said, ‘I plowed
for my neighbor and made $145.00.’
‘I plowed and disced 66 acres last August,’ wrote Edwin
Gumm, of Galesburg, Ill., ‘while my neighbor plowed 20 acres
with four horses.’
Enthusiastic users included Herbert Jeffers, aged nine, and
Rachel Jeffers, twelve, of Lyons, Ind. Herbert plowed 34 acres in
44 hours with a Fordson, and Rachel harvested 20 acres of wheat in
a single day.
This booklet is full of home flavor, and it is easily possible
that some of the persons whose names are in it are alive and
farming today, such as Herbert and Rachel Jeffers.
All sorts of ways to get work out of the Fordson were
listed.
On the Vanderbilt Biltmore Estate at Asheville, N.C., it was
shown operating a corn husker. It pulled logs to the yard, then
operated the sawmill for Enterprise Lumber and Fuel Yard, Auburn,
Wash. It helped spray fruit trees in the orchard of A.H. Leonard,
Winter Haven, Fla.
One of its most unusual services was pumping water for the city
of McRae, Ga. At Wadesboro, N.C., it operated a cotton gin for J.A.
Rayfield.
Meant as an advertising piece, the booklet is full of nostalgia
and the flavor of Fordson farming in the 1920s. It is available
from Stemgas Publishing Co., Box 328, Lancaster, Pa. 17604, at
$3.00 a copy plus 25 cents for handling and mailing.
