The very first use of the word “Farmall” was in the fall of 1919, the year my father was born. I asked my dad one time about his memories of life on the farm in Pennsylvania. He told me that he could not remember not having a tractor around. Fordson was king in those days and Granddad owned two of them. Dad said that they took as much water as kerosene (the water was hauled to the field in milk cans).
Henry Ford began building the Fordson in 1917. It was a low-slung, unit-frame tractor with worm gear drive that made it susceptible to rear tip-over. Fordsons were hot to operate (the heat from the rear housing would burn your legs) and most farmers complained that they were noisy and hard to start.
Dad told me about hand-cranking theirs on one occasion when it refused to fire. My dad’s brother, who was older and stronger, said, “You have to crank it faster, Harold.” Dad responded, “I was cranking as fast as I could!”
By 1923, the need became clear for a small utility tractor to assist the American farmer in his fieldwork in a sustained and practical manner. Steam power had been introduced to the farmer in the late 1800s, creating a portable power source to run threshing machinery and sawmills. A heavy-duty power source for all-day use, steam was a practical power for the time – as long as there was a ready (and robust) source of water and fuel.
In the second decade of the 20th century, large gasoline and kerosene tractors were coming on strong. For a time, they not only replaced steam tractors in stationary work but were also utilized extensively to break the western prairies with their large moldboard plows. Once the prairies had been broken out the first time, though, the large machines were no longer necessary and farmers started looking for machines of a more practical size.
Little enthusiasm for motor cultivators
When Ford brought out the Fordson tractor in 1917, it was an immediate success. It could replace a team of horses on many jobs and went a long way toward eliminating the horse as the sole source of traction power on American farms. But the Fordson also had its limitations: It did not, for instance, have clearance for cultivation of tall row crops, a job that had to be done not once but several times during the season.
Manufacturers set to work, developing motor cultivators to fill that niche, but they quickly encountered buyer resistance. Farmers balked at purchase of a machine that would perform just one job in a short season. Something was needed that could handle all of the farm’s traction needs: hauling, plowing and tillage, cultivation and harvesting, belt and power takeoff for portable machinery, in a package that was maneuverable, low maintenance and easy to work on.
In 1916, Bert Benjamin, assistant chief engineer in charge of development of the Farmall tractor, began to develop attachments that could be used with the motor cultivator to expand its utility. Experimental units up to about 1920 show implements mounted on the front of the tractor in full view of the operator and drive wheels at the front, in a reverse position of what would develop later.
Delivering “Triple Power” right out of the gate
At the same time Henry Ford began building the Fordson, International Harvester was producing 10-20 and 15-30 Titan and Mogul tractors, sound tractors that remained in production until 1939. In the process of designing a motor cultivator that could do things heavier tractors could not, International engineers came to realize that they needed to produce one tractor that would be able to cultivate as well as plow and do other work.
By 1923, the Farmall was introduced for trial. The first tests being favorable, 200 were built the following year and offered to the public. The Farmall was a true two-plow tractor, capable of performing any farm task suited to that size. It could be used to sow and reap, cut hay and rake. It had a belt pulley to run an average threshing machine or wood saw, and a power take-off for driven implements. These features caused it to be advertised as “Triple Power.”
The crowning jewel was the front-mounted cultivator, capable of steering around corn hills when the row was less than exactly straight. In the days before herbicides, corn was planted in a checkerboard fashion so the rows could be cross-cultivated. That was the only way to get good weed control.
And that was where the Farmall came into its own. The operator sat right up on the seat with a good view of the rows coming up. If he ran over corn, he knew whose fault it was. The cultivator was integrated with the tractor steering, so when he turned the tractor, the cultivator shovels turned too, making for precise control. At the end of the field, he’d raise the implement with two handy levers. With independent rear differential brakes also integral with the steering, he could practically turn on a dime to head back for the next pass.
It was the right product, at precisely the right time
The 1923 Farmall is a marvel of tractor engineering. Everything needed for farm power is packaged in one complete machine. Where the farmer once headed to the field with a team of horses, now he could take the Farmall instead, and complete his chores with ease and economy.
The name “Farmall” was registered July 17, 1923, and 22 tractors were built that year. In 1924, 205 units were produced. By June 1928, daily Farmall production numbers nearly doubled, jumping from 65 units to 125. By January 1930, the Farmall Works was building 200 tractors a day. The 100,000th Farmall was built April 12, 1930. The American corn-belt farmer knew that the tricycle-type tractor was what he wanted for his row-crop work.
From the time the Farmall was put on the market in 1924 until at least 1929, the tricycle configuration with front-mounted cultivator had no peer among all major American tractor manufacturers. After that time, every major manufacturer (and many smaller ones) had a Farmall-type tractor in its lineup.
A model of perfection
With the Farmall, the mechanical horse had come to stay. Other manufacturers frantically shoved their ideas on the market with some success. Demand through mid-century was so strong that almost anything that would pull a plow could be sold. The years following World War II were boom times in farming. A neighbor once told me he bought a new combine and a quarter section of ground planted to wheat. Later that year, he harvested the wheat and paid for the land and the combine with the proceeds. International Harvester produced its 1 millionth Farmall in 1947. By 1974, the company had built 5 million tractors.
In my opinion, engineers of the early 1920s – having been raised during the horse-farming era – had a severe flaw in their thought processes. When they finally realized that they no longer needed to fit the implements to the tractor but needed to build a tractor to meet the requirements of the implement, that is when progress began to be made.
The geometry of the front-mount cultivator is perfect. I don’t believe that the engineers even realized what they had done until after the fact. When you operate a front-mounted cultivator with a front-steering tractor, as the tractor turns, the implement turns. What they had done, as opposed to trying to push or pull the machine as had been done previously, was to hang the cultivator on the horse. FC
On June 15-17, 2023, the International Harvester Collectors will celebrate the centennial of the Farmall at the Red Power Roundup in Fonner Park, Grand Island, Neb. Several early examples of the Farmall will be on display during the event.
Howard Raymond is a retired cattle rancher in southwest Nebraska. He enjoys visiting about old-time farming practices, Red Angus cows and Farmall tractors. He also is Special Exhibits Chairman for the upcoming Red Power Roundup. Email him at nebraskacowman@gmail.com; phone: (308) 650-1527.
Originally published in the March 2023 issue of Farm Collector.
