Oliver and the USSR

Read about the Oliver Farm Equipment Company and the Russian Communist government in the 1930s.

By Sam Moore
Published on May 3, 2021
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Photo by Sam Moore
An Oliver Hart-Parr 28-44 at the Plain City, Ohio show some years ago.

There are tons of interesting stories from the old days of farm equipment manufacturing. One, from the 1930s, involves the Oliver Farm Equipment Company and the Russian Communist government and is told by Elmer Baker, Jr. in his Reflections column in the Oct. 21, 1963 issue of Implement & Tractor magazine. Baker (1889 to 1964) had been associated with farm equipment all his life and was for many years editor of Implement & Tractor. I’ve edited the column somewhat since Baker did have a tendency to get wordy at times. He wrote:

“Right after World War I, the Kerensky regime in Russia was succeeded by the Communists. For survival they had to restore a war-devastated agriculture, so without objection from the U.S., the Russians set up (in 1924) a buying organization in New York City known as the Amtorg Trading Corporation.

“The Reflector had a number of visits from one of their planning men. He talked to you up close like a soul-burning prophet. Unfortunately he had the second most unendurable case of halitosis the Reflector has ever had to endure.

“Well, this Russian insisted that everything they had to plan and build must always be bigger than anything before attempted.  At this stage the Russian government embarked on a program of greatly increased wheat production. They had to have more bread. So Amtorg was instructed to buy in the U.S. the largest number of combines ever purchased, before or since, in a single transaction, plus a fleet of big tractors to pull the combines.

“Again my Russian contact showed up and wanted quickly a preview of the American combine and tractor field, what were the biggest units produced, and by whom. Fortunately the Tractor & Field Book showed that information set down in specifications.

“Oliver Farm Equipment Co. in its Nichols & Shepard division at Battle Creek, Mich., was then producing the largest prairie-type combine in North America. It was the Model F, with a 28-inch wide spike cylinder and a 48-inch separator rear (available as a 16 or 20 foot cut).

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