ALL ABOUT TRACTORS

BY PAUL WALLEN

 Recently I told you about my trip to the 2022 Farm Progress Show. The highest horsepower there was 673.

I thought back to my first Farm Progress Show. It was 1963, and we at IH were there to introduce the new 706 and 806 tractors. The 806 was one of the largest at that show, testing almost 100 horsepower. A long way from 673.

This seems like a good time to look back at tractor horsepower from the beginning. According to CH Wendel’s book, “Encyclopedia of American Farm Tractors,” the first official HP rating came from the University of Nebraska tractor tests, which began in 1920. The first tractor tested was Waterloo Boy with a 25 HP rating.

So, in the past 100 plus years, the industry has grown from a certified 25 to a 673 HP rating.

A further search in the Wendel book shows details of 349 manufacturers before 1922. Two dated from 1890 to 1900. Forty-four came on the market from 1900 to 1909. Then in 1910, the real expansion started. From 1920 to 1922, 294 companies started up.

Can you imagine the countless hours men spent in cold outbuildings trying to create a tractor that neighbors would buy? Many designed and built just one, after endless hours, but ran out of money before they could proceed further. Others built a workable machine, but offered no parts or service and sales ended quickly.

A few foreign manufacturers tried the U.S. market. The Marshall came over from Gainsborough, England, in 1908 and stayed on the market till 1913. They claimed 25 HP, sold for $3000.

A company with significant impact on the tractor market needs to be mentioned here. The Rumely brothers built threshers and steam engines. In 1908, they designed the OilPull tractor, and by 1910, had sold 100 in the United States, South America and Canada. They were aggressive marketers. One year, they teamed three OilPull tractors together to pull 49 feet of moldboard plows, and this was over a century ago. A total of 56,647 OilPulls were built in 14 different models. The company was then known as Advance-Rumely and was bought by Allis Chalmers in 1931.

During 1915, tractor production from all companies reached 22,000, twice the total of the previous year. Yet many farmers proclaimed the tractor would never replace the horse.

Every year new features appeared. The 1917 Atlas tractor (founded by the head of Anheuser Busch) had headlamps. In 1919, the Victor had one of the very first spring-loaded seats. Many years passed before that comfort feature became commonplace. Royal Motors Company was considered ahead of its time when they introduced a 1917 model with electric starter, headlights and generator.

Canadian manufacturers did well in the United States. Toronto-based Massey-Harris first entered the tractor market in 1917 and became Massey Ferguson in 1953.

By 1910, a side industry developed and continued for many years. Companies started building tractor attachments for cars. Various designs included use of power from car’s rear wheel hubs through a series of gear reductions. Large traction type wheels were fitted, and the car was put into use as a tractor. By 1919, 50 companies were offering these devices, and 40 of them were designed for Model T Fords, which had become the dominant road vehicle.

Prices from the earliest production tractors in 1908 all the way to 1922 stayed from $375 to $3,500. Very few rose above $3,000. All kinds of purchase plans were available, and many companies went broke by offering liberal payment terms and then not getting paid.

In today’s environment, parts and service is vital. I vividly remember the days in my dealerships when customers would arrive at the parts counter expecting to walk out with the part they needed. During harvest season we drove 50 miles to the parts depot every night to get parts customers needed that we didn’t have in stock. We had more than $500,000 in inventory, and still could not have all the parts needed.

Compare that with a century ago and visualize dealerships with virtually no spare parts or trained servicemen.  Dealers were everywhere (remember there were almost 350 manufacturers) so a farmers could easily switch brands, and did so if service was poor.

A century has passed and with it the number of tractor manufacturers has dropped from 349 to a less than a dozen majors. Horsepower has gone the other way, from 15/25 to almost 700. Prices reflect those changes, increasing from a maximum of $3,000 to more than $500,000 for the largest.

The century-old story of innovation and invention of new agricultural machinery has been amazing. I’m confident it will continue.

Paul Wallem was raised on a dairy farm. He spent 13 years with corporate IH in domestic and foreign assignments. He resigned to own and operate two IH dealerships, He is the author of THE BREAKUP of IH and SUCCESSES AND INDUSTRY FIRST of IH. See all his books on www.PaulWallem.com.