ALL ABOUT TRACTORS BY PAUL WALLEM National 4-H week is in October each year. News about it reminded me of my membership a long time ago. Aaron Rhodes was our leader. He was a farmer, but he put great effort into teaching us 4-H values. He was gentle, soft-spoken, and earned a lot of respect by how he treated us. He even laid out a baseball field on his farmstead for our use. Because he was a good leader, we had a lot of members. I’ve often commented on FFA activities in this column. As I look back at my 4-H membership, I believe it was also of great value in different ways and projects. I’m grateful for what I learned from both. This year’s National FFA Convention drew a record 73,000 attendance. 4-H is America’s largest youth development organization with about 6 million members. Youth and teens 8-18 can join. There’s also a program for youth ages 5-7. Some of the benefits of 4-H membership are the programs available to research future careers and expenses of that education. To find a 4-H chapter in your area, go to 4-H.org. Allis Chalmers WC – their best seller I first drove our dad’s WC soon after Pearl Harbor. I must have been 7, and I remember driving around the barnyard. I’ll bet it was in first gear. The WC had a long run, from 1933 to 1948. It was the largest-selling model ever for Allis Chalmers, reaching 178,000. Horsepower was 23. There were a lot of them in our neighborhood. In later model years, an electric starter and lights became standard. The one negative feature was hand brakes. There were several reasons for the WC’s success. It was the first tractor to be offered with standard rubber tires in 1932. The price on rubber was $825. The price on steel was $675. (In 1936, the price increased to $900/785.) The “C” in the name stood for cultivating. It became the tractor of choice for that job. 1948 brought its replacement - the WD with 28 HP. With fully independent PTO and power-adjusted rear wheels, many users traded their WC’s for the new model. A big step forward was in 1953 with the introduction of the WD-45. A 226 cu. in. engine produced 45 DB horsepower, almost double that of the earlier model. A snap-coupler hitch was released, and later, a Buda-powered diesel engine. My sentiments as this year comes to a close Even though this column is named “All About Tractors,” it’s all about agriculture. Since I was old enough to drive a tractor the first time, agriculture has been a major part of my life, just as it has been yours. It’s great to remember the good years: corn pickers replacing hand picking, and combines replacing pickers; $12 soybeans for a short time, and big increases in land values in the late ‘70s. It’s not so great to recall 21 percent interest rates in 1980 and plummeting land values; tremendous fluctuations in crop prices. Some years it has been great, other years not so much. But agriculture is more than a job: it is a way of life, and I greatly respect you for your resilience and grit! Paul Wallem was raised on an Illinois dairy farm. He spent 13 years with 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 FIRSTS of IH. See all his books on www.PaulWallem.com. Email your comments to pwallem@aol.com. |
