The oldest surviving tractor in North America is on display at the Wisconsin State Agricultural Museum at the Stonefield Historic Site. The 1898 Auto Mower was a prototype constructed by McCormink engineer Edward Johnson that featured a cast iron frame with a one-cylinder engine, live Power Take Off (PTO) and full reversing transmission. It was forty years later before live PTO was a regular feature on tractors.
An Old, Old Tractor
Sometimes it is hard to go back to work on the Tuesday following a long holiday weekend, but this old tractor might have a very tough time returning to work and might have to extend its holiday.
Tractor on Holiday
While this tractor may have been a working tractor in the past, right now it is a “show” tractor as it is too pretty green and not covered in dirt. The old two-cylinder John Deere tractors are often called “poppin Johnny” because of the very distinctive sound of the engine.
Pretty John Deere
The next few dry days will have a lot of farmers in the state putting up hay and haylage before the next rains come again.
Farmer in the Field
As kids, a trip to the state fair did not mean going on rides on the carnival and what riding there was consisted of my brother sitting on every piece of equipment and tractor on machinery hill as well as collecting every brochure for each piece too. A trip today would have less equipment for him to ‘test’ out and no brochures to collect (as I figure the mothers complained to the companies as they would be the ones lugging the full sack of flyers around the fair grounds the rest of the day).
But there were some new and even some old equipment for us farm kids to see today, like this 1916 old tractor called “The Flour City”, produced by the Kinnard-Haines Co. of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The Flour City
Watch and listen to the Flour City in action.
Today is a day when children remember and celebrate the contributions their fathers have made in their lives. Gifts may be given to show their appreciation of their father’s support while growing up, including patience to all those ‘why’ and ‘how does this work’ questions. Fathers may have shown their young sons how to fix things so when they are older, the gift they can give their father on this day is to fix the broken tractor.
Father’s Day
With a dry week of weather, the farmers are busy harvesting crops during the day and under the harvest moon. But today’s big tractors don’t need the moonlight to harvest at night like this old McCormick-Deering tractor but this old tractor wouldn’t have harvested as many acres either, although it would have seemed like at lot at the time.
Old McCormick-Deering Tractor
Farmers have been busy with spring planting and there is a little more ‘horsepower’ in this outfit than the draft horses pictured last week.
Spring Field Work
There are many creative farmers who can put together various pieces to make useful equipment like this ‘sort of tractor’ vehicle which has the front end of what appears to be a 1922 REO automobile with the rear end having tractor rear tires. The REO Motor Car Company was a Lansing, Michigan based company that produced automobiles and trucks from 1905 to 1975. (And as a side note to western movie fans, in the John Wayne movie Big Jake, the Texas Rangers were traveling in replica REOs, which were later destroyed by the bandits.)
Unique Vehicle
With more snow on Monday, I think this tractor should get off the back of the truck and get a blade or bucket so it can clear a path for the truck. But maybe the tractor has the right ideal; just give up on clearing snow and stay as far away from the snow as possible since the snow will just fall again and it is pointless to try to move it.
Smart Old Tractor
