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They didn't ration tractors, but that doesn't mean you didn't have to wait. What happened was that everybody THOUGHT rationing was going to happen, and farmers all went out and bought new tractors if they were able. There were some material shortages as well, and IH just couldn't keep up with demand on the Ms- lots of farmers were getting bigger tractors (this was about the period that M sales started beating the Hs.) So you got big demand for Ms and not enough tractors. Dealers started ordering tractors even if they didn't customers for them, because by the time IH built them months later, they'd have them sold. There was a huge backlog- I've heard some dealers had 15-20 tractors on order. IH changed over part of Louisville to built the M size tractors (Super Ms by now), the Korean War ended and farmers relaxed a little, and some dealers ended up with those 15-20 Super Ms sitting on their lots when IH sent them the entire shipment at once! But yes, in 1952, you were going to wait for an M for quite some time. Now if you wanted a Super A, that was no problem!
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