Spur fuel company, and Nuffield tractors

I had a neighbour that I greatly respected. He was 40 years older than me, served in Europe during WW 2, and was a open minded progressive farmer after the war. They had always had IH tractors on the farm, and my friend and his older brother farmed together on about 500 acres. So local equipment dealers would sometimes ask if they could hold demonstrations of new equipment on this modern progressive farm, and the two brothers would often oblige the local dealers. One day in the mid to late 50’s a salesman came calling on them, two men travelling together, offering their new product lines. The Nuffield tractor dealer and the Spur fuel agent. Nuffield tractors were British built diesel tractors, and no one around had any experience with Diesel engines, and it was tough going for the Nuffield dealer. The Spur fuel agent was also new in the market, and offered delivery of diesel in bulk on farm. Because no one had really started buying diesel tractors yet, no fuel companies were offering to sell and deliver diesel fuel. Gasoline was King!
My friend had seen many diesel powered pieces of equipment during his training in England before D-Day, , trucks, buses that sort of thing, and could understand that diesel power could be just as good of the farm as gas power. And the Nuffield and Spur dealers were eager to get their business off the ground, and offered these farmers a great deal. I have forgotten what the tractor deal was, but the Spur fuel agent would install a underground fuel storage tank, complete with a electric fuel pump if the bought one of the diesel tractors. And they did, and the two dealers held a promotional day at the farm later that year. Several farmers that came to the promotional field day did also buy a new Nuffield tractor and get a in ground Spur diesel fuel tank installed after seeing the field day. A few years later most of the main line tractor companies had a Diesel tractor in the offering, and the two brothers turned their Nuffield in on a 706 IH diesel. My friend told me that they really liked the Nuffield, and it never gave them a bit of trouble, but the deal sold out, and they liked the IH dealer, and just drifted back to IH equipment. We no longer se the Spur fuel company, I expect it was bought up by another brand, and we all know what became of Nuffield. I can’t help but think what and exciting time it must have been farming during the post war era. So many new things, new tractors, new tillage equipment, even a new fuel to burn in your tractor, and about 10 cents a gallon cheaper than gasoline too. Hard to imagine a fuel dealer and a tractor dealer teaming up these days , and hitting the road together trying to develop a market.

Those people were the "Greatest Generation"!

Your story reminded me of an old gentleman I knew that graduated from Texas A&M with an engineering degree in the late 1940's. There was a JD recruiter at school that offered him a job. With a good signing bonus he accepted and was immediately sent to a field demonstration in La. He drove down in his new company pickup and there was a good crowd of farmers ready to see the tractors. He introduced himself to the crowd and thanked them for the big turnout. So the field techs. fired up the two tractors that were there and started plowing. He watched for a good while and then turned to the crowd and said, "I'm sure your going to like these tractors and I promise you, we will get that miss out of them before you buy".....the tractors were 2 JD D's. He was a fine man and eventually owned 6 dealerships. We bought tractors from him for many yrs. and he personally told me the story about his first field demonstration. He was near 90 when he sold out and I can tell you the dealerships were never the same.

The conversion to diesel powered farm tractors came on pretty slow around my neck of the woods. First one I remember was about 1949(?) and was a Farmall MD. Farms around here were just about 100% dairy with stanchion barns being the standard. Manure was hauled out and spread onto the fields each day until the snow got too deep to do that and then was piled up to wait for springtime. The Farmall M was a pretty good tractor in snow and the fellow with the brand new MD was able to get his manure out each day through the winter. About a half hour of use each day. Spring came and he couldn't get it to turn over with the starter so they belted it to another tractor and smoked the belt. Dealer came out and hauled it into town and they had to tear the engine down to clean out all of the carbon that had built up. That story spread around quickly and most farmers wanted no part of diesels. In fact, there was debate about whether LP tractor engines would be the engine of choice because of the clean burn. There was even talk of gas turbine powered tractors. Until finally, the farms became larger and larger as did the tractors and fuel prices went sky high and the rest is history.

About the only diesel tractor that did much prior to 1960 around here was Oliver. In fact Oliver's golden age started with the 77 & 88 tractors. Sure, there were IH gas start diesels and JD pony motor start diesels but Oliver had command of the local market. Nuffield had dealers around here but the product was just about invisible. When Yoder and Frey and the other Midwest auction yards formed the pipeline to move Midwest tractors here used then you started to see Fordson Super Majors, Case, and MH/MF tractors here in the early 1970's and into the future. By that time JD and IH were back in command of the tractor market.

Your referral to Spur fuel reminds me of a local gas station named Smith's Spur Service right on a corner of Main street in our small town. It was a place where the hot rodders hung out in the mid to late 60's and the owners drag raced a '67 Mercury Cyclone that was proudly displayed right on the sidewalk. The only Spur gas station I can remember. One of the owners, named Tiny, tipped the scales @ 460 lbs at the meat locker scale. And was he a character.

There was only one Nuffield tractor in this area, bought new from the local AC dealer in the mid 60's. It was traded back to the same dealer for a new Leyland. The AC dealer sold quite a few Leylands. There are still a couple being used here.

That is a great story. I agree that it would have been a great time to be farming, and you could even make money at it back then! There were a few Nuffields around here in Central NY, Ford Major diesel were the first diesel tractors that people bought around here. Mostly smaller dairy farms in my area and some vegetable/ potato farms just NW of Syracuse NY. Diesels didn’t really start to catch on big time till the later 1960’s- early 1970’s. I agree with NY986 that in this area Oliver had a good share of the early diesel market . Smaller Massey-Ferguson like 35 and 65 also sold a fair amount of diesel tractors early on.

The first diesel in my neighborhood was owned by a farmer who moved here in 1959. It was a IH 450 diesel. I remember smelling the foreign smelling diesel fumes when he went past here on the gravel road. A neighbor who moved in across the road in the mid 60's had a Massey 65 diesel and a deere 720 diesel he brought in. Another old neighbor bought a 4020 diesel in 1969. Everyone else had gassers. My step mother's dad and uncle in north Dakota bought an R Deere in 1954. That was the first diesel for them. Our first diesel was a 1070 case I bought in the fall of 1974. I still don't have any small diesels. Well I do have that 175 Massey that needs so much work done on it I don't use it. The field tractors are diesels.

My Dad purchased a Fordson Major Diesel in 1956. It was one of the first diesels in our area. I do remember pretty much parking it in the winter and parking it on a hill to start it in the summer. It was a pretty good work horse though once you did get it going. He traded it for a 550 Oliver gasser in the 60's which wasn't as powerful but was easier to operate. In all fairness to the tractor my Dad was never much of a mechanic so probably didn't change the batteries when he should have and probably ran too heavy of oil in it in the cold weather.

In South Africa diesel fuel kick the dominant USA tractors out of our market in about 3 years. In the early fiftys IH ,Massey Harris,JD and Case dominated our tractor market with dual fuel models. As soon as the more fuel efficient British diesel tractors, Fordson Major, Massey Ferguson 35 and 65, and the IH B450, 414 and 275 became available farmers switch over to them. Our climate is moderate here, starting in winter was no problem.By 1960 MF was nr 1 and Fordson nr 2 in our market and they maintained their positions till the nineties mergers.