Novelist needs info on 1920's era tractor

Hello, all,

I'm under contract to finish a novel set in south Texas in 1924. It's complete except for research and verification of historical accuracy, which brings me to you. Would someone be so kind as to tell me three things, in brief:
1) What kind or kinds of small farm tractors would have been in use in south Texas in 1924 (brand names/models/etc)?
2) How, in general, was the tractor started?
3) How would driving such a tractor differ from the way modern tractors are driven (again, general information will be sufficient.)

Thanks so much for your help,

Bruce Machart

State of art would be the John Deere D introduced in 1923.

20s would be like the fordson f era.

It would have been started by turning a crank

which was started by turning the flywheel and diven with a hand clutch

Heres a few pictures on another board. Crank start, no clue on driveing one....
auto plows

Maybe a picture would help. This is a 1924 Mccormick Deering 10-20. Would have started by hand crank. It would drive much like any tractor.

If you can bend the rules a little you could use a
Case L

See Green Acres

No rubber tires in those days; steel wheels only! Many of those old tractors have since been updated to rubber tires by cutting off the steel rims and welding rims that will accept rubber tires onto the old spokes/center. The McCormick 10-20 pictured here is an example of that.

Hmmmmmm, now wait a minute.

In 1924, only the richest of the rich would have been using any kind of a tractor.

Horses and mules.

Allan

Chiming in for the Internationals, but giving Fordson and others their due . . .

Those are large questions. What were they farming (i.e., what kind of crops)? Big spread or small? Row crops such as corn or beans, for example, would have taken a relatively small internal combustion tractor compared to steamers that could haul ganged plows to bust sod or turn ground, but were to big and cumbersome for much else in the way of field work.

I'm thinking also that in 1924, it was a prosperous farmer that would have had a tractor on a small farm. It sits kind of in the middle of the span of years that tractors just began to be affordable and economical. On the earlier end of that span, most work (plowing, planting, cutting and binding) was done with equipment drawn by horses, mules and oxen, even on larger spreads. If there was anything like a steamer in the neighborhood for threshing and the like, folks would either pay or swap out work with the fella that had the steamer and thresher for it's services in cleaning stooked grain.

In 1924, any tractor of a "modern" design on a smaller farm would have been relatively new, les than ten years old. For Internationals, they came out with the 15-30 in 1921 (15hp on the drawbar, 30 on the belt and PTO). They dropped the International brand on it in 1923 and changed it to McCormick-Deering when it went into regular production. 1923 saw the introduction of the 10-20 (same deal on the hp) but it didn't go into full production until 1924, so would have been brand new in the setting of your narrative. (This info is from Guy Fay's IH Tractor Data Book, MBI Publishing Co). The Farmall Regular would have been a rare find in 1924.

All these tractors started with a hand crank and (I believe) had hand clutches, operated by a long hand lever as opposed to a pedal. Nix on any night work in the fields under anything but a full and bright moon, as electrical lighting was still a few years away.

Prior to these, Deering and McCormick, the two companies that merged to form IH, put out tractors known, respectively as Titans and Moguls.

You might try to get your hands on a book, "The American Tractor" by P.W. Ertel, also from MBI. It goes through each of several makes of internal combustion tractor from their early years, and would give you a good feel for what was available for tractors in the early twenties and discusses how technology advanced. The Fordson F is in there, the early Hart-Parrs and Cases, Internationals (including the Titans and Moguls), the Deere Waterloo Boy . . .

Thanks for the quick flurry of responses. My character is one of the largest landholders in the county, farming mostly cotton at the time, although much of his acreage would have been devoted to pasture/hay for cattle. He would have been one of the wealthier landholders in a small county, but he is of some means. The first part of the novel takes place in 1910, and I've done a great deal of research in planting and harvesting cotton with horses. It would be fully within my character's personality to extend himself a bit financially so that he COULD be the first farmer in the county to own his own tractor (while, on the other hand, my grandfather farmed with horses even in the late 1930's). So, I'm just wondering what he COULD have (something in production in 1920-23), and how it was operated.

Thanks for all the help. You guys are fantastic.

Bruce

One more source of info livinghistoryfarm.org go to farming in the 20's . It is not in Texas but Nebraska, but the info should be close.

Just a thought, but in 1916, Ford had 85% of the tractor market. a feat that has never been equaled Jamesinok

Fordson F small tractor. Suitable for small plows. My Father pulled a 2 disk oliver plow on wheels with the Fordson, also a small smoothing harrow. Tractor was hard to start. I remember once during cold weather he had a small fire, probably coals from another fire, under the crankcase to heat the oil so it could be spun over by the hand crank. Fordson had a manual spark advance on the dash. It was started with spark in one position, then gradually advanced as the tractor warmed up.

Fordsons had foot clutch with a braking mechanism built in it.

Fordson had no cultivating equipment, was too close to the ground to clear crops.

At Biltmore estate, Ashville, NC, there is a picture of one of the Vanderbilt women riding a Fordson pilling a plow.

KEH

If he was truly wealthy and farming a LARGE cotton farm he would have had the IH's listed above (15-30 or the 10-20) or the John Deere D that is mentioned below.


The Fordson was a fairly small tractor meant to replace a 2 teams of horses or mules. Ford treated it like the Model T, built a lot of them and kept them cheap but failed to update them as the competition made gains.

As for equipment - most farmers modified the hitches on their "horse" equipment and pulled it behind their tractor. I've listened to my uncles talk about riding the mower or drill operating the hand controls (they would have been preteens) while their dad (my grandpa) drove the tractor.

Just a couple of notes about the John Deere D: Unlike most(?) tractors of the time it did not have a crank. It had a big flywheel on the side that you had to spin and a valve that would let you turn on/off whether the cylinder would compress. At least I assume that's how it worked since the later Deere tractors in that line started that way.

I'm not sure what Deere's distribution looked like in 1924. There might not have been any in Texas.

Also at $1000 in 1924 money, it was pretty expensive. $12,796.20 in today's dollars.

You could get into the advantages that unlike horses or mules it didn"t require daily care.
Unlike steam engines the JD D didn"t use barrels of hard to find water in Texas. And the D could be up and running in a couple of minutes unlike a steamer which takes an hour+. The D can be shut down and walked away from unlike a hot steam engine.
The old D would literaly burn and run fine on just any liquid that would pour and burn. Cheaper than feeding a horse.

For a broader look at the tractors of the era, check out a copy of C. H. Wendel's "Encyclopedia of American Farm tractors".

I suppose this will make you a celebrity here? {wink}

Seriously, Do you have a title, yet?

1924 is early on in the tractor world but International Harvester made and sold 78,000 10 20 Titans during the 1915 t0 1920 time period. They were a two cyl tractor with a flywheel on both sides and a big water tank on the front and steel wheels. They were an affordable "personal" tractor rather than a very large "community" tractor. In the same time period Henry Ford made 750,000 Fordsons and they only cost half as much.

I think IH was doing some expermintal work on cotton harvesting equipmnet in that time period. If he was a large land holder another idea would be any of the large prarie tractors. Aultman Taylor 30 60 is the most common. Don't know alot about getting them started but preoiling and use of primer cups would be included. Of course Hand cranking would be involved. I think they were out of production by the mid 20's though.

Page gold leaf deere as I think he has one of these.

hth
jt

being big and wealthy in Texas in 1924 he may have had one of the first Farmalls,that was the area where the first ones were sold. It would have been a big deal for any farmer to brag about in that era and it changed how tractors were designed

for more info on the Farmall see "Farmall eight decades of innovation" by Randy Leffingwell
it starts about 77 pages in and even has a a few names and quotes from owners in Texas

If this land owner was one of the largest landholders in the county; from the south and grew cotton in the 1910 to 1920 era it sure sounds like he is a X plantation owner. If that is the case he may not even own a tractor because his land would now most likely be planted under sharecropping.

While most think of sharecropping as a one sided equation; it really started because land owners could not afford the labor cost to keep their fields going.

Not trying to change your story line but the only thing that makes your story line believable is the fact it is set in Texas. If this story was set a little farther east (La Ms Ala Ga)there is a real good chance your land owner used sharecropping.

While every farm did not use sharecropping; growing cotton in the 1920's needed a large labor force; so farms that grew cotton had a higher precentage of sharecropping.
If you are trying to be historical accurate you may what to consider this.