I'll take a bit of a shot at telling what I know. I was born in 1947 and have farmed over many a western KS acre with an LA Case and a GTB Minneapolis Moline. Prior to the MM my dad ran D John Deere and his first was a Fordson along the size lines of a D JD.
We mostly farmed with one-way disc plows of 12 foot length or 15 foot length. On occasion two would be hooked together for greater production.
Kansas was homesteaded later than many areas so the soil wasn't yet depleted for nutrients and also with less rainfall (19" for us) less leaching took place. Fertilizing simply wasn't done and really didn't take ahold until about the mid 1960s when newer varieties gave greater yields while also removing more nutrients.
The self-propelled Massey Harris combines started showing up in the late 1940s. A search for Massey Harris Harvest Brigade will provide you with much reading.
The pull type combines were generally powered with their own engines. Header sizes generally ranged from 12' to 20' though the 12s were more common. Most all had auger type headers, that is to say no canvas ones.
PTOs were used on mowing machines to some extent although many a farmer used an old horse drawn ground driven unit with a short hitch to mow. Where PTOs were a necessity was with the grain or corn binders that were used to cut sorghum feed crops. The bundles were hand placed in shocks which some call stooks. The link below shows a field of shocked feed. Always a fall event. Very labor intensive.
What was it like to farm back then? Well a one-way cuts a furrow and all day long you follow it round and round the field, with many of the fields being 80 acres or 160 acres and on occasion 320 acres.
While traveling one direction the wind would be at your back so the dirt the one-way kicked up would make breathing and seeing the furrow difficult and would settle on the perspiration covered skin creating a pretty good layer by evening.
The fan of the tractor blew the hot air back toward the operator and the continual meshing of the gears of transmission and differential as well as the heat of the day tended to bake a person. Still it was enjoyable to be out in nature observing rabbits, hawks, snakes, ground squirrels, and eagles.
We always grew much of our own meat, had a couple of milk cows which provided milk and cream which produced butter, cottage cheese, etc. In other words we always ate cheaply but good food. Steak was as common a food as a hamburger if not more so. Plenty of fried chicken from the chicks raised each spring so that the pullets could replace older hens.
As the old saying still goes---it was a good life if you didn't weaken. It was hard work but generally you were working with family members so it was enjoyable.
Lots of canning was done from food grown as well as purchased in quantity. Each year a 60 pound can of honey was ordered, 200 pounds of potatoes would supplement those grown, a couple of bushels of apples for fresh eating would be placed in the cellar, etc.
Yep a good life that I fondly remember as the best years. Hope I've answered a few of your questions.
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Today's Featured Article - The Tractor Parade: Story of a Case SC - by Bernie DeLon. On a early fall morning back in 1994, I opened the newspaper and happened to spy an article about a local antique tractor club having their annual show that weekend.
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