Save your oats - buy a Fordson

[blackbob]

Advert in a 1931 book I bought for 99p on ebay..

From the mention of Manchester, I guess this is from when the tractors were made in Cork?

 

[joe soapy]

Dad used to say his cost 6 fat bullocks.
that would be about £8000 today..

It says ploughing 6 to 10 shillings /acre cost.. maybe a mathemetician can give the modern equilavant , but it looks like
300 acres times say £25, or £7.500

 

[Muck Spreader]

I work that out to be between £1200 to £1500 at today's prices! What's the cheapest equivalent tractor you could buy today maybe a TAFF at 10k ?

 

[llamedos]

Old fella i used to rent from told that just after the war his mother bought their first fordson, he and his brother took the milk cart and horse to Manchester(from Oldham) to a railway company to pick up the new tractor, neither had driven anything before other than the horse, on the way home they argued neither wanted to drive the tractor, both were afraid of it. He won and got to drive the horse and cart back home, but bemoaning his brother for being so slow, he mentioned parafin to, but I dont recall what that was for? did they run off parafin He said he hated the tractor and that it used to tip up backwards quite easily, they kept the horses for many years.

 

[marshbarn]

They had 2 fuel tanks 1 petrol to start on , then when they got hot you switched over to cheaper paraffin.
They had a magneto to generate electricity for the spark plugs.
We still have 1 in an old barn.

 

[fingermouse]

My grandfather got his first fordson during the war,and being a staunch horseman never got to grips with it.dad and landgirls were left to drive it. It was a pig to start and one morning after about the 10th swing it kicked back,broke dads jaw and knocked all his teeth out,he was only 14.

 

[chaffcutter]

My fathers first tractor was an E27N, I had a go on one belonging to a neighbour when I was about 14 ( a very long time ago!) with a Ransome trailer plough. That outfit would be worth a bit now with the growing interest in classic and vintage ploughing. Would love to find a nice one but son would go crazy!!

 

[sleepy]

Dad used to say his cost 6 fat bullocks.
that would be about £8000 today..

So nothings really changed has it, you could buy a TAFE (MF 135) for about 8 fat bullocks today and it is a lot more tractor than a Fordson

The difference is we want 100 ponies and air conditioning and suspension these days.

 

[Nearly]

This is Uncle with first Diesel fordson on farm, still using horse plough and a driver because the tractor couldn't steer itself!

 

[blackbob]

This is Uncle with first Diesel fordson on farm, still using horse plough and a driver because the tractor couldn't steer itself!

Intriguing.. I've seen lots of machines which have obviously had drawbars fitted to convert them from horse to tractor use, but never this.. And I've seen a left-handed conventional (tractor) plough, used for ploughing steep fields downhill-only so you didn't have a deep furrow at one side of the field.. My guess is your uncle's using a ridging plough here, as a stop-gap until getting a mounted ridger, and not a left-hand plough?
It must have been a big expense when you think about it, to buy your first tractor and matching implements, all at one go

 

[spanners]

I wonder how many sold their horses to tesco, and bought the fordson, Then regretted that decsion when it wouldnt start or ran out of juice,got damp,overheated,flat wheels,or cracked the block., and wanted the horses back but the fordson was only worth 20 quid

 

[Baker9]

Dad and his brothers bought a new Ford Ferguson on steel wheels with a plough for about £320 in 1944. They had to get a permit from the local ag committe to be able to buy it. They got it on condition they they would contract plough with it. The bought it at the end of January and had it paid for at the end of March. There were three of them and they drove it in shifts.
None of them had ever driven before getting on the tractor. Dad always said that about a third of what was grown on the farm was used to feed the horses. They were not allowed to drive on the road with the "spade lug" wheels and either the lugs had to taken off or a steel band (cart hoop) placed over the wheels to prevent damage to the road.
They then obtained two wheels and tyres that had been a bus. They used these bus rubbers for a while and then Dad bought a pair of tractor tyres on the black market at £100.
The point I am making is that the introduction of tractors led to a leap in agricultural production as the land was cultivated better and less of the produce was used on the farm. A horse still had to be fed when there was no work for it to do.
Actually they kept the horses until they died.
Dad never regetted the move to tractors and he was the horse man on the farm.
Most of the horse equipment was converted for use with a tractor like the mower, binder and settle harrows. This reduced the expense changing from horse power to tractors.

 

[tonyp]

ive tractors and plant all my life ive got a pair of working horses that i use on my smallholding cheaper to keep and with diesel the price it is i dont use the tractors more then i have to !!

 

[brynseiri]

Why would you need to put the coils in the oven? My grandfather remembered his father driving a tractor for mostyn estates and he had to put the coils in the oven for a while before cold starting, any enlightenment? Believe the tractor was a fordson. Not many years after the Great War.

 

[John 1594]

Why would you need to put the coils in the oven? My grandfather remembered his father driving a tractor for mostyn estates and he had to put the coils in the oven for a while before cold starting, any enlightenment? Believe the tractor was a fordson. Not many years after the Great War.

common occurence on a damp morning when the tractor wouldnt fire because the plugs/mag were damp, just whip them off and stick them in the oven to dry out

forssons were not easiest things to coax into life on a wet morning

pace of life was slower in them days, a few hours downtime meant nothing, if the tractor only done half a days work that was still a lot more than a horse would do in a whole day

 

[Y Fan Wen]

Yes, the varnish used on electrical windings was a lot lower quality than today. Even so, I blow hot air through the turbine genny before starting it. I use an ohmmeter to check the readings have revived. Having to get it rewound after the snow got in wasn't a pleasant experience.
My standard procedure on buying a new s/h petrol Transit was to fit a new plastic wiring harness instead of the rubber that Ford used. Eliminated morning problems!

 

[Grazza]

Dad can't remember grandpa buying his first tractor(a field marshall ) but can remember the horses being sold.
I find it quite ironic, grandpa said the best thing about getting a tractor was the fact that when it got dark he could knock off where as with the horses he would plough till dark then have to feed & bed them after that. Plenty of times I will not start a paddock before 6pm.

 

[brynseiri]

Shocking as to how much time tractors have been around, my grandfather would now be 105, and he recalled the coils going in the oven as a kid, so 95 + years ago!

 

[blackbob]

1917 I think was the first Fordson? And the ignition system and mudguards were, I think, the main changes until 1945 when the Major was introduced...

 

[Y Fan Wen]

Bosch magnetos had a much higher reputation than the much more common Lucas.