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Ol' Ready
To Run
by Ed Crabtree
Henry
Ford, had a better idea, from the introduction of
his Model T in 1908, through 1927, his company sold
15 million of the famous cars and trucks, but being
the son of a farmer, he longed to create an
agricultural machine that Ford knew would do for
the farmer what his "T" had done for the rest of
the country. Ford began experimenting with a
prototype in 1907, but was unable  to
convince his board of directors of the
marketability of such a machine. The directors were
satisfied with the success of the "T" and not
willing to risk venture capital on an unestablished
industry such as motorized farm implements, Ford
was therefore forced to delay the introduction of
his tractor until 1917, when he formed the Henry
Ford and Son Corporation, then Ford was able to
supply farmers with a reliable and affordable
tractor, the Fordson.
The
Fordson Model F proved to be a great success,
partially due to its innovative design, which
incorporated heavy cast iron lower engine,
transmission, and rear axle cases that eliminated
the necessity for a frame. This feature was less
expensive and quicker to assemble than other
designs of the day. Then in 1938 Harry Ferguson
demonstrated his patented 3 point hydraulic hitch
system to Ford. Henry was so impressed with
Ferguson's system that the two men soon entered
into an agreement in which Ford would produce and
market a machine incorporating the 3 point hitch,
that would begin an era of small tractor
innovation, the Ford 9N.
The
Ford 9N of 1939, the 2N of World War II, and the 8N
became the mainstays of tractor design for years.
Henry Ford was known for his belief that the public
only needed a single design or model of vehicle.
This kept his production costs down, not having to
maintain separate production lines for different
models. His Model T was produced as an automobile
and the same chassis was often sold with only a
frame, engine, hood, and running gear, to outside
cabinet makers and wagon builders who would then
construct a wood body for various specialty
applications. Ford was once quoted in the early
days as saying that the public could have any color
"T" that they wanted, as long as it was black. Of
course Ford was eventually forced by his
competition to reconsider his philosophy and
produce several models of cars and trucks each
year, but his tractors remained the same, not
changing for years at a time until a new model was
introduced and the previous
discontinued.
Today
as you drive through the hills of the Ozarks, if
you are observant, you can spot old N series Fords,
parked out by a farmer's barn, or under a loafing
shed. Perhaps it might not be a farm but a home
site of a few acres. Whatever the case may be, N
series tractors are still in use, some of these
beasts now over 60 years old. Some owners still use
them to farm with, some owners are collectors, some
simply can't stand to let the old beasts go and
keep them around like an old retired plow horse put
out to pasture. If you have never operated one, you
simply cannot understand the immediate attraction
that a man can develop for one of these antique
machines. This attraction of a man to a Ford N
series tractor, the love an old farm boy of the
Ozarks can have for a mechanical, gas powered plow
horse, is the case of the story of Ol' Ready To
Run.
My
wife's dear old Daddy, who is now seventy years
young, was one of those men who after his
retirement decided he just had to have one of those
old Ford Tractors. He had returned home to the
Ozarks after his military service in the early
fifties, but unlike many of his friends and
brothers who were leaving the hills for jobs in the
cities, Dad made the decision to stay here. During
those hard times when jobs in the rural Ozarks were
nonexistent, he found employment working for area
farmers, which meant among other things, spending a
lot of time in the seat of a tractor.
Dad
tells many stories of those years, some quite hair
raising, such as the time when he was instructed to
take the tractor and hitch it to a wagonload of
straw that was to be used to make bedding for
Strawberries, a major cash crop in those days. Well
the only thing was the wagon was loaded so heavy
that when he tried to pull it with the tractor, the
front end of the machine would rise up off the
ground as if in protest of having to pull so big a
load. This was of course a very dangerous
situation, as it was possible that the tractor
might have flipped over backwards on him, not to
mention that he had no way to steer the machine
with the front wheels off of the ground. So as
young men so often do, he threw caution to the wind
and crawled out on the hood of the tractor, the
weight of his body being just enough over the front
end to keep it on the ground.
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Stone
Creek Crossing
