ND Farmers: Tractors throughout history

Sticks, mud, dirt, rocks, grass, flowers.

What can you do with all of these? Or, maybe the better question is, what does a farmer see with these things.

As we take a step back in time, we find tractors like the Moline Universal and Farmall Regular, cultivating was firmly in the sole realm of horsepower. Then, with those two tractors and their narrow front ends, along with their multiple interchangeable attachments like corn pickers, cultivators, or plows, tractors finally overtook horses on the farm as the gold standard of pulling power.

As tractors were becoming more widespread, the driving techniques required a little refinement. Accounts of farmers at that time having trouble while trying to drive

their tractor sound a little like this: “My tractor won’t stop! I said ‘whoa’ and pulled on the reins, but it just kept going!” Tractors didn’t and still don’t listen to voice commands very well. However, tractor companies like Fowler heard the farmers’ complaints and created the ‘rein drive’ tractor, which steered like a team of horses: With reins!

Since 1913, tractor operators have become more adept at driving via steering wheel, although much less adept at driving a team of horses.

However, Steiger had a different answer to the steering question. The Steiger company began in the mid-1900s when John Steiger built the first tractor in his dairy barn. About ten years after the first Steiger was built, the company moved across

the Minnesota border to a factory in Fargo, North Dakota, where it still stands. The Steiger company was bought by Case IH in the late 1900s, so the Fargo plant is Case red instead of Steiger green.

These tractors were named after big cats, like the Tiger, Puma, Wildcat, Panther, Lion and many others. Today, the Fargo plant produces tractors that are named after big cats, hearkening back to its ancestry as a Steiger plant. The very first Steiger was steered not by a steering wheel, but by hydraulic lever. Whereas a steering wheel is hydrostatic; the more it turns, the more the tractor moves in that direction, hydraulic levers are often all-or-nothing, and require a delicate touch to operate in increments. Hydraulic levers were simple to include in designing, but not very

user-friendly to drive.

About the time that Case bought Steiger, they had their own unique steering technique. While they used a steering wheel, rather than articulating, they deployed the J.I. Case 2470 Traction King. This tractor used ‘crab steer.’ Like a crab, the tractor could ‘crab’ its wheels sideways, to move the vehicle in an entirely sideways motion due to a system that allowed all four wheels to rotate independentlya hydrostatic front end and a hydraulic-assisted rear end, which meant this tractor could create four tire tracks at the same time, resulting in unparalleled traction, hence its name. This tractor used a combination of hydraulic and hydrostatic steering with a steering wheel to operate it.

From rein drive to hydraulic lever to a hydrostatic

combination, tractors are progressing closer to the steering wheel that we know today.

Around the time when Steiger Number One was being built (which is found in Bonanzaville today, along with Steiger #4, the Tiger, and the Cougar), John Deere’s tractors were steered via steering wheel.

The John Deere 3020, is actually from this mid-1900 period. The 3020 has a unique shifting pattern called ‘synchro-mesh,’ which is a sort of stick shift. Steigers were being driven with a stick, and 3020s were shifting with a stick: Those engineers put their days of playing with sticks in mud to good use.

Today, tractors red, green, and yellow steer with a steering wheel, and when turning radius is important, with

a ball attached to the steering wheel.

Like a John Deere 9370R, the big fourwheel-drive tractors are now articulating: They pivot in the center. The center articulation means that only one U-joint is needed on the manufacturing side and the tractor can turn sharper. The tractor also doesn’t hit the implement as easily.

All of these tractor innovations make it possible for farmers and ranchers to play in the mud more efficiently, and feed the world while using mechanical versions of the sticks that could be anything to a good imagination.

Fowler rein drive tractor working, from the Henry Parkes Museum. Driving a team of horses is much more difficult than driving a car or a tractor- or it would be to our world now, to most individuals. When tractors were beginning to enter the world of farming, though, horses were easy and tractors or cars were odd! The answer to this conundrum came from companies like Fowler, who introduced a tractor driven by rein control, rather than a steering wheel.

Submitted photos 8-16 International tractor from TractorData.com. One of the two tractors that were competitive in the Great Tractor War between Fordson and International. International ended up winning the war with their tractors that did not flip over backwards or jump into and out of gear.

Moline Universal Tractor from the Moline Plow Company. This tractor is pictured plowing, a job that had previously been the job for horses, and the elimination of this barrier paved the way for tractors to enter the world of farming.

A big, articulating John Deere 9370R pulling a Commodity Cart in front of an 1890 No-till Air Drill like those made right here in the John Deere plant of Valley City, ND.