Story Of Major The Tractor

This is the first in a trilogy of books profiling in detail David Brown and its products. David Brown was a Yorkshire company, based around Huddersfield. Its roots lay in wooden-pattern making for the looms and weaving machinery of the area in the 1850s. This led to the manufacture of the machine-cut iron gears in which the company excelled. In 1914 the company patented a worm thread for gears that eventually was adopted as the British Standard thread. Their involvement with tractors began before World War II when they had an agreement with Harry Ferguson to manufacture the Ferguson-Brown. When working with Ferguson proved difficult the company developed its own ranges of wheeled and crawler tractors, the VAK series. Development was interrupted by the war during which the company's gears were used in the Merlin engines that powered the Spitfires. This closely researched, highly illustrated title tells the full story of this remarkable company's early years. It concludes when the VAK 1/C became one of Britain's most popular tractors of the 1950s - the Cropmaster. Author Stuart Gibbard has interviewed many of the surviving engineers, designers and other staff involved in the development and marketing of David Brown's products.

This illustrated work covers the stories of five British engineering companies that produced successful ranges of agricultural, earthmoving or construction machinery. County, Doe, Chaseside, Muir-Hill, Matbro and Bray all made extensive use of the Ford tractor skid unit as a basis for their machines and they pioneered the development of the four-wheel drive agricultural tractor in Britain. Stuart Gibbard gives details of all the main models and machines of these manufacturers. He chronicles the fortunes of the firms from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day and discusses many of the personalities involved.

The Doe Triple D became a legend in its own lifetime. It was one of the most unorthodox tractors ever built and had two engines, four wheel drive and could articulate through nearly 90 degrees. A very successful machine in its own time, it has remained a firm favourite among tractor enthusiasts everywhere. This illustrated account tells the full story of this remarkable tractor and the company that built it. The rise of Essex company Ernest Doe & Sons from a village blacksmith's shop to the largest machinery retail organization in East Anglia is traced in detail with full coverage given to the machines it made.

I Am Not a Tractor! celebrates the courage, vision, and creativity of the farmworkers and community leaders who have transformed one of the worst agricultural situations in the United States into one of the best. Susan L. Marquis highlights past abuses workers suffered in Florida’s tomato fields: toxic pesticide exposure, beatings, sexual assault, rampant wage theft, and even, astonishingly, modern-day slavery. Marquis unveils how, even without new legislation, regulation, or government participation, these farmworkers have dramatically improved their work conditions. Marquis credits this success to the immigrants from Mexico, Haiti, and Guatemala who formed the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a neuroscience major who takes great pride in the watermelon crew he runs, a leading farmer/grower who was once homeless, and a retired New York State judge who volunteered to stuff envelopes and ended up building a groundbreaking institution. Through the Fair Food Program that they have developed, fought for, and implemented, these people have changed the lives of more than thirty thousand field workers. I Am Not a Tractor! offers a range of solutions to a problem that is rooted in our nation’s slave history and that is worsened by ongoing conflict over immigration.

"Mr. Dahlstrom...has written a superb history of the tractor and this long-forgotten period of capitalism in U.S. agriculture. We now know the whole story of when farming, business and the free-market economy diverged, divided and conquered." —Wall Street Journal Discover the untold story of the “tractor wars,” the twenty-year period that introduced power farming—the most fundamental change in world agriculture in hundreds of years. Before John Deere, Ford, and International Harvester became icons of American business, they were competitors in a forgotten battle for the farm. From 1908-1928, against the backdrop of a world war and economic depression, these brands were engaged in a race to introduce the tractor and revolutionize farming. By the turn of the twentieth century, four million people had left rural America and moved to cities, leaving the nation’s farms shorthanded for the work of plowing, planting, cultivating, harvesting, and threshing. That’s why the introduction of the tractor is an innovation story as essential as man’s landing on the moon or the advent of the internet—after all, with the tractor, a shrinking farm population could still feed a growing world. But getting the tractor from the boardroom to the drafting table, then from factory and the farm, was a technological and competitive battle that until now, has never been fully told. A researcher, historian, and writer, Neil Dahlstrom has spent decades in the corporate archives at John Deere. In Tractor Wars, Dahlstrom offers an insider’s view of a story that entwines a myriad of brands and characters, stakes and plots: the Reverend Daniel Hartsough, a pastor turned tractor designer; Alexander Legge, the eventual president of International Harvester, a former cowboy who took on Henry Ford; William Butterworth and the oft-at-odds leadership team at John Deere that partnered with the enigmatic Ford but planned for his ultimate failure. With all the bitterness and drama of the race between Ford, Dodge, and General Motors, Tractor Wars is the untold story of industry stalwarts and disruptors, inventors, and administrators racing to invent modern agriculture—a power farming revolution that would usher in a whole new world.

The little grey Fergie is Britain's best-loved tractor, the light user-friendly machine that finally replaced the horse on farms. This highly illustrated account covers the full history of Harry Ferguson's tractor products from his pioneering work before the 1930s to the merger with Massey in 1957. The author has had access to fresh archive material and has interviewed many of the surviving men who were associated with Ferguson. The appeal of the Fergie lay in its lightness and utility, and also in the system of mechanized farming of which it was a part. Throughout the book, reference is made to the implements which lay at the heart of the system. Stuart Gibbard has won "Tractor and Machinery" magazine's award for the best British tractor book five years running.

Bestselling Caldecott Honor artist David Shannon tells the story of a determined duck who decides to jump on a tractor and drive it around the barnyard and through town, with hilarious consequences! Shannon's wildly popular, award-winning Duck on a Bike left children begging him to tell them another story about Duck after seeing him pictured alongside a shiny red tractor. Now Duck is back and turning the farm upside down! Flushed with the success of his trailblazing bike ride around the farm, Duck decides he's ready to drive the tractor. As in the bestselling Duck on a Bike, all the barnyard animals share their humorous comments as they watch Duck do the unthinkable. Then, one by one, they join him on the tractor for a ride! But what happens when Duck drives the big red tractor through town, past the popular diner where all the locals are having lunch? What will those folks really think when they see Duck and all the other animals riding around on Farmer O'Dell's tractor? Filled with entertaining detail and sly jokes, readers will pore over each picture again and again. Perfect for reading aloud!