[AT] Ford 8 N

[charlie hill]

As no doubt some of you know, the federal tobacco price support  program is 
being ended.   That is a good thing I think.  I'm glad to see it even though 
it is not the best thing financially for some of us who own small farms. 
Over the years we haven't had to worry about getting our acreage tended 
because farmers would lease the land, no matter how  marginal, to get the 
tobacco acreage.  Often they lost money on the excess land by growning corn, 
soybeans, etc. on land that just won't produce enough yield to be 
profitable.

Now with the end of the tobacco program I'm wondering how long I'll be able 
to keep our farm in production.  I suspect some of my small old tractors are 
going to go back to work in the next couple of years.  I won't make any 
money tending the land either but at least the farm won't grow up.

I suspect I'll be attending a sale or two this winter.  I'll be looking for 
a larger disk harrow,  a seed drill or maybe a good set of planters and do I 
dare think about a small combine?

The alternative is to lease the farm to a turf grass farmer if he will take 
it.

Charlie

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Cecil E Monson" <cmonson at hvc.rr.com>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Friday, December 10, 2004 8:09 AM
Subject: Re: [AT] Ford 8 N


> Like Farmer and his father, my father and I farmed with both
> the Ford 9N and an IHC 10-20 tractor for years. I remember the little
> Ford 9N from the day the local dealer delivered it new in the fall of
> 1939. My father and mother had taken their first trip since the
> beginning of the Great Depression and had gone to the Cattle Congress
> in Waterloo, Iowa. While there, he agreed to let them use our farm for
> a fall plowing demonstration and the tractor was delivered before they
> got home. I think my brothers and I spent at least 10 hours sitting
> in the seat of that new tractor pretending it was running. You know
> how kids are.... Once my father got home, that was the end of that
> stuff. FWIW, the local dealer told us that our Ford 9N was the first
> Ford tractor to be delivered to a farm in Minnesota.
>
> We already had a 10-20 with front rubber and rear steel as
> my father had traded off the Fordson a year or two earlier for the
> 10-20. The 10-20 was a "real" tractor with a lot of lugging power
> and the ability to work all day long at full throttle without any
> complaining or breakdowns. Being as I was the oldest, my father looked
> to me to run one of the tractors. I think he figured the little Ford
> would be easier to handle by my brothers, who were all younger, than
> I so he checked me out on the 10-20 the following spring and from then
> on, that is where I spent my days when there was field work to be done.
>
> The Ford dealer had his plowing demonstration on our farm. A
> lot of farmers came but my father ended up buying the 9N. It was a nice
> little tractor and came with a plow and a set of rear mounted cultivators
> and a sickle bar mower. It was very handy and did most of the light jobs
> on the farm - mostly dragging, planting, pulling wagons and cultivating.
> It also pulled the grain binder and did all the mowing and haying chores.
> But, it could not begin to keep up with the 10-20 when it came to the
> heavy work which was plowing and discing. I ran rings around the Ford
> with this type work by keeping the 10-20 at full throttle all day long
> in 2nd gear and keeping the wheels turning.
>
> The 10-20 was "my tractor" for about 17 years until I left the
> farm to go to work at the Oliver tractor plant in Charles City, Iowa. It
> amused me to see that none of my brothers wanted to run the 10-20 after
> I left and my father ended up parking it behind the machine shed where
> it sat until the farm was sold many years later. It might still be there
> for all I know. My brothers wanted something newer so my father bought
> a Super MTA and a Ford 8N. They continued farming with these into the
> 1960s and when my younger brother, Ray, took over the farm, he continued
> using the Super MTA until he quit farming in the 1970s. It was interesting
> that even after they got the new tractors, the International did all the
> heavy work and the little Ford was kept for the light stuff.
>
> Cecil
> -- 
> The nicest thing about telling the truth is you never have to wonder
> what you said.
>
> Cecil E Monson
> Lucille Hand-Monson
> Mountainville, New York   Just a little east of the North Pole
>
> Allis Chalmers tractors and equipment
>
> Free advice
>
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