[AT] Small Farm Tractors vs Garden Tractors

George Willer gwill at toast.net
Sat Mar 6 10:53:31 PST 2004


Doug,

I'm sure there is no foolproof place to draw the line.  It might be fun to
try, though.  When I count up my tractors, I don't count those that are
obviously garden tractors because they have only two wheels, or those whose
main use in life is mowing grass.  Whoops... that would leave out my two N
Fords and the one Cub that are only used for mowing!
http://members.toast.net/gwill/album/Tractors/Ford/mowing_gang.jpg

Then there's the little Amigo.  I include it in my 21 tractors.  It has a
single cylinder engine, but a lot of big tractor features.

It has:
3 pt hitch
dual PTO
individual turning brakes
all gear drive
torque converter
more horsepower than the Cub
http://members.toast.net/gwill/album/Tractors/Garden_Tractors/Riding_mower_rightfront.jpg

What do you think?

George Willer

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Doug Tallman" <dtallman at accnorwalk.com>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Saturday, March 06, 2004 2:07 PM
Subject: [AT] Small Farm Tractors vs Garden Tractors


> With the talk of the Cubfest, Farmer mentioned that he may have a few
> other small tractors from other lines that would have been competitors to
> the Cub. His statement fell in with the subject of my latest newsletter
for
> the Vintage Garden Tractor Club. I'm not looking for a fight or trying to
> weasel in on the Cubfest, just trying to start some tractor discussion. A
> question that I get asked a lot is what is considered a garden tractor and
> where do we draw the line between them and a small farm tractor. There are
> a lot of tractors like the IH Cub and BN, AC B and G, JD L and others that
> could be considered either way. My 1923 Centaur was powered by a 5 HP,
> single cylinder New Way engine. They advertised that you could farm
> anything with it that you could farm with one horse, 25-50 acres.  They
> even offered a special hitch that would allow you to use the horsedrawn
> equipment you already had with your new tractor. A picture of this tractor
> can be seen at:
http://community.webshots.com/photo/81167315/81182280SDTATc
>  Most of the big, early walk-behind machines were geared towards the same
> thing. After all, you had to walk behind the horse or ride on the
> implement. Today we don't have a problem believing these were garden
> tractors although they were originally promoted as small farm power. The
> actual garden tractors from the same era were litle more than motorized
> push hoes. I agree that this was a different era in all aspects of
> gardening/farming, but would these be considered the "Cubs" of that era?
My
> 1938 Utilitor powered by the AC-4 Wisconsin was rated at 12-16 HP
depending
> on RPM. It was also originally billed as "small power for the farm". When
> we get to the newer equipment, a lot of the lines had actual lawn and
> garden equipment along with the small farm power. This seems like it would
> make an easier separation of the two but I know from personal experience
> that a lot of these small farm power tractors spent their lives with
people
> that put out larger gardens and never saw any actual farm work. My answer
> is to let the owners decide what they want their equipment to be displayed
> as. What do you think?
>
>
>
>
>            Doug Tallman                  Join us for the 2004 regional
show
>            dtallman at accnorwalk.com              in conjunction with
>            VGTCOA Ohio Regional Director   Ashland Co Yesteryear Mach club
>                Greenwich, OH USA                July 9-11, 2004
>
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