[AT] JD Model 4C plow

[Dean VP]

Dudley:

All of those tractors were not on the farm at the same time. Some got traded
in or sold when a newer one arrived. Although some of the older tractors
became dedicated tractors to certain uses such as one that had a manure
loader on it full time and that was all it was used for. It probably had as
many hours put on it per year as did the real work horse field tractors
because it was used year around. 

Later on an A was dedicated to the two row corn picker as well. I don't have
good enough memory of why this was done but I can speculate. Older tractors
didn't have much resale value and mounting the corn picker on and off was
not a trivial task. Especially moving the rear wheels in and out. 

Early on Dad's philosophy was to not have big tractors but multiple littler
ones. Not sure why that was other than labor was cheap and maybe newer &
bigger tractors cost too much in his mind. I know we had very few new
tractors. They were usually bought used. In fact the 3010 may have been the
first new tractor.  The 70 was purchased used too. I repeatedly heard my Dad
say: "We are not going to be machinery poor" I suspect a lot of that
philosophy was driven by the fact that he had cheap labor like me. :-) He
had some very interesting business philosophies that I still tend to follow.
Another was: "The purchase price is what is important. When you need to sell
you will only get what the market will bear. If you didn't buy it right you
probably won't get it fixed on the sell side."

One thing I never fully understood was he would buy new implements but not
new tractors. I know we were one of the first farms in the area that had a
new 4 row corn planter. We were still checking corn then and we joked about
getting all four rows straight for cross cultivating and also joked about
that 4 row cultivators could never work because one couldn't watch all four
rows simultaneously. :-) Most of my teenage years, we cultivated with a 4
row cultivator. :-) 

He had some other fetishes that in retrospect had some merit and others that
didn't. One is he hated the later A's and B's with the pressed steel frame
and the cyclonic engine. The problem was the frames were not up to the task
of a mounted loader which was a big requirement on our farm because we had a
yard full of animals to care for. 

Secondly he never liked the 20 and 30 series tractors. He had an emotional
hang-up about the way they were painted. Too gaudy in his mind.  "I'm not
running a circus here".  I'm sure he said that with tongue in cheek but it
probably was the way he kept himself from buying a new tractor!  :-).  He
was a really tough task master but could be really funny at times too. 

I too can visualize some government bureaucrat trying to tell my father how
to run his farm. That generation was fiercely independent. They survived the
depression and had pulled themselves up by their own boot straps. I can see
that bureaucrat being run out on a rail with our German shepherd right on
his tail!  :-) It would probably make a good movie!  :-) 

Now, relative to child labor. I've spent quite a bit of professional time in
China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Mexico, etc, relative to product
manufacturing issues. I didn't really see any abusive child labor issues. I
did see 16 year olds and up doing very respectable and very clean factory
work. Primarily girls who had left the inner farm areas of the country and
migrated to the costal free zones for work. They were paid an attractive
wage, comparatively, including free housing and medical. They would work in
the factory until they were 20 or 21, save all their money and then return
to their rural areas and be considered relatively wealthy, start a business,
get married and raise a family. That is just the way it worked. They
considered it a real opportunity, not slave labor. Believe it or not, the
government was the real abusive issue in most of these countries. 

There are abuses going on but I just object to the blanket indictment of all
foreign labor. I do know that many kids in many countries have to work just
to get enough food to survive. Our kids in this country today are bit
spoiled in comparison.  

Dean A. Van Peursem
Snohomish, WA 98290

Forbidden fruits create many jams!

www.deerelegacy.com

http://members.cox.net/classicweb/email.htm



-----Original Message-----
From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of Dudley Rupert
Sent: Monday, January 16, 2006 11:44 AM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: RE: [AT] JD Model 4C plow

Dean,

Boy, if you had all the tractors now that were on your' farm while you were
a kid you'd have quite a herd ... it's easy to see why green is in your'
veins.

Re: your' thoughts on child labor I say ditto <snip>